Italy Reviews Not User Friendly

I have to say I liked the old format better also.

A search engine would be much appreciated for this site.

There is a very good search function at the top of the page. Look for the Magnifying Glass and the word "Search."

Part of the problem is that people post questions here, regardless of the fact that this area is to post reviews.

Perhaps more guidance to newbies would help prevent postings in the wrong areas....

(the search is much better than it used to be,)

I agree. I was looking for a review and gave up. It would be nice if questions could somehow be moved out of the review sections as they are posted so only reviews are listed.

the review section would work better if users filled out a "form" with fields (e.g., city, hotel name, etc.) The free form text box just doesn't work well for reviews.

I am kind of with Nigal. It is the users that are screwing up the site because they do not pay attention to the headings. The one thing that I think would be helpful would be for the web master to simply move inappropriate postings to the correct area. I think the worst section is this review section. But then what am I doing ??? Posting inappropriately in the review section.

I think the idea of a form with fields to be filled in is a good one. I'm surprised at how often a poster will mention a hotel or restaurant without even giving the name of the town, much less an email address.

I used to read people's recommendations and reviews for hotels and restaurants before travelled. Since the change of this website, I can't find reviews anymore. Any suggestions how to locate these information easily?

I think Laura has it right. With a form to fill out, more people would notice that this isn't the place to ask questions. Adding more instructions won't help because it's pretty obvious that the OP's aren't reading them anyway or they'd be asking their questions in the proper place.

When the site went to dozens of forums I started using the "All topics" view and I see a lot of questions posed not only on the review forums but also on the tips-and-trip-report forums. If someone is using the country-specific Destination Forums, s/he's going to miss a lot of Q&A's. Honestly, it's just all over the place now and the search function really isn't that helpful - it seems to be pretty hit-or-miss on the few times I've tried to use it lately.

I don't think the Webmaster can be asked to police the forums and move things around. There are too many "misplaced" posts and moving them could be confusing to someone who's following them.

Isn't that what Trip Advisor is for?

I agree with Chani. Since the microforum approach has arrived - still no UK though, and I'm lead to believe is unlikely to ever return - people post questions all over the place.

Yes, maybe some posters are lazy and don't pay attention to where the questions go, but my money is on the design of the website.

I don't believe that so very many mistakes, and there are dozens of them, are all the result of laziness.

Having 3 pull down menus is confusing to start, plenty of normally expected countries missing, and the confusion about different options for reports versus questions - if I were new to the Helpline I'd be confused, and I don't think it is clear when making a post where it is going to go. Maybe a pull down of all the forums (pah!!) when a question is posed, with a default of General Europe, or not allowing a post until a choice is made.... hmmmm.

It certainly it true that it is a bit of a dog's dinner at the moment.

I doth protested once too much about this topic about a year ago and got a scathing rebuke from the head of "tech services". He stated the "........Graffiti Board was gone and can never be brought back" because it cannot be integrated into the current system or something to that effect. Someone with half a technical brain could build a stand alone site with a similar platform. It was, as you all know, a one-stop shopping platform (a one page index) for a wealth of info. It was the very best part of the old system and the only part that did not make it into the new and improved one. Special Note: Andrew, this is my only complaint in more than a year. Please don't cancel my membership.

I must have set off the alarm bells in Seattle with my one line reply above!

jim_bird's membership is hereby cancelled.

;)

This is just to show that we're listening. Many of you know that we do tinker with things to make improvements. Those take time and we appreciate the feedback.

I just have to say that the old site was so much better. Wading through these postings to find recommendations for specific areas is annoying and not fruitful.

While I understand most of the comments in this thread, I'm hoping for an expansion in this discussion on what I just quoted. Our Graffiti Wall didn't have an area for hotel and restaurant reviews in Italy (I acquiesce that there was a section on agriturismos and a different area where you could more generally discuss food). So, I'm not understanding how the Italy Reviews section can be worse when there wasn't even a space to discuss this before.

This is just a mish mash of stuff.

In all fairness, the Graffiti Wall was quite the mish mash too. People posted to the wrong section all the time there, frequently because their post didn't really fit any Graffiti Wall topic. You were limited to the topics we provided. We find it to be an improvement that the Travel Forum allows you to initiate the topic when the right topic isn't readily available for you.

We understand that there are pros and cons behind every change. Like I said in my last post, we are listening. Thanks for the discussion.

The issue is why do so many people post indiscriminately to the Reports and Reviews forums instead of the Q&A forums. I don't remember seeing questions on the Graffiti Wall ever. The only problem I had with the old Reviews section was that I had to wade through tons of threads to find whatever destination I was interested in. Now, I have to wade through tons of threads that aren't reviews or reports at all.

Maybe the Reports and Reviews sections are now easier to find that before, but they have become the opposite of user-friendly.

It has been about a year - is that right? - since the Big Change, and maybe now is a good time for an incremental review.

The Helpline is nice and slow at the moment so running a few changes up the flagpole might be timely.

Suggestions:

Get rid of the three side-by-side pull down lists, and combine it all into one. Or have a Metro interface with tiles (yukk) like the other pages with general categories across the tiles like: Travel questions, Tour Reviews, Hotel and Restaurant Reviews, Hotel and Restaurant Questions, Cruises, Flight Planning, etc. Then drill down to the relevant sub categories and make them relevant to the tile it came from.

A year's experience should tell us which countries or categories are not used and which have been missing. Delete the ones not used, for example Wales, and combine into logically viable combinations, like Britain or Great Britain or UK, where people will expect to find entries. Add countries for which there has been demand, like Iceland, Luxembourg, Malta.

Consider dividing the transportation into trans-atlantic, intra-European flights, across Europe trains, rest of the world, etc.

And when people post a question or review make them consciously have to choose - maybe from a drop down list - exactly which category their post will go into. Leaving the default as the category they are currently in clearly has failed.

I had a former life designing web pages and writing computer code. These don't seem like big asks, but with potentially very big returns.

Kate, are you looking at this as well as Andrew?

Just a thought: alphabetize all the lists (like the destination Q&A).

Hi, Andrew.

I was the original poster and am just checking back. I am glad to see that I am not the only one who does not enjoy the new format. I can't tell you how to make it better, I can only tell you what works for me and what I like. I loved the old section on Agriturismi in Italy.

Hi,
There's good info and suggestions all around. I'm not sure we'll make any significant changes to the layout of the front page of the forum (e.g. the suggestion to use metro tiles) or do another grand reorganization. Part of the perceived difficulty in the new layout is simply that it is different from what many of us were used to before. Changing it again to something different might help some, but is likely to exasperate others. As I personally tend to keep all options on the table, we'll still review the possibilities there, but don't expect any big changes. We will continue to tinker with things, see if we can't improve on the Reviews section, and maybe add or contract a few forum sections. Steady as she goes...