For People New to the Forum

Great reminders. Thank you and happy holidays from a former resident of St. Paul. My family tells me you will have a cold and white xmas.

Thanks for pointing these things out. It might be really helpful if you post this to General Europe since it applies to all of the forums.

They might also avail themselves if the search function since most questions have been asked many times before.

Really excellent points, nancys8, and well worth remembering.

I too become frustrated when new posters post vague questions and when clarifying questions are asked never returns with answers so they can benefit from results tailored to them.

Your reminder may say why....

I too am frustrated by posters who ask vague questions, and then when asked for clarification, stay silent.
My other pet peeves:

• Please always put which country you are from (which country you live in). This is necessary info for many transport questions. Put it in your profile, not just town or region, the COUNTRY. Am I expected to know every town and region in your country?
  • Nancys8 and Mike - is that Boston Lincolnshire, or the one in the USA, or a totally different one?
• And for any questions to do with passports or visas, what NATIONALITY you are. Not necessarily the same as above, it isn't for me.
• And time of year you are travelling.
• And how many in your party, and age groups.

Good tips!
But i don’t understand why anyone would post a question then not go back, on their own, to see the responses.

For the most part, people simply stumble on to this site. Obviously make no effort to understand the site or the structure. And when was the last time a new poster read -- https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/about-the-travel-forum.

My major concern is the poster who asks a question expecting a certain answer or a narrow range of answer. Then when they don't get the answer they are expecting, they become hostile.

So we just play along and try our best to educate as we go along. And some days are better than others.

And of course when people answer a question, a wee thank you from the OP is always welcomed.

And of course when people answer a question, a wee thank you from the OP is always welcomed.

I have often wondered about this since I am fairly new to the forum. When you reply to a post, is there a way for the poster you are responding to (other than the OP) get any type of notification that you have responded? Otherwise, you have to come back to the post to see if someone has responded to what you wrote. Again, I know the OP will get email notifications, I am wondering about other contributors on a post.

There is no secondary notification. Only the OP gets notification IF that option has been selected.

but if you use the "all topics" option of viewing the Forums you see all the threads in reverse chronological order.

Just keep an eye out for the thread you are interested in and when it pops up you'll know there has been a change - either a new answer or somebody has gone back and changed one of the posts.

Or watch the particular Forum and when the post count changes on the one you are interested in there's been action.

And there’s the ‘bookmark this topic’ option for a direct link back to a topic you may want to revisit

Or, click on “My Account” at top right of any page, click on “Travel Forum”, then click on “My History” to see topics you’ve posted to. No need to Bookmark a topic unless it has info in it you want to refer back to.

A large influence on the behavior of posters is the rise of the smartphone. The nature of the device promotes short questions with misspellings and makes following a thread more of an effort. On our website, mobile is now used by over 50 percent of the readers. The chances this changes or that they read an instructive article are near zero.