arie

Asking for advice for trips or to be hosted by hospitable people on your way or ar your destination, it's one of the blessings of internet. I see many interesting threads and learned very much since I'm researching a foreign trip, not only by own threads, but also scanning others.
Itinerary, cheapest hostel, what can I do in San Fransisco during a stop-over, the question may have much relevancy for the poster. So does the answer.

However:
But often I think: Quite easy to ask others to do the Googling. Or: the question is so vague, the destination unknown (I want to go to Florence, any experience, what can I expect?) or one doesn't tell what's the (main) purpose of a visit (No I go for the sunbating, no cathedrals and hiking in the mountains please...)

At first I gave serious answers to some of these last questions.
Sometimes people react and after some more reactions there's a vague outline of the real queston, wish.
Sometimes people say Thank you for your great help. No more.
Sometimes there are no reactions.

I like feed back to know if my advice/help/suggestions are useful, appreciated, or only stupid talk of a would-be traveller.
I like clear questions.
I go to America and what are the must-have-seen's? This is no question but showing laziness.
a. Google it yourself
b. When do you go? How long? Transport? Alone? Tent or car-rntal or...? What are your special interests? Budget? And twelve other details to inform the audience what you are looking for.

Then I tell you to go to the Skywalk at Grand Canyon on needle-heels (is this word really existing) and then you react that you've only hikingboots.

So one of the twelve other details. Tell that you like hiking, or cycling or ballooning or ...

I am much more motivated to reply seriously and detailed to people who take me, as potential audience and possible advisor, seriously.

And to finish:

I never see feed back after three weeks when the trip has ended. 'Guys I finished the trip, thank you again for the good advice. And then you mention some concrete issues and/or tell about changes (e.g. there's no more Panama-canal).
(although the feedback will sometimes go by mail)

I think, acting like this makes the Forum more serious, professional and reliable. You don't scan redundant items.
I meet this phenomenon more or less on Forums like Thorn Tree (Lonely Planet) and Travellerspoint

That's why I post this thread there too.

Shiznaz

uh thanks I guess. Your post is pretty incoherent though. The phenomena you describe happens on every internet forum on any subject anywhere in the world, and the people your missive is directed to almost certainly will not read it, so I'd just get used to it if I were you. You're certianly not the first to 'raise the alarm'. Threads like these sadly just increase the noise to signal ratio.

jharte

Um, yeah, I agree, sort of, I guess. What was the question?

Trek Al

I think it is one of those dead rich Nigerian scams, or it at least reads like one. All except for the 30 million dollars they want to give you part.

Al

Cyclist0094

venturi95

Every question that will ever be thought of has already been asked and answered on varioius forums, lets shut'em all down and just make people search.

permanentjaun

Oh yea?

Does anyone have any experience installing a gravity feed mustard dispenser on a pair of trekking bars?

I don't know why, but that's the first thing that popped into my head when I tried to think of a question no ones asked before. Prove to me that it's been asked before.

zzzwillzzz

was there a question? i thought he was telling us to rebuild internet so that it worked better for him, no problem, i should be done tomorrow

NoReg

Just sounds like English isn't his first language, which would make some of the irritants he mentions all the more anoying. Probably will now turn out to be the head of the English department at Yale.

" the people your missive is directed to almost certainly will not read it" (by definition)

We have a winner!

arie

Nice reactions, no English is not my first language PeterPan1, I gues my fifth. It's more difficult to read your comments with sometimes that sense of humour than the non-questions or questions from people not really interested in the answers. So the language is not the katalysator of anoyance.

I am not a he but a she, why always so prejudiced.

There was indeed no question.

To get accustomed to it because all the forums are like that? (Shiznaz)
You're right, more or less they are. But I like it less so that there's more quality.

Thanks for your time.

becnal

I agree with the original poster (Arie). A lot of original posts are way too general and don't provide enough info. In those cases, it would be nice if the poster would say something like, " Could anyone tell me their most helpful link where I can get a lot of starter information."

Of course I know there are lots of impolite people who don't do this. Just like there are a lot of rude people who will walk through a door that I am holding open for them and they don't acknowledge you or say "thank you". It's irritating as all hell and sometimes I want to vent my frustration as well.

Arie, I know what you mean. Don't let the rude people bother you. When you see an impossibly general lazy question, just say "Give more details". If they don't, then don't waste your energy on those people.

centexwoody 

Yes, for many who post highly general questions and usually for the first time, I suspect they mistake the forums for an "Ask Jeeves"-style of website. Perhaps they imagine that forum members sit around, on-line, waiting for someone to ask them their opinions about a subject in which the original questioner has just gotten interested. Also 'answers from the internet' are great for persons who do not want to actually think about how to formulate a good question but just to type in the first (malformed) 'query' that pops into their head about a subject.

Once again, as stated above, I suspect that beginning posters posing questions don't necessarily understand (or care) about protocols or manners due to inexperience in dealing with 'live' forums. They probably do not realize the commitment that regular participants make to reading the BF. Therefore their 'rudeness' I prefer to assign to ignorance rather than malice. Kind of like the remarkable "Bike for Africa" thread that continues to be accepted and 'nurtured' even though I continue to wonder sometimes if it's actually happening or not...

good advice

If there's anything I've learned from forum participation, it is that a well-formulated question receives thoughtful replies. But this was a realization that occurred after some regular hours of 'lurking' and learning.

Arie, you've posed a thoughtful thread and I can appreciate your frustration. As a professional educator, I will echo the accuracy of your point that the lack of clarity in formulating good questions is typically the sign of whether the questioner has actually put any thought into the question. And their courtesy upon receiving replies is equally reflective of that engagement.

NoReg

There are some terrible questions, for sure. Some of the time a person doesn't know what to ask, so our job is to roughly bounce them into the correct shape.

arie

@becnal; @centexwoody: thank you for bringing back the thread on-topic and for your editional explanations and experience.
And the stand-up comedians were hopefully more lucky elsewhere the past few days hitting a hat when they tried to shoot out the messager.

arie

Apologize for my schoolbook-English. Am going to do a 5 weeks workshop in Arizona/New Mexico next April.

RalphP

Ok, I thought about the topic and this is what I've got: Writing responses to people is something I do to please myself. Not entirely, but more than any real concern about if any one is going to act on what I say. If people open threads facestiously, then they can make fools out of those of us who respond. But I don't think that happens too much, if at all. When I open a thread it is because I seriously want or need to learn something. I hope other people will find it a pleasure to reveal what they know and so help me along. Anyway, the whole thing's built on selfishness. That's why it works so well.