Miscellaneous Forum

Lately I have been having some fun answering questions on the Forum, especially in the last few months, I have been in Australia, Europe, SE Asia and India and USA.
Since I want to enjoy doing this, this is how I select the questions to answer:
1. I look at the left hand side and look at the destinations the questions are about. I dont read questions about places I know nothing about but are popular in the forum: Croatia, Palawan etc
2. i get a little bit more pleasure if the person making the query has written something in his or her profile. exceptions are that someone needs an urgent answer and has joined VT that day.
3. If i see the word CHEAPEST in teh title of the question I bypass it. I am sure everyone wants to know what is the cheapest way to get to one place to the next, it just spoils my mood to answer.
4. A smile when names which has become familiar to me appear, and there are some very good people on VT who are sincere, polite,and knowledgeable.
5.As a quirk, I like writing positively about Malaysia and negatively about Singapore
6. There are people of a certain nationality in Asia, who are not mature enough that each time someone writes something critical, such as: as a single woman, the traveller was hassled in that country, there is a retort of personal abuse or impolite remark. They have not learned the western ways of discourse.
7. When I am in remote areas for one week at a time, VT does provide some relief of boredom for me.
And thanks to all of you, who take time to answer questions .

I am in a part of the USA for a few days where there is no mobilephone reception but fortunately has internet connection through land line.

My criteria are somewhat similar to yours but I do answer "cheapest" because that is what I always look for myself :)

What I stay away from are the 'weather in...', seeking disco, nightlife, etc., because I simply don't have the knowledge. And of course about places I have never been to and don't know the answers.

I scan all Dutch entries a couple of times per day and answer them if needed (sometimes the perfect reply has been given).

When scrolling through the world travel forum I scan for the locations I know, unanswered questions which I might be able to answer or the odd one I might to add something special.

I would like to see all these one hit newbies posing just one question to check up on the replies and tell us if those were useful to them. Oh, well...


PJ

I do 1, 2, and 3.

I think there's a difference between cheapest and budget - and personally I'm ok with "budget", but for some reason "cheapest" discourages me from answering.
Don't really know why - different pictures come to mind between the two.

My preferred forum would be Italy and specific places I know in that country as I feel I know it fairly well now. The best questions are the very open 'where to go', 'how long to spend' type because they're fun.

I don't answer so many on other places because I think it's fairly pointless advising on somewhere you haven't been for years unless it's quite an open question. I also don't answer many things about the UK because I don't know it as a tourist. I'm really impressed by people who know traveller info for their hometown.

I don't really care whether people have profiles and so on because some of the politest people have been those without any information on their pages. They just want an answer or two and as long as they're nice I'm really happy to share what I know. There are some rude or immature people I'll avoid answering - getting annoyed when you get an opinion you don't like really gets my goat!

I answer questions on the travel forum if I have an answer, which isn't often. I skip the detailed itinerary questions -- "On Monday we're going to do these six things and then drive frantically overnight to the next place"-- because that isn't the way I travel.

PJ and I often find outselves answering the same oddball travel questions because we're researchers at heart and like a challenge.

Yeah <and like a challenge>.

I will be triggered by any "Where can I find a streetmap of ..... "?" or "How far is ........ from ........? or "Do you you where this picture was taken?";
well. you get the picture, there are many challenges.


PJ

Ah yes, I like the 'where was this picture taken' ones too!

1. I scan the Europe forum every day when I'm home (well, not only once) and the Australia forum now and then.

2. I never answer questions of the "Where shall I go?" and "What shall I do/see in ..." type. I expect people to have at least an idea about the place they plan to visit and why they are going there.

3. I like challenges, too. Through these I learn something new myself.
Often research about Germany is very easy and quick for me because I can use the German websites.

4. I like writing about off-the-beaten-path destinations. I will not recommend five-star sights like Rothenburg, Neuschwanstein and Heidelberg. Visitors to Germany should have heard about these (or 2. applies).
Answering the same questions about Neuschwanstein, the S-Bahn from Frankfurt Airport and "Are Christmas markets open on Christmas day" becomes boring after a while.

5. Weather questions will be answered if I feel like it, but usually not in the way the poster expects;-)