Give us the tools...

...and we will finish the job, to quote Churchill somewhat inappropriately...

I know that the posters on this forum are encyclopaedic in their knowledge. Nonetheless we do NOT all know the exact location of every hotel, restaurant, café, nightclub, apartment or even tourist attraction in Paris. Please, please, PLEASE when you are asking for information about the location of restaurants near your hotel, or the best way to travel between your hotel and some other place, or what the neighbourhood around your apartment is like, or other similar things, give us the EXACT ADDRESS not just the name of the hotel or whatever. Also if you have the info, and you are more likely than we to have this at your fingertips, give us the ARRONDISSEMENT and the NEAREST MÉTRO STATION.

I%26#39;m talking about posts that say things like: %26quot;I%26#39;m looking for restaurants within walking distance of the XXXXXXX Hotel,%26quot; or %26quot;I%26#39;m thinking of renting VRBO12345 but I wanted to know what the neighbourhood is like,%26quot; or %26quot;I need the best way to get from the airport (incidentally there are at least three so specifying which might also be helpful...) to our hotel in the Latin Quarter using public transport.%26quot;

It%26#39;s not that we can%26#39;t google most of the info, just that we all have better things to do with our time. I%26#39;m sure that posters are likely to get more (and more accurate...) responses if they will supply this kind of basic information. I for one am no longer going to answer any post where I would need to google information that the OP could easily have supplied, or where I would have to ask the OP for the exact location of the place they are talking about before answering their question.

And as long as I am on my soap-box, please, please, PLEASE, when you are asking for hotel or restaurant recommendations give us some idea of your budget. Words like %26quot;reasonable,%26quot; or %26quot;inexpensive,%26quot; or the like are too vague to have any meaning. We need phrases like %26quot;no more than €40 per person without wine%26quot; or %26quot;€125-€150 per night for a double room.%26quot; And unless you understand the French hotel rating system don%26#39;t even bother to say things like %26quot;I%26#39;m looking for a 4-star hotel near the ET%26quot; or whatever. A statement like that might have some meaning in San Francisco. It doesn%26#39;t have much in Paris without a price attached.

Rant mode off. I now return you to your regular programming already in progress...

|||

%26gt; I for one am no longer going to answer any post where I would need to google information that the OP could easily have supplied, or where I would have to ask the OP for the exact location of the place they are talking about before answering their question. %26lt;

What about people who ask questions that they could have googled themselves in 5 seconds? Or could have had answered fully by emailing the establishment directly?

One of my favourite bug-bears (not so common here as on other forums) is people who ask how do they get from the airport to their hotel. Responding %26quot;Which part of the very detailed instructions on the hotel website don%26#39;t you understand?%26quot; seems rude.

I wonder if many of us have lists of sorts of questions we choose not to answer?

|||

I%26#39;m with you...no longer responding to inquiries where information is easily found with a web search, or a search of this forum.

And,

those who say they%26#39;ve searched the forum, but obviously have not.

inquiries about the weather, what to pack, what to wear.

how to avoid lines, crowds.

how to get into Paris from CDG.

whether a jacket and tie is necessary for a formal restaurant.

requests to evaluate a long list of potential apartments.

most dining recommendation requests.

My rant is first time posters who receive many responses and never acknowledge them or come back with %26quot;keep %26#39;em coming%26quot;.

The resources on the web and in this forum are daunting.

And, the most common inquiries have been answered in depth hundreds of times.

Too many assume that there%26#39;s a staff of %26quot;experts%26quot; here to save them any trouble of doing their own homework!

And, I%26#39;m baffled at the number of people who demand attention when they contribute nothing from their own travels to various destinations or even their own home town/state.

|||

%26gt; And, I%26#39;m baffled at the number of people who demand attention when they contribute nothing from their own travels to various destinations or even their own home town/state. %26lt;

Sore point these past few days, huh? ;-)

It doesn%26#39;t irritate me when people don%26#39;t come back to acknowledge information but feedback on what was actually useful and what wasn%26#39;t would help people to answer questions in future, I think.

|||

AND...those who want us to plan every minute of their vacation without ever having to so much as pick up a guidebook, visit the website of an office of tourism, or even google the words France or Paris. Even better are the ones who expect us to do all their travel arrangments without any discussion of the people coming, their interests, or any mention of budget. We%26#39;re good, but we don%26#39;t read minds.

I swear, I%26#39;m going to start offering my services as a tour guide -- if you can%26#39;t bother to even google a map of Paris, I%26#39;ll do it for you, but I%26#39;m going to charge handsomely.

You guys wanna come work for me? We can become our own arch-nemesis -- tour guides carrying bright yellow umbrellas over their heads, hauling cattle cars of tourists around on a preplanned schedule.

|||

From someone who%26#39;s only been a requester so far (but I promise to respond where I can after my trip, which starts 3 WEEKS YESTERDAY!!!) Huge thanks to everyone who takes the trouble to answer me.

What I wish we had was a whole TripAdvisor book of responses somewhere, grouped under %26#39;transport%26#39; %26#39;hotels%26#39; %26#39;restaurants%26#39; etc for people to dip into. I%26#39;d have found that interesting.

And/or a BIG label on the front page, before we get to forum level, reminding people to search first, because many of the answers will be here already.

And then, just a wee bit more civility sometimes:

somehow I keep thinking about the person who got battered into the ground for asking about Paris drinkin water quality: some of us who were last in France last century (and dmn! quite a ways back into that century) remember that the sign we saw most often in public conveniences, restaurant bathrooms, etc etc was %26#39;eau non potable%26#39;. It stays with you.

and

I would like to see a lot more gratitude from enquirers, and not sarcastic, snide, gee, thanks for not bothering to answer my question responses, as I saw recently.

As I return to work on the 12th version of my 4-night trip, I do thank the members here who%26#39;ve made even the planning thrilling: what will the reality be like! ;)

|||

%26gt; From someone who%26#39;s only been a requester so far... %26lt;

But you do interact and I have no doubt you will be a contributor.

%26gt; What I wish we had was a whole TripAdvisor book of responses somewhere, grouped under %26#39;transport%26#39; %26#39;hotels%26#39; %26#39;restaurants%26#39; etc for people to dip into. I%26#39;d have found that interesting. %26lt;

Some forums (e.g. London) have excellent FAQs. I wish more people would read it!

And/or a BIG label on the front page, before we get to forum level, reminding people to search first, because many of the answers will be here already.

%26gt; %26#39;eau non potable%26#39; %26lt;

But you often get those signs in British bathrooms (in English, of course). It doesn%26#39;t mean British tap water is undrinkable.

You%26#39;re only on your 12th version? I%26#39;m going a week on Friday for 3 nights and I%26#39;ve lost count of my rewrites. Thankfully, all mine is on my laptop and won%26#39;t be printed out until the evening before I leave.

|||

%26lt;%26lt;come back with %26quot;keep %26#39;em coming%26quot;.%26gt;%26gt;

Yes, that one - it%26#39;s just so bad-mannered when it%26#39;s obvious lots of ideas have been volunteered already. And when it%26#39;s apparent that the OP hasn%26#39;t bothered to follow up the website links they%26#39;ve been given .....

In fairness, I enjoy researching items, and I know that I can probably find stuff a lot more quickly than someone sitting feeling daunted by what they%26#39;re taking on or just wanting a bit of reassurance. If I decide I don%26#39;t want to play at being a free travel agent anymore then I don%26#39;t reply.

|||

I am selective in my replies, but every now and then I am very indulgent, depending on the tone of the question. (I never answer posts that ask us to plan their holiday for them.)

One thing I try not to do is to jump on people who are choosing to do something that I would not do. That is one reason I try to give objective replies to the Disneyland posts rather than saying %26quot;don%26#39;t waste your time there%26quot; and I also try to reply about the area of Paris that was asked about instead of immediately saying (as I so often see on absolutely every site) %26quot;you are wrong to stay in that area, let me tell you where you should be staying instead.%26quot;

|||

jdbri - not printed yet! the biggest release was when I relinquished all my %26#39;must do-s%26#39; that had definite times to them (apart from the b. expensive operas, of course!) because I hope to return again and again. I only have one absolute fixed rendezvous now, and that%26#39;s with a Parisien d%26#39;un jour walk guide - very much looking forward to that.

(ps, I never came across non-drinking water in England until I visited friends in London, and you weren%26#39;t allowed to drink the upstairs bathroom water in the house! Mind, that was last century too. :D )

|||

%26gt; One thing I try not to do is to jump on people who are choosing to do something that I would not do. That is one reason I try to give objective replies... %26lt;

I hate when people ask %26quot;What would you do?%26quot; as what I would do is irrelevant. I don%26#39;t contribute much here as I don%26#39;t know Paris well but I notice on the London forum that people often answer with what they think someone ought to do rather than what the OP asked. It can be hard to be unbiased, but I try to be. Some people just seem to continually reiterate what they would do.

Which reminds me... I hate the %26quot;I%26#39;m coming to Paris (or City X) for 4 nights. What should I do?%26quot; Er, why are you coming if you don%26#39;t know what you%26#39;ll do once you%26#39;re here?