Now, there is one rather positive exception to my statement: the thorntree travel forum where readers can ask questions to the world, and generally receive responses of any quality under the sun. After posting my first question there about a year ago, I started to visit the Middle East forum regularly and also posted responses myself. It has become a habit for me to try and help a little.
Why? It is all about positive experience and valuable responses I could observe on personal basis. As an example I was looking for a car rental in a country where there is almost no tourism at all, and thorough internet research gave some results on a government website. However, all the companies stated there told me they would give me a car with a driver and were not willing to rent out a car just like this. Having posted my question on the forum, a contact with a small car rental agency was established within 48 hours. Since then, I hired a car at this car dealer with its small rental agency multiple times.
I do agree that many questions just start getting repetitive. The eternal question about an Israeli passport stamp, the best route through Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, or the visa on arrival question for Syria. They have become evergreens of thorntree, and have even been used as a running gag on the forum where the main link to the Middle East forum has a subtitle: "... and does anyone know about that Israeli passport stamp?" Another one is what to do on a stopover in Dubai, and every time I read these questions I am getting nervous, if not upset. If I was Lonely Planet I would introduce moderated forums in order to keep off most of the spam messages if I may call them so. One person per geographic area could make a significant difference, increase the overall quality and reduce the number of useless messages to a minimum.
Thorntree, a good invention. But please use it reasonably.
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