REQUEST threads have been the central focus for discussion in the HOW TO MAKE TRAVEL DEALS AN ACTUAL TRAVEL DEALS FORUM and the major frustration for many of the Travel Deals forum community members. There were many great suggestions on how to improve the quality of these threads and we took them all into consideration when making this decision. With that being said, this approach is not final. However, we want to give this some time to digest. We hope that together we can improve the value of the REQUEST threads.

The Plan:

When a REQUEST deal thread appears in the forum that has minimal information posted a few things will happen...

The Travel Community:

1- Alert the Moderators w/ reply of “Request needs more information”
2- Do nothing……what? Yep, that’s it! That’s all you have to do.
We’ll take care of the rest. No more repeating yourselves until
you're blue in the face or your fingers get numb.

The Moderation Team:

1- Receive alert from community member and then we'll shut the thread down by
putting it under moderation.
2- Reply to OP in thread with guidelines.
3- Inform the OP (by PM) that once they return and update their post with more detailed
information, to alert a moderator to take the thread off moderation. Also,
encourage the OP to contact a moderator if they no longer need REQUEST
information because they found what they were looking for in the meantime so
that we can lock the thread.

The Purpose:

*Putting these threads under moderation is essentially the same thing as locking a
thread. The difference is that the OP will be able to update their post.

*In some cases the community has helpful searching information for the OP and
would like to share that information. We will be able to approve or decline the
comments to help keep the thread moving in a helpful direction.

Help From The Community:

*I'm sure you noticed the italic deal after Request. Well that's just it.
The Request etiquette will apply to Requests only pertaining to members who are inquiring
information on how to get the best Travel Deal, not questions or discussions about travel.
So only alert the moderators if it's a Deal Request thread that is in need of help.

*General Travel questions or discussions should be treated as such and not as deal REQUESTS.
Bottom line: There are no "rules" for these these threads so if someone didn't Google "Tours of Chicago"
because they were hoping a local person from the area could point them to cool places to eat rather than
the touristy places well, no big deal.

*We ask that REQUEST threads remain un-voted on and the Quick Summary left alone until they are no longer under moderation.

*Helpful constructive comments are welcome

Help From The Moderators:

*New member REQUEST threads that do not follow the guidelines will not be posted
unless approved by a moderator. If you feel that a REQUEST thread still needs help
after a moderator has approved it, please feel free to contact a moderator regarding
this. After all, you’ve been looking at these types of threads for a while and know
what to look for a little better than we do. We’ll do our best and use our best
judgment.

When does this start?

Now! This does not include old request threads, so please only Mod-Alert new threads that come in with inadequate information.

Additional Stuff:

*Overall, there should be a decrease in REQUEST threads if the new member ones
are going through approval first.

*This may or may not be a temporary solution to REQUEST threads. However, lets
give it a try.

*In the meantime, we will be updating the FAQ’s, reworking/adding sticky’s as well
as introducing categories in the forum.

*There will be a few more moderators involved, so we can advance quicker in these
updates.

wiseguy1100 said:Thanks, Muffin! I think this is a good approach.

I particularly like this part:

MuffinFW said: *General Travel questions or discussions should be treated as such and not as deal REQUESTS.
Bottom line: There are no "rules" for these these threads so if someone didn't Google "Tours of Chicago" because they were hoping a local person from the area could point them to cool places to eat rather than the touristy places well, no big deal.

Having said that, posters should still be encouraged to search this forum (and others) before making such a post. An example would be the NYC Parking thread which has been discussed many times in the past.

Thanks for the feedback wiseguy!

Good point. I mean if someone posts a question about NYC parking then I don't see why we can't treat that as perhaps a re-post (I'm just throwing that out there). I think Finance does that where if someone asks a question about % rates for certain bank loan or credit cards I think the thread is locked as a re-post. It make sense to me that if the members question is answered in an existing thread that we can lock their thread. ( I'm might be wrong with the finance thing, so I'll check)

Yes, members will be encouraged to search the forum before posting.