Great idea. I loved exchanging ideas with some of the chefs at CH. This happened mostly for me on the COTM threads, where many chefs came forward when they heard, one way or another, that it was their cookbook we were cooking through for a month.
It was such an exclusive insight into their cooking rationale and helped us immensely to understand the whys of what they were trying to create. . Also the exchange brought even the most famous down to a human and personal level.
That is true, Harters. To me, “chow” reads Southern US, or as something one feeds to non-human animals (such as hounds). I was on chowhound mostly to provide info about the neighbourhood where I live in Montréal, near the Jean-Talon Market and its many offerings. I still look at it, but there are far fewer posters, and no real action on this board. And no, there isn’t really an equivalent in French - mostly just blogs. And the local Eater page, which is skewed mostly towards restaurants and bars - I’m more interested in ingredients for home cooking.
lagatta, it’s France-based, but you might have a look at marmiton.org, 750g.com, or supertoinette.com – I lurked for years on those three when I lived over there, and still use them a lot for recipes.
Supertoinette starts to drift more toward gossip and blah-blah, but the other two have some good conversations.
Zilch about Canada that I ever saw, though -
Yes, I certainly frequent those French boards, with your caveat about supertoinette. Thanks. But I’m also looking for places to provide and ask for info about shops, restaurants and cafés here in Mtl.
Spatula/spatulo?
Ok, but then what about transgender?
My spatula flips both ways and then some!
Spatuloa.
Although it is not for me to say how a transgendered flipping device might define itself.
They don’t vet ads; mods have no control over what’s posted. They can only respond afterward to complaints, if they feel like doing something, they will.
but come on – a first grader could see that these are a desperate grab to stay afloat, as even a first-grader knows that night creams and furniture and cars aren’t food-related, so probably not a terribly successful revenue generator – any more than the popup ads for everything under the sun that just leave me uttering profanity under my breath.
I just checked out Chow for the first time in at least the past two + weeks. There were 6 updated topics, meaning threads I was involved in that had new activity. On my old home board, now the New Jersey tag, there were no new topics in 2+ weeks!?!?!
It really does seem like a ghost town. Someone responded to a thread I started so I responded, but other than that there was -0- to keep or capture my interest. Amazing…the entire process we all witnessed just amazes me.
According to alexa.com and trafficestimate.com, traffic to the site is way up since Aug 15, much of it was hullabaloo and protests, early on, but it continues to rise.
so people are going, but not posting.
Right…Obviously the site still has much to offer, but it’s obvious the direction is to keep traffic up, while keeping the boards somewhat quiet.
They are set up to drive traffic from referral clicks from google and links in other web sites. Not attracting participants, just folks clicking around elsewhere. All that steeply increased traffic is not creating vibrant, sustained discussions nor content of any value, so far.
Yes, they have been doing a good job of pushing their content through social media.
I think I’ve looked at the modifications all wrong. I keep telling myself it doesn’t make sense for Chowhound to add all these tags from a user perspective. Well maybe it doesn’t but if you do it as a way to leverage your threads through social media you kinda see what they’ve been doing.
For example, I saw this twitter in my feed not long ago:
To my surprise, it lead to a thread I was posting in:
Now I don’t mind if you use my posting to generate traffic. I post because I enjoy talking about it and because I like to help people as well as I can. More traffic = more discussions.
Where I mind is when you use my posts to generate publicity but you lock the posts criticising your website and move them to “the great black hole”. Doesn’t give me the incentive to continue helping you.
Those tags that have driven so many crazy and away from CH are also used by unvetted sellers who are willing to pay for the privilege of targeting eyeballs via tags for very specific messaging purposes. That’s the whole reason for destroying the CH community.
It’s all done, even the mods aren’t doing or saying much any more.
Just so glad to be with everyone on HO.
