Just surprise at the length of time it took to finally kick the bucket. Their death began in September 2015 with the big site conversion where it was impossible to search on their site, the damn tags (HO’s tags are way easier to deal with), and the banner at the top that essentially blocked messages on the message boards. All they wanted you to do was scroll past the insane number of ads.
My first post there was on 11/12/01 in response to someone else, but my first Thread on CH that I started was on 11/14/01. I left in Sept 2015, so I had a good run there. Now, HO is my home (along with several private food groups on FB).
ETA: It’s also how I met up with @GretchenS and @Harters and his wife back in 2012 when John and his wife came to New England for a visit.
The Internet Wayback Machine will eventually be the only place to find your posts. Going WAY back to 2001, it can be unwieldy to find posts, depending on how prolific you were there.
I think my Top Chef recaps were some of the hardest for me to find, but I did and copied them to Word docs awhile back, IIRC.
Like @LindaWhit I am surprised i took so long to die. The horrendous site redesign (remember VIPGeorges?) and the heavy-handed moderation that devolved to iron fists as the outcry over the redesign raged ruined a site that had become a daily staple for me over some years.
I was quickly banished after I had the audacity to invite CH posters to check out HO. Since I also refused to apologize for that transgression I was never reinstated and have not darkened their portal for some years.
I would totally do a nostalgia thread of favorite recipes - when I was teaching myself to cook, I remember working my way through will Owens’ pork shoulder recipe, or jfood’s short ribs and countless others before I found my own style and learned! (Edit: to be clear, I still make those)
I do hope we get many of the regulars from CH. There are so many good folks who have been part of that community for a long time.
HO solves so many of the frustrating technical problems that thwarted both posting and interacting there. I think they’d love it here and make this community the richer for it.
Relax nobody is in trouble!! I just wanted to draw as much attention from everyone as possible. Above @sck has made a plea to try and attract as many Chowhound’s as possible…
I would like to reiterate that plea as well as those who can still post there to let people know there is an alternative. We might not be perfect but we are trying each day to make this as valuable a resource as possible, without much of the craziness Chow brought with it.
Not surprised CH is shutting down. I remember when they rolled CH into the magazine Chow, and then CBS media bought it. I went to marketing survey meeting at the CH/Chow HQ with two objectives, get the $100 gift card but also check out the location/culture because they were hiring. The staff seemed nice enough but I did not pursue the job, not right for me. At that time I couldn’t figure out how they got revenues (food website became very competitive), and then they reconfigured the site…so stopped going. HO is good however…low key, friendly, people informative. The one thing I hope is people from CH come over, but I hope a few people don’t dominate things like in the past.
One thing Chowhound users can do is to mention in their favorite discussions or boards about HO, and entice the friends over, as e.g. @Phoenikia and @Saregama have done with much effectiveness. Thanks both!
One of the best areas of CH, right up to the present, has been the Paris board. Several of us have posted on threads there & suggested that the regular posters migrate over here, since there’s already a pretty solid overlap. Let’s see what happens.