I really like what the folks in NJ did to make dining discussions about their state so vibrant and interesting here on HO.
I’m wondering if I should try to start this type of participant by play for Greater Detroit and northern Ohio?
I’ve published hundreds of restaurant reviews, and thousands of photos on the Late, Lamented Urbanspoon. Since that website was bought, and trashed by a soul-less East Indian Start Up, no one in North America now uses their website for dining recommendations or amused reading on a lazy day. Hence, the hours of creative energy I used to publish balanced restaurant reviews to Urbanspoon has fallen into a reader-less limbo. (end of rant).
So, my question is: Will Hungry Onion accept and welcome an influx of dining reviews from The Rust Belt?
Why not? There may be untapped interest in your regional board. The only way to know is to try. HO could certainly use more conversation and responses to new threads than it’s getting, overall, thus far.
5 Likes
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
3
I’d hope that bringing in reviews that you’ve originally posted elsewhere would be fine. The only suggestion I’d make is to not go back too far in time, so that they will be coming with a reasonable guarantee of being still relevent.
Of course. i looked and they don’t seem to own the copyrights to your work.
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I’ll suggest that since there aren’t many users from Detroit here. If you are posting a lots of reviews in your area, and you want to get some good dialogues going, you’ll definitely want to invite folks that you know from your area so they are aware of the reviews.
I would very much like to read about something other than California cuisine. Sometimes I’ll randomly Google food sections from newspapers in Des Moine or Cleveland to see what the people between the coasts eat, so I would probably be one of your biggest fans.
Good thoughts, John. A few of my favorite Detroit area restaurants have had significant turnovers in their kitchens since I wrote my reviews. I think I would start submitting using those restaurants and taverns and diners where I know “nothing has changed”. Thanks for the thought.
I think what I need to do also, is to find a way to contact the heavy submitters for Urbanspoon Detroit. There were folks on that website that knew what good TexMex foods should taste like. Others expert in Korean cuisine, bars and taverns, Mediterenean, (sic. it’s early ) neighborhood diners, etc. There is even a fellow who has made it his mission to visit every craft beer brewer in the entire state; and review his experience at them. It was a pretty diverse group, that provided entertaining reads.
So I’ll make every effort to make these folks aware that they’re welcome at HO also.
Thank you for the suggestion! I spent a bit of time on the Urbanspoon/Zomato website culling names I could try on Yelp. Only found two common IDs between the websites. But I explained, in simple terms what is going on here at HO; included this thread, and invited those I found, to stop by here.
In the next few days I’ll spend more time trying to find MI reviewers left adrift…
You probably want to get a few Detroit posts up before you invite people though. Just so that if they look around, they have potentially something to hold their interest and respond to.
I did a quick search of Detroit posters. Doesn’t look like many of them have contact info, e.g. Boagman, Wahooty, VTB, ALPOE, Rainsux…
True, I haven’t been active here lately, but I’m still around and contactable. This forum doesn’t seem to be very busy itself, either. But yes: I’m here.
Sadly, you are correct. There was great excitement when HO was started, but most of the content was CH-bashing. As that subsided, the activity level ebbed. I post frequently, but often, although I see that any number of people have read something I contributed or linked to, there are no comments at all. This site can’t flourish without participation!
I think the New Jersey board is probably the best example of what a few people who want to be here to talk about food can do. User wise its 1/5 of CA’s, 1/2 of MA and NY’s. The board, however, is consistently the busiest among all 4 of the regions in the last couple of months. But its worth to point out that in the first half of 2016, New Jersey was quiet also until a few folks decided they wanted to post here, and that got the ball rolling. I give the NJ ‘pioneers’ enormous credit for making the NJ board what it is.
The region that I haven’t figured out is NorCal. Lots of views, similar to what @greygarious said, so there are lots of people there. not as many posts as you’d expect from the number of views.
But to summarize, to get Midwest, or Detroit, other regional or topical board going, all you need is a few high volume posters who wants to be here to start the discussions (like NJ), wants to get the word out and the rest of the crowd will follow. Perhaps this merits its own discussion.
) neighborhood diners, etc. There is even a fellow who has made it his mission to visit every craft beer brewer in the entire state; and review his experience at them. It was a pretty diverse group, that provided entertaining reads.
