When I analyzed the number of participating members who have joined since September, and found that few were not participating on regional boards, The number of people who posted to cookware threads jumped out at me.
The SF board is being upheld by a small, but dedicated group. Precisely how that differs from the past, I don’t really know – – like many online communities,there has long been a pattern of a small group of users doing most of the heavy lifting, and a wide base of infrequent users filling in the gaps. The SFBA dish of the month, for example, had 116 unique contributors between 2012 and 2014, but only a small handful kept it going
I’d say, since September and registering here, I’ve posted a half dozen or so times at the old place. For the most part, they’ve all been more manipulative than substantive. The exceptions being a couple calling out Leff on his bullshit.
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
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I don’t think it’s about “Chowdefreude” at all. But it is about betrayal. No one started out wanting to see CH fail, fall flat on its face, or otherwise implode. Indeed, I would say that – quite to the contrary – we all (former and remaining current CH’ers) want it to not merely succeed but thrive. There was a sense of community, of belonging, of shared experience (be it vicariously through, for example, dining at the same restaurant as someone had posted about; or in reality, through “Chowdowns”). And there is a genuine sense of loss that people feel when they see something they participated in “die” – just as campaign volunteers feel when their candidate loses, or pulls out of the race.
What was worse in the case here is that [the collective] “we” tried to help fix it, to keep the old sense of community, to build upon (not tear down) what went before, all the while acknowledging that businesses (and there is no doubt that CH is a business) need to move forward, to change and adapt, or else stagnate and die. THAT is where the sense of betray comes from – from, basically, being told by the moderators and “powers that be” to basically sit down, shut up and hold on; that we were basically told we were unimportant, we didn’t know anything – certainly not as much as “they” did – and that what we were feeling was simply wrong.
What we were not expecting is the self-inflicted gunshot wound!
That isn’t automatically fatal. After all, plenty of people shoot themselves in the foot. (My cousin once shot himself in the thigh accidentally while on duty as an MP in Berlin!) Not even shooting someone in the face is automatically fatal – just look at Frank Serpico and/or Harry Whittington – but it sure as heck doesn’t feel good!
I have little doubt that CH as a website will survive (no 404 errors here), albeit in a reduced and far less important capacity . . . but, that said, to many now former CH’ers
And I’d add to that that there were LOTS of folks who went through the Beta tests (there at least two) at CHs request, only to have all but thw most minor complaints summarily dismissed with the sneer that THEY were the great and powerful Oz, and who were we to have an opinion or god forbid, but any actual experience with online forums!
I remember one Beta that promises teeshirts for the testers…those who even received something got leftover shirts from a musty marketing closet somewhere with old logos, shipped out on random sizes that didnt fit.
I was one of the many who did the beta test on the latest redo. Turns out they had NO interest in any suggestions for improvements. They were just looking for technical mistakes. That’s what sent me and others over the edge. We replied in good faith. And then when we criticized that, well…, you know.
I like the atmosphere at HO and I post in the home cooking section which is pleasingly active. I’ve tried to initiate more activity on the NYC board without much response. While Chowhound is a shadow of what it used to be, its NYC & Outer Borough boards are more active than here, so I do post there.
NY is an odd duck on this site. Stats says that NY state has the 3rd most traffic after CA and MA (pretty close to MA). and half of that NY state traffic comes from NYC.
its probably because of what you said, that Chowhound has a more active board in NYC that most people seem to read or respond to inquiries here, and not as many posts.
on the flip side, the nyc suburbs don’t have nearly as much traffic as NYC, it has a more active board (NYCT). my guess is that a few folks are quite active there and discussing with each other.
The old Westchester-Fairfield County people raise their hands often here which leads to some great threads , but this refusal to let go of CH is getting old. It reminds me of a HS’er stalking their HS girl/boyfriend after the break-up.
