More Chowhound Shenanigans

That 1 hit wonder won’t last long with her attitude.

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True enough

This is true - Time onsite, what pages were viewed, what IP you came from, what browser used, name of your workstation…These are metrics used to sell adspace. Clicking ads? HA! If you access the site directly from here, it certainly tells CH a story

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To be honest I never had a problem with Marssy, I think she walked into a bit of a shit situation. Obviously these changes were in the works for awhile, perhaps that’s what prompted the previous admin (name currently escapes me) to leave in the first place.

I mean it’s a pretty shitty situation to be given a job and told; “Your job duties are to keep everyone happy and in line while we completely ignore them and do everything in our power to piss them all off”…don’t forget we have casual Wednesdays, not Fridays…have a good day!

I dunno…

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I’ve never had a problem with her either and I find her ability to keep her shit together given all the haters impressive. She can tow a company line like a pro - which is her job right now so well done in my book. (Though I disagree with 90% of CH changes and it gets frustrating getting all those Pollyanna responces, still impressive - I would have lost my shit and been fired weeks ago).

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I don’t think her ability to tow the company line is at issue. That’s what she gets paid to do and she is free to leave at any time.

If a person can’t take punches, they shouldn’t step into the ring.

I don’t view pulling out the rule book and going after long term members/contributors as “Keeping her shit together” …rather… IMHO… its a sign of being thin skinned, immature & inexperienced.

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I can only speak to my experiences which are based on the posting that they are willing to leave up - so clearly biased and partial.

In do find the banning and suspensions total crap - I mean I have one foot out the door like everyone else here.

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There are many other ways she (and the rest of the mod team) could’ve dealt with long time posters, but she chose to treat them like kindergarten children. Another reason I told her to FO in the end.

No regrets.

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Kein Bedauern !!!

I don’t know reading all these stories of being banned and discontentment sure make me wish I was on this other site with you people…but nope I’m NotJrvedivici… :wink:

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Its a very small world these days, better chance than not it will come back and bite her.

It was funny when georges gave me the boot. I of course wrote back and said something like “what, can’t stand the heat?” meaning my verbose criticism of the LAST change. Which was NOTHING compared to this one. I just wonder if you’ve spent your young careers in IT and now have to face the wrath of hundreds of “everyday citizens” how it effects you. Tee hee :slight_smile:

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Hey Cathy,

I outlined in a verifiable way why I did not get Chow Administrative messages/warnings (Switched internet providers & got new email address) but couldn’t figure how to alert Chow.

No bother, permanently suspended from Chow. I know other ways to get in to Chow but (F) Marssey and her team of “Elites”.

Bob’s your uncle.

Hey NJ:

I used to feel the same way. When Marssey took over for Jacq, I thought she was doing a good, honest job.

But every tragedy, even every villain, begins with an innocent. Marssey’s gone that way without honor. It’s on her at this point.

Aloha,
Kaleo

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All right, it’s time for the Monday morning Chowhound Posting totals! This time, it’s for the THREE weeks (10/6–10/26), and this time I’ve added a column for the most recent week.

General (+35T/+11W)
Home Cooking (+122T/+35W)
Cookware (+57T/+19W)
Not About Food (-1T/+2W) WTF?
Gardening (+1T/+1W)
Wine (+6T/+2W)
Beer, Etc. (+2T/+1W)
Food Media (+36T/+12W)
Site Feedback (+87T/+10W)
Restaurants (+218T/+124W)

Traffic is still 'WAY down by my reckoning. Even Site Feedback has plummeted, as people have been banned and jumped ship. The only two boards with any heartbeat are Home Cooking and Restaurants. However, considering that these two boards alone contain nearly 800,000 OPs, 159 new posts is truly minuscule.

The good news for CBSi is that, after three weeks, there is a new post in Gardening, and NAF is no longer LOSING posts. Bravo, Georges! And Restaurants is gaining, but 124 in a week still is tiny relative to what they’ve done in the past.

However, over the total 3-week tracking period, Gardening, Wine, Beer and NAF have a total increase of just nine new posts.

Aloha,
Kaleo

I still don’t know what Chowhound is trying to do. I would understand if CBSi sees no profit for forum and wants to move in the direction of online food magazine like the MarthaStewart or CookIllustrated. I will be disappointed, but at least I can understand. Now, I just don’t even know what CBSi really wants to do. It is like watching someone punching himself in the face continuously… you just don’t know what to think about it…

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CK, I think you are actually right on track. I’ve tried to make this point several times, sorry if I’m repeating myself. CBS(i) bought Chow for one reason, profit. I think we can all agree on that.

Where they made a mistake was in buying a venture that wasn’t profit driven from it’s inception, they purchased something that was a hobby, a passion driven hobby, fueled and occupied by similarly passionate people. Over time the people “adapted” to changes…but each time there were more and more complaints, more calls for things to return closer to their origin, than their future.

With all the complaints came more arguments, more disruptive behavior which means MORE moderation. What is moderation? Moderation is a needless expense from a corporate perspective. Why should they keep paying moderators to keep things in line with their view, it’s just an expense. I can use myself as an example, the entire time I was on Chow I don’t think CBS -or- any of it’s affiliates or advertisers made a dime off of me. I used add-blocker so I never saw any adds, so I never clicked on any advertisers and I’ve never purchased a product. But I sure got emails from moderators, I had topics removed replaced and I received plenty of personal and semi personal emails explaining to me why my post or behavior wasn’t appropriate. I was nothing but a cost or a drain on the Chow / CBS economy. Mind you, I was NEVER suspended or banned.

So extract the numbers…how many more of me were there…that received even more emails and warnings and banning etc. etc. I’m sure the number cruncher decided it’s just as easy to attract new comers who will like the pictures and format, maybe only visit the site for 5 or 10 mins, but will click an advertisers on the site.

We were more problems then we were worth to them…so the easiest thing is to just cut us out and “start fresh” which is what they did. We, the bloggers, the contributors became nothing more than a very easily removable thorn in their side, one they made the conscious decision to remove. So now we find ourselves here…back to our “roots” only to watch this grow, expenses grow, and the same decisions that will need to be addressed all again. Maybe this time it will be NBC Interactive that buys us out!!!

Another reminder that Chowhound was originally acquired by CNet, and CBSi bought CNet and all of its properties. I don’t think they were looking at the profitability of the subordinate CNet properties, just the total, which was probably pretty good considering the prominence of CNet at the time.

As such, I don’t have a problem with that. I am not a communist (too right wing for me).

What has done for the owners of Chow (and owners of other forums) are the ad-blockers. That simple bit of software, which we can all get for free, is destroying the income stream. Forums are, generally, a dying breed.

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Agreed, so what value do a bunch of complainers have to TPTB?