Makes sense!
I remember your posts 
Ruth Reichl and Jonathan Gold⊠not too shabby.
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hmmm.
the original ChowHound was at first and foremost a âforumâ construct.
who/how/why various âopinionsâ became âlawâ is long gone up for debate.
it was an extremely active forum. I got the impression Leff decided he had no more time or patience to foster the site, so he sold it.
I hope he made a bundle on it . . .
it warped and morphed and generally poâd the members.
hence two spin offs âoccurredâ
altho chowhound.com still exists, it is nothing like it was.
whether the current âthingâ is good/bad/other . . . not really subjective - because it is not anything close to what it was.
there is currently no âforumâ at that site, at all.
it is primarily an advertising site - I presume offering the âbest site spotâ to the highest bidder.
hungryonion and foodtalkcentral - the later being in reality: foodtalkCA . . . are the spin-offs.
Leff lives in Portugal now and seems to be as âeccentricâ as ever.
Hey, journaling publicly has been popular for ages now 
Iâm referring to the subject matter of his journaling.
I have always kind of found his writing impenetrable. Even on social media. I appreciated his work and passion.
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Yeah, I could only really skim some of it before I lost interest 
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Not any more.
It feels a long time in the past right now, but participation involved many hours of my life for many years 1998 on. What a vivid community of individuals and what a bottomless topic to discuss! Imagine, actual interactions in words, not just bloviating to an anonymous universe or posting endless numbers of pictures. Reddit comes closer now but it has a nasty edge Chowhound never did. CH with all its flaws was a community of lovers, thats all.
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You remember a kinder, gentler CH than I do.
Not that a little abrasion is bad. It scrapes off the chaff.
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I started posting in March 2003. I didnât find it addictive until 2006, after it was sold to CNET.
It was a pretty big deal when Leff visited Toronto, and went out for Ethiopian food with half a dozen Hounds. I wasnât one of the ones who attended, but several of my friends did.
I started taking part in group dinners with Toronto hounds around May 2006. My one friend had already been organizing Chowhound dinners in 2005.
CNET took over around July 2006. No more blue and white boards.
What made Chowhound more interesting for me back in 2006 was that I was meeting other like-minded people, to go out to eat. We tried a lot of mom and pop restaurants serving foods we werenât familiar with ( for me, Colombian, Dominican, Georgian), and we tried a lot of new restaurants as soon as they opened.
I clicked better with the TO hounds and e-gulleters than I did with the people I was meeting through Meetup.com meet-up groups. A lot of the friends I met through CH also liked to go to theatre and concerts, as well as travel. They were a little less interested in drinking as a pastime, compared to many Torontonians in their 30s and 40s 20 years ago.
As someone who is more interested in food, and a lightweight, it was nice to find friends my age who werenât focused on bars and nightclubs.
My social life was tied to CH. We also got to know restaurant owners, café owners, and bakery owners. A couple of the friends I met became paid food writers.
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Love it
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I kept several years worth of Washingtonianâs Cheap Eats issues. Loved that resource! The DMV is blessed with an incredible amount of great Mom and Pop cafes. Something I really miss after moving away from there.
Chowhound was my first foodie web site that I really enjoyed. I remember the great Cheesesteak vs. Steak and Cheese thread. A phenomenal amount of knowledge shared in it.
Chowhound could get a little frosty at times, but most of the posters were truly interesting people that posted info that was fun to read. There were posts from restaurant owners and food lovers alike. I loved posts from Dean Gold and Michael Landrum and I think Stachowski as well, though the years are making my memories a bit less reliable. But I seem to remember a few of those guys posting after a night out and the threads could get a little salty.
I miss CH but I like the crowd here on HO even more.
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Department of Motor Vehicles? Sign me up for a license renewal.
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I am probably remembering the acronym wrong. It was the way to describe the DC area, with the Maryland and Virginia suburbs included. DMV? I think?
If it was the MD MVA we would be waiting in line for 4+ hours, only to find out that they needed some random document that we did not think to bring with us.
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I was a member of Chowhoumd . Got booted out near the end . Entered Found Food talk Central in the first week of existence. The very few members, were well wat do we do now .
Shortly after Hungry Onion appeared .
My favorite.
Through the early days of FTC . Westside Gal turned me onto Sergio. The best Nayarit seafood cook .Got to be freinds i ate there so much while working in So Cal
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DMV is correct.
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