chowhound group dinners

Do the Seattle Chowhounds have organized group dinners like the Chicago Chowhounds?

Sure they do, they just talk about them on another site. For a variety of reasons, I'm sure.

And in case you are thinking, well, but I want to gather with the people I know from this site. Well, lots of us here look at that site too. Also, for a variety of reasons... Check it out for yourself (below) and maybe join the discussion about dinner on April 14th. The folks on that board are really nice and welcoming.

Nick managed to get our Portland Food Group up and running and he posted to this board and the other linked below and then created a site/boards at www.portlandfood.org for our own use. It's working pretty well.

Of course, if you go to the other site, you won't have to reinvent the wheel. If you remain on these boards alone for the purpose of creating a food group in Seattle, you WILL be reinventing the wheel that seems to already exist at the other site (the SEA folks seem to post about getting together for dinners/events A LOT).

I am not advocating using one site over another, mind you, lots of us use both of them. Just know that when you run across a phrase like "That site (or board) who must not be named" on that other site, they are referring to this site...and vice versa!

Sorry for pointing out that enormous elephant in the room folks... I just felt that someone had to!

Link: http://forums.egullet.com/index.php?a...&

[The Chowhound Team]

Folks, please keep the talk focused on finding great chow in PacNW. Website politics aren't interesting- just a lot of silliness that takes people's focus away from chow.

As per our posting guidelines, "We do not permit the use of our message boards to advertise or publicize ANYTHING", and that includes hyping other message boards. Passing mention of other message boards, including eGullet, is not forbidden here, so please stop the silly maneuvers to get around the moderators. As long as the mentions are appropriate and on topic, there's no problem. When posters try to use Chowhound as a marketing tool for other websites, it is a problem. Just keep it chowy and we'll all get along just fine.

I'd love to do this, and I don't see how an email list of interested parties can be set up if there's no opportunity for people to say they're interested. Can't people say "please include me" and then the discussion here goes to email?

I, and I suspect many others, would prefer that you handle it by posting here a single message that says: "I'm setting up this email list. If you'd like to participate, register for the email list by sending an email message to this email address, or by visiting this URL."

It's been talked about a bit on this board, but there seem to be no takers. Over on the "board who shall not be named" we have get togethers on a regular basis.

Not to mention that the powers that be get all pissy if you actually talk about your plans and try to create a sense of community.

I don't understand? The Chicago group is very active organizing dinners together. Are their powers that be not the same as ours in the Pacific Northwest? I'm new thus confused?

[The Chowhound Team]

The rules on this board are the same as on every other board on the site. It's OK to announce outings but we ask that logistics and planning be done on a back channel. Frankly, it's just not interesting for the vast majority of posters and lurkers on a board to read posts about coordinating carpools, where people are going to sit, if everyone should wear a unique hat and all the other details that these sorts of gatherings entail. It's not about chow, and thus is off topic for this board.

The Chicago hounds have established a mailing list for the purpose of planning gatherings. The San Francisco hounds and others coordinate via email. Many successful outings have been planned via these methods. It's certanly possible to plan outings without using the Chowhound board to manage the details.

A reminder- there are many message boards out there with many different posting and management styles. We don't claim to be all things to all people. We've created a message board focused on chow, specifically. We've learned that off topic chat has a way of taking over the board and detracting from the chow talk, so we've asked our participants to have those discussions elsewhere. Other boards may be more friendly to such chat, and people looking for that environment should go to a site which encourages that posting style. Posting here is, of course, voluntary, but it means abiding by the rules of this particular house.

If anyone feels the need to continue discussion of this topic, please post on the Site Talk board, so we can get back to the chow talk here. To discourage non-chow digressions, we'll be deleting further responses that aren't focused on finding great chow.

Link: http://www.chowhound.com/boards/sitet...

As an active member of the SF board who regularly attends and sometimes leads the planning of chowdowns, here are my recommendations for you:

Don't wait for somebody to come along and do this for you. If you want to see events in Seattle like they have in Chicago, you need to step up to the plate and make it happen.

There are two ways to start this.

1) somebody take the lead, say they want to organize a group meal, (optionally, give a rough idea of what you might have in mind, like "let's try a Thai restaurant next week"), and ask other readers to email their time, date, and restaurant suggestions.

2) somebody take the lead, choose a restaurant (or activity like a taco crawl), date, and time, post those details and ask anybody that wants to attend to RSVP via email.

#2 worked really well for me in Sacramento, when I posted a day, time, and neighborhood in which was going to do hit several taquerias -- four other hounds showed up and we had a great time.

But the bottom line again: if you want to see chowdowns in Seattle, take the responsibility upon yourself to make it happen. Just do it.

Good luck!

-Nick

Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/...