641158 Sat Aug 01 10:10:51 -0700 2009 4 59 CHOW Feedback 0 4908873 i love the places function, I think it's great that its user-generated so that people can update the info, report closings, etc. but I think in order to make it stronger outside of the chow.com community, it has to be promoted harder. People should be encouraged to link to a place every time a place is mentioned and to help keep it updated. I've started sending out chow's place links instead of yelp or nymag (replace with your local culture weekly) because it is so good to have the contact info AS WELL AS really good user reviews and threads (puts the place in context). chow's community is unbeaten so I hate to see people always sending out emails with yelp info. so everyone, be a good example and consistently place links whenever you can in a response; i know squidkun is very good on this; even referring to the act of linking to a place in the post itself. thanks all! Sat Aug 01 10:10:52 -0700 2009 12656 bigjeff 1 4909225 Good idear. I'm in. I wonder whether Chowmods could put up a sticky thread reminder at the top of each board. Might be worth an ask. Sat Aug 01 13:23:06 -0700 2009 4908873 64215 cimui 1 4910600 I've yet to find "one stop shopping" with regard to food info. Yelp has the best mapping function. Menupages (which is owned by NYMag) has the most menus and links to restaurant websites, as well as the excellent "find a food" search. Chowhound has the greatest percentage of reliable user reviews. There's no compelling reason for me to use Places. Since my interest in a restaurant often develops because I've read the comments about it, the links to user reviews in Places does me little good - I've already seen the user reviews. I would never rely on it for contact info - that's what the restaurant's own website (or ye olde white pages) is for. Sun Aug 02 09:03:53 -0700 2009 4908873 13722 small h 2 4912453 it's more for making chow's place URLs stronger so when planning a group outing, or want to send some info about a place to other people, rather than make them do their research on the boards or elsewhere, just send a Chow URL and they'll have the contact info plus good user reviews. didn't know nymag bought menupages! Mon Aug 03 05:45:36 -0700 2009 4910600 12656 bigjeff 3 4914382 Hey, Jeff, You may want to check out this link: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/641603 to participate in the beta of some new functions in this area. Mon Aug 03 15:28:26 -0700 2009 4912453 10021 Jacquilynne