This is a slick feature, but there are some places with generic names that need to be excluded.
E.g. the link to the unmentioned "1 Restaurant" in this topic, which is appearing in response to the "1" in "about 1 quart":
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/662793
Another one is "wine bar".
Robert Lauriston
Oct 28, 2009 03:29PM
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And "my favorites": http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6627...
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Another one: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/660274
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And "pho": http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/4478...
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It's also not smart about unrelated restaurants that have the same name:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/663094
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Thanks for this feedback, we're aware of the problem and working on a fix. It's very helpful if you can continue to point out the ones that are linking in error so we can catch all of the various cases.
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"ice cream" http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6615...
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"Camino"; also "El Camino"
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6612...
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"on the corner" http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6613...
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"Frascati" - I capitalized it, but when I saved and the system created the link, it changed to lowercase. If I click Edit, it returns to uppercase.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6630...
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On the Boston board, any reference to the North End neighborhood becomes a link for a particular restaurant, the North End Cafe:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/663152
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http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/663201
The words Sonoma and san Francisco both pull up links for like-named restaurants.
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This person talks about being a little full. The stupid "auto link" feature links to a place called Little Cafe in an entirely different state. http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/662979
C'mon, Chow Team, fix this already. Or at least stop it from working until you've gotten the glitches out. Really now.
ETA: and later in that same thread someone mentions a "dairy barn ambiance" and the stupid function links to a restaurant name. Unbelievable.
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see http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/663215
Half the map postings from this thread are wrong. Zip code 10003 is now in the Rockaways - I think not.
Also, the person was referring to Arte Cafe, not Arte Restaurant. I think some of your restaurant listings are wrong.
And why would they list the same address twice for for 10009 showing one in Manhattan and one 10009 in Brooklyn. Your map-making contractor needs some help.
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see http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/616045
One responder mentions cava -- as in the drink. Not some restaurant in CT according to the moronic auto link.
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hey check it out ... the Four Seasons is now in Brownsville. I bet they'll love knowing that.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/657895
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Any mention of the North End (a neighborhood) on the Boston board brings up a link to the North End Cafe. I would think that place names in general would create this sort of problem.
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"delicious food" links to a restaurant
"bleu" as in cheese links to something else
both in this thread http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/660651
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So this is getting fun (not really) since every thread I look at has problems.
See http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/662960 . Zip codes 10022 and 10019 are both in Manhattan, not Red Hook Brooklyn.
Oh and by the way, what is "Frnt 1" that's written after most addresses? Who writes an address that way? Boy all this stuff is making me skeptical of ever using Google Maps. They can't seem to get anything right. Or maybe it is your restaurant-listing contractor? Terrible, just terrible.
Edit : Same thread. Why are some places linked to and not all the others mentioned in the same thread?
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The links appear only in new posts and only when the auto-link feature is turned on.
Also, people can delete them manually.
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I haven't been able to delete them manually. I also tried to add a reply post with the correct links, and although it showed them as being added, when I hit save they were gone.
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I've been able to delete them from the "Manage Your Links" widget before posting.
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I tried that, and it didn't work. It showed them as deleted, but they still showed up on the side bar.
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Another poster said something about the links showing at the bottom of the page on a particular post, and I said I didn't see them. So I decided to try a different brower and voila! there they are -- sort of. On Firefox 3.5, I can't see any of the autolinking features at all today: no names showing in blue in the posts, no list of links or map on the, right column, no links in the posts themselves. Nada. Which is odd, because I could see the blue highlights and the link/map on the right column yesterday when I wrote this post:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/663662#5144607
and then this post:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6636...
The second post says I hate the linking feature, because I'd added a bunch of manual links, and then when I posted it, they appeared to be completely gone. In other words, yesterday on this computer with this browser I could see the blue highlights and the links/map on the right column, but not the red bubble links at the bottom. Today I can't see any elements of the autolinking feature.
In IE (I'm not sure which version), the links in the posts are half loading -- I can see half the red bubble, but not the link itself, and there's nothing when I mouse over it; no map in right column, either. In other words, when I pull up the same post on IE (I'm looking at the Firefox and IE versions at the same time), I can see that the links that do not show (there isn't even blank space in the post window) on Firefox are there, but can't read or access them (and yes, I tried reloading the page).
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Wow, that's pretty weird. Firefox 3.5.4, I see no links at all anywhere in the following topic, though I saw them yesterday, and added some myself, and see them in other topics. In MSIE 7.0.5730.13, I see icons where the links should be, but no text. This is on Windows XP SP3.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/663662
Looks to me like some sort of data corruption.
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They're all visible now on Firefox. How much of the linking feature shows up seems to vary from thread to thread.
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Yeah, seems like it's turned off or broken on some threads. Pretty random behavior.
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>what is "Frnt 1" that's written after most addresses?
That's robo-listings talk from Chow's outside listings provider. I agree, no one uses that verbiage in conversation. Paid Chow staff should be assigned to look over the incoming records and delete that stuff.
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see http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/662788
The person is referring to TJ's as in Trader Joe's. NOT a bar called TJ's.
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On the main restaurant page for New York City is headline "Highest Rated". Included in this is a restaurant in Hartford, CT. Is this like one of those old SAT type questions ... you know, which one of these is not like the other???
http://www.chow.com/restaurants/regio...
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Listing for Tulcingo has a Manhattan address. Your map shows it to be located in Brooklyn.
http://www.chow.com/restaurants/14059/tulcingo-del-valle
Listing for Mole has a Manhattan address. Your map shows it to be located in Brooklyn.
http://www.chow.com/restaurants/1869/...
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Just came here because I was also confused about this new feature. Read replies quickly, but don't think my question came up: Some replies are getting autolinks attached and some aren't, and the ones that aren't should be in the database. Here's the thread where I noticed this: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6623...
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ChowHQ -- are you also interested in places that are NOT appearing, I think because their names are such regular words? One of most recommended places on DC/Balt is Central -- which I just figured out will only link if written as "Central Michel Richard," which no one ever writes. Another example of a DC restaurant is Corduroy, which I could link to manually, but didn't auto-link.
I don't usually check the tech stuff, not on often enough to really notice, so I might just be behind in understanding this. Thanks!
And, is there a way, that I'm too spacey to see, to correct inaccurate info in a link. (Blue Duck Tavern, also in DC, has incorrect location info.)
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You are lucky that in DC/Balt the new "feature" isn't picking up ordinary words. Over on Manhattan and other boards, the stupid thing is picking up "cava" (the wine) as a restaurant, "wine by the glass" as Glass Restaurant, and other ridiculous things. It is simply abysmal.
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yes, I read through this thread -- I don't think that's happening in DC/Balt, but maybe I haven't noticed (it was only one thread that I was on that got me obsessing about it) -- and like many places we do indeed have a restaurant called Cava.... Definitely a lot worse than what I was talking about.
ETA: OK, I found one: the phrase "United States" autolinked, and I don't think it's even to a restaurant, but to a federal building in DC, funny: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/663261
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Places with such generic names really need to be excluded from the auto-link feature. People can always add them manually.
Does this feature have a list of "stop" words?
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Yes, of course you're right about the generic words -- I was a little slow to figure out what was going on. But I still wonder (not enough that anyone needs to write me back) why they're not auto-linking when other common words are. I guess it's luck.
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see http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/663219
This post linked to EJ's Luncheonette but only the one on the east side and did not include the one on the west side. Also, some restaurants got links and a bunch of others did not.
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"one-star restaurant" > Star Restaurant
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6613...
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"shiso" > Shiso Restaurant.
Same topic, "San Francisco Restaurant" is coming from somewhere. Maybe "San Francisco" in the title?
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/663192
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"maki" > Maki Restaurant
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/5947...
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"tacos al pastor"
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6630...
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"super burrito"
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6625...
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"chinese food"
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/659082
seriously, this 'feature' is way way more problematic than it is helpful.
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This is really getting tiresome.
See http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/659082 . "Chinese food" refers to the cuisine, not to a restaurant name.
<<this feature is way more problematic than is helpful>> YOU SAID IT!
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Okay, I'm voting for this one for REALLY RIDICULOUS -- someone has "no idea" what's in the neighborhood and poof -- "no idea" is a restaurant link. Good job, folks. http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/663178
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I knew I'd have to eat my words. This one is sooooo much better.
wines by the glass is now "Glass" the restaurant. Gotcha! http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/663257
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"sonoma" > Sonoma's (in San Leandro)
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/663313
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Union Square Cafe is now located in Brooklyn as well. Unbelievable. http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/663178
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10011 and 10002 are both in Manhattan, not Brooklyn. http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/663298
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To reiterate what I've said on a related thread: This is an inherently awkward feature. Limit auto-linking to references that spell out the entire name of a place exactly as it appears in the database (and spell it correctly!) and you miss all the ones that use shorthand (Hamersley's instead of Hamersley's Bistro, for example). Go looser and you end up linking every common word and place name to restaurants that have nothing to do with the thread.
Maybe, over time, with lots of hands-on massaging (do link this, don't link that) it could be useful. But do the Chow techs have the time to do all that tweaking? Given the bigger issues they're constantly dealing with on the site I rather doubt it.
Seems to me like it's just something that is enabled by the site software they're using so they decided to implement it. But not all things that can be done should be done (I have this same problem with the Web site admins for my company). This particular "feature" is producing much more noise than useful information.
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I wholeheartedly agree. Besides linking to common words, the software for the restaurants and addresses/maps has so many problems and errors that even that part of the "feature" is woefully wrong.
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Features like this need a list of "stop words." Unless they neglected to include that, I don't think getting it working right should take long.
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In this case "Lex" refers to Lexington Avenue, not to a restaurant named Lex. http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/663339
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http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/661913 -- Hundred Acres is in the Village not in Brooklyn.
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Oh how much fun this is doing the Chow Team's job.
Apparently, maybe having to "stop on the way" home is now the On The Way Cafe. http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/662979
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>Oh how much fun this is doing the Chow Team's job.
They're paid to do it; we users are not. So let's give 'em room and let 'em work.
If you spot a clueless auto-link, I'd say report the post if you have time. Let Chow staff take care of it. But if it's a real howler, consider sharing it here for entertainment value :)
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CBS Interactive doesn't have the staff to read all the topics.
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Then it needs more staff, or it needs to test these changes more thoroughly before release.
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I saw a post you put on Site Talk about this, and I thought Jacquilynne answered you, and everyone else, about this already. The moderators are volunteers. Maybe the response should be read again, and if you missed it on Site Talk, here it is:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6631...
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You're suggesting I posted without reading what Jacquilynne would write more than seven hours later? You're right :)
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Oops! Sorry about that!
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No problem. I take your point: the mods are volunteers and shouldn't have to take on any more stuff to do.
What I think the site bosses lose sight of at times is that we users are volunteers too - and the recent site glitches are putting more of the burden on us to clean up problems that weren't of our making.
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Squid,
As volunteers, you just do what you can, but you don't have to do anything at all if you don't want to. I am not too pleased with all the glitches myself. On the Texas board someone said that they tried "to go to a place" and it put a link up at the top for a To Go Cafe! And it was nowhere near the location the poster was talking about. It's been fixed now, but I was scratching my head at first. I would hate to be in the bosses seat in this situation. It is chaos, but hopefully it will be cleared up soon.
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>It is chaos, but hopefully it will be cleared up soon.
Agreed. The thing about this latest glitch is that it makes the OP look clueless - until you see a few more examples and realize what's going on.
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http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/4084...
The restaurant under discussion is Ramen Halu in San Jose. The autolink in this post is a restaurant in San Francisco called Halu.
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"good friend" !
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6632...
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"all day"
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/663444
"SFO" - link is useful but it's putting it in lowercase
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6634...
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glenwood http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/658069
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/608659
tandoor points to an ATL restaurant, not the chapel hill one
chapel hill restaurant isn't a restaurant!
and my favorite - i don't know http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/663223
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Seriously, please make it stop. Now it's automatically making a lot of restaurants not capitalized, including The French Laundry. Couldn't there have been a beta test of this?
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We're beta-testing it right now.
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Three different bad auto-links in this post:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/5817...
Engineering: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE just pull the plug on this project. It doesn't work, it is providing you with WORSE data then when users did their own tagging, and it's making us crazy.
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"San Franciscans" http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6600...
I'm starting to think this may be unworkable.
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Logically, I don't see how it can be made to work, at least not how they intend it to, which is to provide some semblance of an accurate record of when people are talking about which restaurants.
Far too many restaurants have common words or places in their names, and users often abbreviate and/or misspell names. I challenge even a hot-shot programmer to come up with an algorithm that can successfully pick out the correct restaurant names from the chaff even 50% of the time without human intervention, let alone anywhere near 100%.
I say to Chow, cut your losses on this and put the techs back to working on something important like improving the speed and reliability of page access.
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"fusion restaurant"
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6635...
Man, there are some stupid restaurant names out there.
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"Fleur de Lys" here is an example of bad handling of two places with the same name:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/663505
Also, the one in San Rafael is a house-cleaning service.
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http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6635...
Auto-link to Fish Market Sushi in Allston instead of the actual FISHMONGER being discussed in the post.
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http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/5817...
Three restaurants mentioned in this post (one of which has two locations.) Auto-tagging offers only one of the two locations of Wisteria House and fails to tag Jo Jo Taipei at all.
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http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/5817...
Post refers to the dish Pad That; auto-link links to Pad Thai Cafe.
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http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6637...
There is, in fact, a restaurant in Allston called The Kells, but it is NOT the place referred to in this post, which is actually a soft-serve ice cream shop in Revere called Kell's Kreme. Please delete auto-link.
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"downtown"
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Here's a new twist: "Binh Minh Quan" triggered links to both Binh Minh Quan and Minh's Restaurant.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6634...
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A review & conversation about Del Posto generates hits for both "del posto" (correct!) and "posto" (NOT!). http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/664223
Oh and by the way, neither are in Brooklyn, despite what your google map says.
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A mention of Cirque du Soleil brings up a reference to Soleil restaurant. Meanwhile, two restaurants mentioned in the post that should have brought up links (Fringale, Waterbar) didn't (a third restaurant didn't link because it was misspelled). I've seen this happen on quite a few posts: things linked that shouldn't be while others that should be aren't. There are really too many bugs to bother listing, and I don't think it's possible to list all the possible ways the program can generate the wrong links. Why not just dump the automatic linking and go with the (somewhat improved) manual places linking?
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6645...
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"san miguel" http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6639...
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This one is very odd - nothing in the two new posts (bumping a SEVEN-year-old thread) got auto-flagged, but for no reason at all a "Places" link and map got added for a cafe that is not mentioned at all in either post (and was not in business at the time of the original thread.)
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/143333
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"delfin" generates two wrong links but not the right one
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/664782
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another ... a mention of the Union Square greenmarket generates a map-post for Union Square Cafe. Seriously not the same thing.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/663879
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Auto-link to the wrong restaurant (Tremont Cafe) - poster has actually added their own link to the correct restaurant (Tremont 647.)
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This links to the wrong Shake Shack. http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/664719
When there are multiple locations with the same name, some check off box or other ought to pop up so that the correct location becomes the link (or some other method that would insure the correct location).
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yet another one ...
A reference to the Home Cooking board produces an autolink for a "Home Cooking Cafe". Ugh. http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/666121
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References to the Union Square Greenmarket are still generating autolinks to Union Square Cafe. Please fix this problem. http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/666390
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"main street" http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6667...
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http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/640474
Here's a discussion of a Chinese restaurant called M&T in Flushing, Queens, that for some reason auto-links to a restaurant called Il Pasticcio in Savannah, Ga. It's been doing this for some time. I bring it up now only because someone just reminded me of it by updating the thread.
This one makes Chow.com look especially stoopid. If that's a concern, the site crew should fix it.
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That was fast!
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"Koreatown"
"Little Saigon"
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