Private messages? (aka internal e-mail)

[davmar77]

does this site have a private message set up? most forums i'm on give you the opportunity to get it touch with other members through the site. if i wanted to send a note to another member without it being for the public, can it be done? am i missing it?

[The Chowhound Team]

Hey, folks, this thread is starting to get a little nasty, so we're going to lock it now.

[enhF94]

Chowhound Team, how about an e-mail address to make contact with you privately? Or, specifically, a Boston Mod?

I don't need a substantive answer, but I have a specific and difficult comment that would probably be kinder not to publish.

[Servorg]

I've got it memorized (not hard to do) [e-mail]

[enhF94]

thx.

[Cathy]

Or just hit the "report" link, right next to this "reply" link I just hit to write this note...if you are wanting to talk with Mods about a specific person/reply.

[The Chowhound Team]

That generally works, but there's a bug in the software that occasionally makes us miss some reports, so if it's a serious issue, email is the best way to contact us, [e-mail].

[equal_Mark]

so, The Chowhound Team, how about commenting on the issue of PMs on Chowhound?

[c oliver]

This has been discussed at length:

http://www.chow.com/search?query=priv...

There are plenty of people who don't want to be contacted and that should be respected seems to be the consensus.

[Servorg]

And this site isn't about trying to add to the "social media" phenomena (which seems pretty adequately represented these days, in any case).

[c oliver]

Yep. Some of my Chow-buddies are satisfying that urge through FB. I'm not convinced.

[linguafood]

Sure beats lengthy conversations between 2-3 hounds about their recent vacations that have nothing to do with the OT.

I'd love it if more CHs did their chatting on Fb, frankly.

[Cathy]

When it starts to get irritatingly personal, I report it as being off topic. Usually it disappears.

[c oliver]

+1 which might surprise you. And if there were private messaging, imagine what the recipients would have to tolerate.

[im_nomad]

Is vacation chatting really all that offensive that it needs to be reported?

[soupkitten]

i reported a long off-topic, chatty subthread recently where 2-3 folks were talking about golf and regional golf courses. i believe the subthread was up to 20-30 posts before it got pulled, and meanwhile the actual discussion, that many posters from all walks of life and all over the country were contributing to, stopped cold.

um, that's annoying. some of us are here to talk about food, and not people's golf handicaps or what kind of car they drive or which resorts they go to on vacation. sure we've all made a post or two off-topic or skewing off-topic, but there's a point where the op gets hijacked because everyone's talking about their childhood pets' names or their polo ponies or comparing their companies' insurance. wtf does that have to do w the site? long time posters should make an effort to stay on topic and save the chatty bee-essing for facebook

[JonParker]

I'll add that as someone who uses My Profile (what used to be My Chow) to keep up with threads that I'm participating in, it's *highly* annoying to see that there are new responses to a thread that I've posted to only to find that they all consist of useless chat between members.

That's the real harm -- it wastes the time of people who really don't care about your vacation.

[c oliver]

Yes. There was a recent subthread about killing chickens that totally took over an interesting thread.

[Veggo]

I was one of the 3 participants in the sub-thread you reported. World class golf venues often serve great food. Four venues and their food quality were mentioned on that subthread that bored you, presumably because you don't play golf. It's a fair question whether restaurants that are not generally frequented by the public at large should be excluded from Chowhound conversation. 3 of the 4 that were discussed are accessible to the public. I have never posted that the best desserts in Houston are at the River Oaks CC because few will ever find that out.
We all tolerate conversations here that are not within our realm of interest but are nevertheless about good chow. Probably half of the diners at The Cloisters in Sea Island Georgia have never picked up a golf club. But it offers both great golf and great food. Likewise, the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. Doral. Pinehurst. I'll stop now.

[c oliver]

You know, Veggo, I was thinking that perhaps some of us (or some of our brains) filter out the extraneous better than others. I barely notice those things. And every time a thread is added to I don't click on it - unless it's one I'm particularly interested in. While this isn't a social network, it's made up of people and, while most of us will never actually meet, email or talk on the phone, you do start getting to know someone through their posts. You find out that you vacation in the same places, you share an interest other than cooking, etc. I find most "chatting" to be pretty limited. I would probably never report something for being "chatty" but rather for being so off-topic for so long that the thread is hijacked. Honestly, I like reading about what some of y'all are doing outside the kitchen and dining room. But then I'm a real 20-questions kinda gal.

[rworange]

I don't understand why you are not reporting about River Oaks no matter how limited the audiance. It is always useful information to someone. There's supposedly a world-class golf course designed by Pete Dye that I pass by everytime I'm on the road to Antigua. I'd be interested if the food at the restaurant was worth a stop ... I may get to it some day but it is a little inconvenient for a casual stop by and I don't play golf.

I don't believe any talk about restaurant food is off topic. There is one thing I would place money on. Since 2002, I have never had a post that was strictly about food deleted. Sometimes, not always, if I digress too much in a food post, but the recs are good, the mods will delete it and send me an email telling me to remove the non food stuff and repost. It is one of the truly terrific things about Chowhound. You are never deleted because of you opinion about the food you have eaten. Never.

Now if you throw in a lot of chat with that opinion, yeah, it will sometimes get deleted, but it is getting deleted because of being way too off topic or violating some Chowhound rule such as making personal comments about someone or a some other non-food thing covered in the guidelines as taboo.

[Veggo]

I wouldn't tease anyone about good food that they can't have, vis a vis River Oaks which is extremely private. In contrast, most Pete Dye courses and their dining facilities ( he is my favorite living GC architect ) are accessible to the public. TPC Sawgrass is his best example.
Golfers who enjoy fine courses also enjoy fine food, I guarantee. You would do well to check out the resto at the course he designed near you.

[rworange]

Ah, it's too much of that last sentence that will get a post deleted. I'll move La Refuge Golf Course higher up on my list. Thanks.

People write about private places. Google is known for their food, but you have to work there or be invited by an employee to eat at the company restaurants. It is good for tracking chefs who were previously at other public top-notch restaurants. Its a help to anyone who might work there and an incentive to cozy up to anyone you know working at Google to get an invite to lunch.

To the food devotee, there's always a way to get to exceptional chow

[soupkitten]

sorry, but if y'all had been talking about food, the subthread would still be up. you were talking about everything else besides food, so it got pulled. it would be the same thing if a discussion of food at sports arenas drifted into "were you at the 1983 superbowl" type comments which have nothing to do with the site.

[Veggo]

I understand the smothered quail at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas and the Sunday brunch at Seaview in Absecon NJ we talked about are not in your neighborhood. But they are for some. Sure, we wandered a little. Let's get past it.

[MMRuth]

It's not that it's offensive, it's that long digressions like that have nothing to do with food and, as another poster wrote, I don't particularly appreciate checking a thread that I've posted on that has new posts on it only to see that it has nothing to do with the topic.

[Servorg]

If it was just that one off topic digression, no. But one leads to another and then a third and a fourth. You know that expression that You Tube spawned/popularized about "going viral?" Soon the noise so outweighs the signal that those who make CH a very special place drift away, never to return. And as Joni sang "You don't know what you got till it's gone..." (and I don't want to find out by losing CH).

[Glencora]

agree with this

[equal_Mark]

If you think about it, having the ability to PM a user would serve to move all the off topic personal stuff off the boards...

[c oliver]

As others have pointed out, just to the left of the reply 'button' is the report one. And if the mods don't delete something then it's because they've decided it's okay for some reason. At least that's what they told me when I questioned one of their decisions :) There is some very, very strong feeling against PM and I agree with that even though I have my email listed.

[The Chowhound Team]

We're not sure what comment you're seeking. As we previously responded on this thread, there isn't a PM function, and as far we know, it's not something in Engineering's current plans.

[celeryroot]

This for Chowhound "Real" Employee
I dont post my email on profile and I assume that CBS/Chowhound keep my signup email private???? does CBS sell mailiing lists of subscribers to Chowhound???

[c oliver]

I've never gotten any emails that led me to think that CH sells their lists. Have you? Actually I've never gotten anything that made me think that anyone was using my email address, which is in my profile, in other than a CH-way.

[celeryroot]

I get lots of crap emails, who knows whose list they are buying. Just asked as it is a common practice. That is why you see a disclaimer on many sign ups that says they do not.

[rworange]

Here's a response by the Chowhound team to your inquiry
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/732164#5891319

It goes on to link to the CBS policy
http://cbsiprivacy.custhelp.com/app/a...

I use my email on the site and sign up almost exclusively for Chowhound and have yet to receive any crap emails or spam as a result, though I've been a member since 2002.

[The Chowhound Team]

No, sorry, there's no private message function on this site. If you're looking to share non-chowish info with someone, you can leave an email address as a reply to one of their recent posts (use a throw-away account if you don't want to put your real email address on the internet) asking them to contact you.

[rworange]

Also, some posters put their email address on their profile page. So if you click on their name it will take you to that page. Not everyone does that, but enough do so it is a good idea to check there first.

[davmar77]

thanks for the tip.

[hill food]

to avoid random spam from somebody's software trolling sites that just recognizes and collects e-mail, spell out your address - as in, use the full word "at" rather than the symbol and leave spaces.

[Servorg]

Would a software trolling site be able to click on a users profile to then find the email address information?

[hill food]

sorry badly written, somebody's software that trolls sites would have been a better way to say that.

I'm no expert, but as I've gotten more wary I've noticed many people never post the explicit [e-mail] or whatever, but I don't see why they couldn't, it wouldn't surprise me and hey it can't hurt to throw out a few roadblocks. I used to use multiple spellings of my real name and various free-mail accounts to get an idea of where the spam and junk mail came from (who was sharing lists esp)

but then again, they'll probably write one to recognize and translate the spelled out version as well if they haven't already.

[Veggo]

My real e-mail address has been included on my Chowhound profile for 4 years and I have had no spam or any unwelcome contact.
EDIT: and maybe 60-70 welcome contacts.

[hill food]

good for you, my providers have really stringent spam filters so I shouldn't worry so much, but then I also know people that use crap tag-along mail and have to use extra add-on filters.

[c oliver]

+1 and +1

[hill food]

some people are too trusting, I don't share my addresses (except one) with my own family. the FaceB ID is buried under a HUGE layer of mistruths (yeah I was born in 1908! and the last name is really Moronkopf) but I'm really not THAT opaque, I just don't want to make it too easy.