Is this thing still on?
I used to use Chowhound a lot. But then I found it to be quite repetitive in terms of the questions being asked and the advice being offered. And the board I followed was often dominated by a few chronic posters, which gets boring fast. Then social media came on the scene, Yelp became really easy to use on the iPhone, and every restaurant, food truck, chef, and farmers market seemed to start tweeting & FB'ing directly with the people. Without even realizing it, I stopped using Chowhound for the last year. I guess I didn't miss it because I just now remembered that this thing even exists. Odd for a site I used to visit several times a day.
How has your use of the site changed? Are you using the other channels more now? What does CH do for you that others don't?
For me now it's:
Yelp iPhone app for quickly finding good eats in any area.
Twitter feeds for staying up on my favorite places.
Facebook for interacting with other eaters.
Yelp's website if I feel compelled to post my thoughts to a large audience (fwiw).
And I guess Chowhound for asking direct questions, like this post.
By Shane Greenwood
on Sep 11, 2011 06:20 AM
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I use Yelp solely for location information. But I stock so little faith in the honesty (or seriousness) of so many of their posters that I never even bother to read the reviews to try and ascertain if a place has "great food" or is just "mediocre" (or less).
ADD: As to your "...the board I followed was often dominated by a few chronic posters..." comment. I see you posted on the SF board. I know that there are some very active hounds on that board who take the time and put in the effort to really scour the greater Bay area food scene. I think the strength of Chowhound comes from those types of posters. Once you get to know whose tastes are in line with yours, then you can usually figure that the leads provided by them will send you on to eat great chow. That is a huge positive, rather than a negative. And nothing stops anyone from chiming in to those threads with finds or thoughts of their own.
Just as for instance, I noted that you had just put up a recommendation to someone asking for Food Truck suggestions in the San Jose area. I found that there were a couple of very excellent threads on the Edgewood Eats suggestion you provided. So the idea that somehow CH is missing the mark on little known or uncovered territory seems to be at odds with your suggestion and those threads. No?
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Hi Shane, I'm delighted to see you back with a post here and on the SF Bay Area board. I share some of your observations on the food media resources available to us locally. Chowhound/Chow is looking for input like this, hope there's still a chance for you to take part. More info here,
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/803757
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