For those of you who aren’t familiar, Chowhound is a forum set up for Minkuses like myself who spend way too much time talking about food.
The concept is great. It can be a great resource for any food related topic, especially for restaurant recommendations beyond a star rating on Yelp.
There’s just one problem – the moderation sucks. They won’t allow posts about certain local businesses or events, the moderators play favorites with some and all but blacklist others. Posts often go missing without an explanation, or on the rare occasion that one is given – it’s shit.
They’ve even gone so far as to ban (warning: lengthy post) one of the most helpful/knowledgeable members of the local San Diego board because of how often he recommended Sushi Kaito, which is one of the best recommendations you can give anyone visiting San Diego.
Really they’re only hurting themselves, they’re already far behind yelp in popularity and the activity the boards do get will quickly die out if they keep with their Nazi-style moderation.
How many of you even knew about or use Chowhound?
Those who have: have you had similar problems?
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve had several of my posts removed/moved/deleted from chow hound as well without any real (worthy) reason. drives me up the wall.
I do have to say though, it is by far one of the best spots on the web to quickly find reliable, helpful, and thorough reviews about restaurants, or at least one that contains reviews where a dollar pizza joint is not rated higher than a James Beard award winner. (cough cough yelp cough)
I think the real problem is people can’t stay away. We say we are not going to post, but people still visit and post. So long as there is anyone contributing anything useful to the forum, what Matt said about being a great spot to find reliable information will hold true.
We just need more people to post reliably on The Communal Table to build up that community as the alternative
You are correct, chowhound San Diego sucks. Very political and biased but again the entire San diego scene is. That’s a shame.
I’ve had >100 posts removed all time, easy.
Ugh, yes. I still turn to the site now and then for info, but I rarely bother to post or contribute much anymore. Their moderation style too often makes me feel like a scolded child. For example, I get that they don’t want people just promoting their business there, but from the Philly boards they removed a small, really helpful discussion about commercial kitchen options for small businesses because “you can’t post about your business!” No one involved had even started a business yet; no one mentioned a business name or what they were going to sell. It wasn’t a particularly active thread. I can’t see what harm it was doing, but they do like their rules over there.
As far as restaurant boards go, I think the Philly boards are very similar to what you describe here. I’ve never had them remove one of my posts about a restaurant, but I definitely know people who have, and it’s anyone’s guess how they’ll choose to enforce the rules and when.
I don’t really use ChowHound because I prefer Yelp for its pictures.
It’s not just San Diego…
Matt – yeah, definitely has the potential to be a great space. It’s just not what it could be.
James – I’m close to that point, but I would rather post until I am banned myself. Chowhound has a lot more to offer than Communal Table.
Jerome – agreed.
Mike – again, another example of a very helpful member being silenced because they’re worried about some sort of cross promotion or “insider” treatment.
Carly – from what I know the moderators roam all the boards rather than just their local ones. I’m sure the more unfair ones have specific places they like to check though, I wish a higher up would comment more on their technique. I doubt this style of moderation is what they original founder intended.
Chuck – Can’t deny that yelp is a helpful resource for that aspect
Kevin – I know you’ve been treated unfairly as well, I thought that maybe San Diego was a particularly bad case but apparently it’s all over.
Kevin, is that why you don’t post as often on CH LA?
Rod, we’ve talked briefly about my troubles with CH LA, and I go into a little more detail in the comments of my Shunji post, but it sounds eerily similar to what you and others have experienced.
I’ve had several problems with Chowhound NYC due to linking to outside sites that were meant to be helpful to the original poster. Meanwhile, the Chowhound grandmother who comments on nearly every post (but never mine, which leads me to think she hates me) gets to link to her TERRIBLE photos on Flickr whenever she pleases. And by that, I mean on every single reply she writes.
On the other hand, when I got a free dinner from EMP and people FLIPPED THE EFF OUT, the mods were kind enough to remove inflammatory, not-helpful comments from my next post.
I think they just need to be more consistent. And people have the same problems with Yelp, you know.
As Donuts4dinner mentioned, Yelp is just as bad. I still use Chowhound and Yelp (I heart photos) to help me decide on a place because they are so resourceful. However, I dont contribute to Chowhound and rarely do for Yelp.
I understand their reason to not allow you to promote your business or a friend’s business, but if the review is unbiased and fair, I believe it should be allowed.
Hi Rodzilla,
I got canned from Chowhound today. My original post is still up, although they removed my joking comment that it had been really boring on the San Diego board lately.
I guess that was grounds for execution by CH mods.
Anyhoo, keep chowing – I know that you (and I) will.
Cheers, GJ
Did we just lose GypsyJan from SDCH? So sorry to hear that.
FWIW, there’s been a steady diaspora of SDCH posters to alternative sites such as Yahoo’s SDChow group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SDChow/) and SDGourmand’s Communal Table (http://sdchow.proboards.com/index.cgi)
Give them a try and please share your story. You’re sure to recognize many of the SDCH regulars there.
I found this by searching for “chowhound sucks”…
I’ve gotten fed up with CH. Their bullshit moderation makes it not worth hanging out there. If KirKK, cgfan and dantaat are on SDChow, that’s where I want to hang out. There are only so many calories/bits one can commit to being a Hounder. May as well share them with people whose opinions I respect.
I’ve signed up for SDChow and am awaiting blessing…