P.S. I'm with Gekko. anyone who refers to foodies knows nothing about good dining. The effort, the time, the fresh ingrediants of fine dining don't have
a group of admirers called foodies.

Don't like the format, the forum, or the people? Don't go.

From wordreference.com:
"foodie
A noun
1 epicure, gourmet, gastronome, bon vivant, epicurean, foodie, a person devoted to refined sensuous enjoyment(especially good food and drink)

What's wrong with that?

It's been a while since I've used Chowhound, but I found it extremely useful for New York restaurants.

And if I remember correctly, the site defines itself as not for "foodies", meaning something more pretentious than a chowhound, defined roughly as someone who likes to find good food.

I LOVE the Chowhound format and dread the coming change. It's so nice to be able to scroll down VERY QUICKLY and see if there have been replies to any of your postings, or new interesting topics. You can also tell which parts of a given thread have become interesting by the long chain of replies that attach to one part of the tread.

The Fodors format is OK, but I DETEST the v-bulletin style format that one of my previous favorite sites changed to.

As to "foodies" , people who have made that comment here obviously have not spent any time reading Chowhound. Most people there can't stand to be called foodies and insist on standing behind the line in the sand that separates foodies from 'hounds. I, personally, find that debate silly, and agree there's nothing wrong with "foodie".

Finally, the reason people refer others to Chowhound is because that's where you go if you want good advice from people who really take food seriously and have discriminating palates. While many posters on this board make very good suggestions about restaurants, you are much more likely to get a recommendation for a tourist trap on Fodors than on Chowhound. And that's to be expected. Fodors people are obsessed w/ TRAVEL, not necessarily FOOD.

I cannot stand Chowhounds format, I like to be able to click on a topic and read all the replies, not click ack and forth, trying to figure out who's replying to what, it IS annoying!

That's why I don't use it, too cumbersome, and I do consider myself a foodie because cooking is my (and dh's)passion, my husband and I don't go to restaurants much, since we usually eat better at home. I wouldn't consider myself necessarily a "gourmet" and certainly not a "bon vivant", but foodie? Yeah, if I have my own garden, use 6 different salts and get excited about finding a recipe for elk (on tomorrow's menu), then I call myself a foodie.

I agree, the site needs an overhaul!
ASAP....

I've gotten good tips on Chowhound, but agree that the format is very frustrating to manipulate--you can't enter a search for a specific topic like you can here at Fodor's. The term "foodie" doesn't bother me since my best friend is a self-proclaimed "foodie" (but she's a professional nutrionist and has published books on the subject), but I do think some of the people who post there have a tendency to go a bit overboard--or maybe that's because I'm just not "a foodie."

I have no idea why some are upset with the term foodie, which has become a well accepted term today. According to Wikpedia Encyclopedia --"Foodie is a conversational synonym for gourmet that is frequently used in the media. The word was coined synchronously by Gael Greene and by Paul Levy and Ann Barr, co-authors of The Official Foodie Handbook (1984)."

I'd say any term related to the food industry coined by Gael Greene should be held in pretty high regard.

So does Bling.