chowhound.com
 

Has anyone traveled to this website lately. I check in hoping , but the chowhound police make it impossible to talk about much of anything. Oh how I wish they would let up on the rules......It is a non user friendly format and they protect it to the bitter end, regardless that it will ruin them. It should be something wonderful , but the nazi demeanor turns many away. Just me???

Hi-
I have been within the last month and the only MAJOR problem with their site is that it does not scroll --it seems to freeze up...and I tried this from 2 different computers in 2 different states...
I have no idea what the problem is...

Seems that as far as policing the site, they are super apt to remove anytime anyone says anything negative..I have no idea why except that they have their own restaurant guides that they are selling on site and this may screw up whatever kickbacks that they get from restaurants??? I don't know if this is true or not, but it sort of makes sense..

I have gotten tons of TERRIFIC advice from this website and hope it is up and running like it was before....

I've been having trouble with chowhound as well...freezes up. Its a great website for restaurants but they are really uptight about anything not to their liking-except foul language...they don't mind that.

Besides the fact that they need a better search function I don't see what the problem is with chowhound. Have gotten lots of great info, feedback and help there without any of the problems described...and what's with the "nazi demeanor" comment?? - Isn't that a bit extreme?

I have found some very good information there, but I hate the format! And it is interesting that many negative comments are deleted.

Gee, I've posted somewhat negative comments on chowhound and never noticed that they'd been deleted - guess it depends on how they are worded?

You guys are nuts. Chowhound only deletes negative posts directed at USERS. You can say a restaurant is the most wretched server of near-excrement on the planet and the post will go unmolested. Say something nasty about another poster, and it gets pulled. I think there's a big, big difference.

The other way to get pulled is to shill for something, or to start a completely off topic discussion.

These rules keep the tone civil and the discussions on topic. Consider how many Fodor's threads turn into back-and-forth sniping and name calling among posters.

I've not had any trouble w/ scrolling, but Leah is right about the search function.

I have gotten tons of information from chowhound, but please please please do something about the search function. It is nearly impossible to find anything specific unless you go through all the posts.

Litespeed - always the voice of reason! I had my suspicions as well that those negative comments have had nothing to do with the food.
How is your friend's search for a house going - any luck? Are you going to brave the crowds and come up for Bele Chere - we are going to try and catch Menage on Sat as they have a great reputation. Will probably also try and walk into town to see Billy Jonas on Sunday just 'cause he's fun.

I love chowhound. But amen to the search function problems. It just doesn't let you narrow down enough, which is fine for some time-to-kill browsing, but frustrating when you want to look up a specific restaurant. I've never noticed any problems with missing posts, and the advice I've taken was on-spot.

I've gotten some pretty good info off there as well. But I agree with Margie. The format is bad. I also agree with Litespeed about the way they monitor it. Too bad not all forums are like that.

For true nazi police moderation go to flyertalk.com
Posting one slightly off topic post gets you banned for a week, two for a month and three for life.
The "off topic" can even be related to travel and it doesn't matter if the moderator deems it not to be.