vudutu's Profile
Why NOT Cameron Mitchell?
I am with kura kura, I avoid chains like the plague. My motto is stay close to your food, think local, vote with your feet, and put your money where your mouth is. I have tried it, not on my own but when an associate took me there. Mitchells here was OK when it opened then I heard it got real bad for a while, literally smelled bad when you walked by, better recently I hear, but I have not been back. We are major chowhounds, we cook with fresh food, as much local as possible, we shop at Findlay every Sat. morning, only go to a Krogers when we have to and when we do go out we try and support local food and people. Jean Robert is a blessing to this area, we go to his places most of the time. In fact one of the reasons you can get better fish here is that he took Lukens at Findlay into his world, started buying from them and the quality and variety has gotten better, One of the reasons we don't have better local food is we don't demand it. Read Michael Pollens "Omnivores Dilemma" and break the chain.
Split up the midwest board [Moved from CHOW Feedback board]
Well that helps, You really need to define what the main page search is actually doing, poor usability. Interface design needs to clearly communicate what you have to offer and how your customers can best make use of it I have been hitting the main page then either searching for Cincinnati from there or going to boards then midwest and using the same search. Either way I get the results I reported, if I choose search Cincinnati AND boards I get 686 results the first of which is from Jan 06 2007. You should look at your log files and see how many people bail at this point.
I found on my first few visits I did not stay long because I found little useable content, only if I added additional search words would I get better results, Cincinnati and sushi for example, The first search box I saw was the one I used, I did a few posts got bored and left. When I came back I just hit MYCHOW to see if there were added comments, went to the Midwest board and scrolled through, saw little of interest and left.
So put your self in the position of a new user, I get to this point and only if I hang in a while, scratch my head and determine that show options will get me an advanced search can I figure out how to get good results, why does advanced options not show in all search results? My Aunt would never figure it out (she is my lowest common denominator test, if she can figure out the navigation it passes). Add the advance search options automatically to any search result then compare your log files, I'll bet your retention goes up
Split up the midwest board [Moved from CHOW Feedback board]
I went back tonight and thrashed CHOWHOUND, here are the results. I navigated to http://www.chowhound.com/ clicked on boards. I put Cincinnati in the search bar, I get 700 results but the first 15 range from the newest post is Jun 10, 2007, the oldest is Sep 18, 2003, If I search blogs I get 4,If I search places I get 7, Stories i get 1, Boards i get 686, all appearing to be stale. It's all old and dated. Boring, not current, It's not at all compelling to wade into.
Split up the midwest board [Moved from CHOW Feedback board]
Well good luck, looks like you have some serious code issues to work through, most of the older stuff ain't worth it I would just move on.
Split up the midwest board [Moved from CHOW Feedback board]
Yea I save searches sometimes, in fact some sites it is about the the only way to find what your looking for without wading through all the irrelevant crap. Apples tech sites are a great example, (and they should know better) the only way to search it is to use the "only search this domain" in Google.
But the point is I should not have to use Google to find what I want on a site, this to me indicates poor design and coding. I have a saying "If you build it they will not come" what drives eyes to a site is good marketing or viral WOM, word of mouth. Good marketing may drive them to you site but great design, navigation and presentation of , compelling, current content get them to KEEP coming back.
It is obvious CHOWHOUND has coding and design issues it is trying to get through and I am not the only one thinks so. All you have to do is read back a month and see that. I agree with this poster.
"Deciding on specific location boards (Las Vegas)
The longer you wait, the more difficult it will be.
Frankly the site is a lot less interesting when you have to wade through a bunch of postings you aren't interested in - which I find to be the case on my "home" board, the Southwest. I really only care about Denver/Colorado, so I come here (and see the ads) a lot less often as a result of all the Santa Fe and Las Vegas postings."
The real question for is will CHOWHOUND become one of the 40 or so sites I have set as my homepage load when I launch Firefox. These are the tabs I keep open, visit, regularly. Will it keep my attention or not. As it is right now no. The poster above is right. The longer you wait, the more difficult it will be.
If this was one of my projects I would have to take a long look at my coding team and definitely redo my nav and design. You have great content but access and delivery are getting in the way. You all need to stop making excuses and plugging the dike.
This next post is also a good example
"Why does Austin TX have its' own thread but Vegas doesn't? [Moved from CHOW Feedback board]
I think the culinary scene is a bit more vibrant in Vegas...I don't get it. It sucks having to filter through all the posts about people looking for this or that in a zillion Southwest cities to find Vegas stuff. Certainly Vegas should have its' own thread."
Food is 99.9% of the time a local issue. As one of our local purveyors of organic says "forget organic it's all about local" CHOWHOUND needs to figure how to focus threads into more localized content. Read "The Omnivores Dilemma" by Michael Pollen, it's all about localizing your food. Even rising gas prices drive this, if you go out to eat it's part of your cost. Perhaps when some one starts a thread they need to be forced to choose from a list of cities, towns or regions with which to tag their thread. Ideally to me the boards page would be a map I clicked on or put in my zip-code and every localized post (i.e. any CHOWHOUND issued having to do with an address, i.e. stores, restaurant etc.), based on a distance from my address would be included and would show on my customized page.
Wow is this poster right..
"Separate SoCalif & Norcalif Boards Plz?
Dear Chowhound.com:
I'm sure you've heard this before..
The California board really needs to be broken down into Southern & Northern California. California is a HUGE state and is broken down by North or South almost everywhere. Heck, throw Central in there too.
The L.A. board includes Orange County but not Riverside or San Bernardino Counties. Which in many cases parts of Riverside or San Bernardino are closer to LA County than parts of O.C. is to L.A.!!!
Then there is San Diego...
I suggest replacing the California board with Nocal and Socal
Keep L.A. and S.F. or just have those in your new 'places' board, which I have not thoroughly checked out yet.
would appreciate some feedback on this topic.
And this one...
Atlanta needs a board!
Atlanta shouldn't be grouped into "South" any longer! It's got too many great restaurants and deserves its own space. Any others agree? I hope I get some backup here, because I want to be able to search ATL better!
Split up the midwest board [Moved from CHOW Feedback board]
I use MyCHOW but the point is why do I have to wade through all those posts that have NO interest at all to me. I want to see just what is going on in MY area not Cleveland or Columbis Missouri, why segregate int regions at all if you don't focus it for me. I want to see post in the area of the country that I spend 99.9% of my time in. I live in a tristate area and if I want to try and hunt down places to eat or source food in my area I have guess at what the search might be. Is it Cincinnati Ohio or Covington Kentucky or Florence Kentucky? One less desirable but better than it is now solution might be could code that regularly searches all of the posting then builds a pop up menu under Midwest that lists all the states then under that all the towns and city names. Or a search auto generated when I log in based on search criteria i enter in MyCHOW,
Split up the midwest board [Moved from CHOW Feedback board]
Thanks for the response but I whole heartedly disagree, the infrequent visitor is what the search button is for, when I first found chowhound I was enthusiastic, that quickly went away as I used the search, found some local posts, commented and when I came back they were buried under a flood of everywhere in the midwest BUT where I was interested. I don't think I will become a regular, the site design by nature dissuades that.
Split up the midwest board [Moved from CHOW Feedback board]
I am a nubie but a techie and can not for the life of me understand why board regions are so huge
I read some discussions about "how hard it is to split". Why worry about "getting previous discussions assigned to the right region" just put a sticky at the top of the new region explaining that posts prior to X are in the Midwest region and move on,Ii really don't want to scroll through pages and pages of useless posts, even though I am a nubie I find that each time I come back I am less and less enthusiastic because I have to wade through irrelevant posts.
Trying to drink more water--how to make it more interesting?
I hate pop and don't do refined sugar. My refresher is a mix of Apollinaris, a naturally carbonated mineral water renowned for its health and curative powers, and Trader Joes Blackberry Crush pure fruit juice. The juice is too sweet for me by it self but about half and half is very refreshing. Add a slice of lime, perfect.
Sushi in downtown Cincinnati
There is no decent Sushi that I know of in Downtown, OK I will admit I am picky but when it comes to Sushi you should be. Teak always manages to disappoint me somehow although I have not done sushi there in a while, the last time (two months) I was there the service and food was so bad I swore I would never go back. Mt Adams Fish house (yea, I know they are the same owners) works some of the time, Aqua is overpriced and I can't stand the yuppie crowd and music. I hear The Waterfront has decent but it is SOOooo stuck in that 80s deesco thing. For sushi in the Cincinnasti area you have got to drive south. The best places I know of are out near Florence.
THE best.#1
Matsuya
( 859 ) 746 - 1199
7149 Manderlay dr. Florence Ky ,41042
Best Kept Secret Sushi, eat at the bar on a Friday or Sat. it's a hoot. #2
Chung Ki Wha Korean Barbeque and Sushi Truckstop
(859) 525-9978
7800 Commerce Dr
Florence, KY 41042
Good food, hard to find.#3
JoAn
( 859 ) 746 - 2634
3940 OLYMPIC BLVD,ERLANGER,KY,41018
Dancing Wasabi in Cincinnati
Was this the old Sushi Rays? For Cincy Sushi Ray's place was OK, is Dancing worth the trip?
Anywhere new I shouldn't miss in Cincy?
New? How new? Newest hot spot for me is Terry's Turf Club. Remember the old Neons? Well Terry got bored fishin I guess and he is back. It's on Eastern a bout a block west of Bella Lunas. Killer Burgers, get the blu burger, forget Zip's, very sloppy, ask for a roll of paper towels, you will need it. Good fish too, he even has a Fois Gois burger!
Cincinnati area - good Italian sausage?
KathyP, Avril is more German, if JJs does not have what your looking for I think you would have to go mail order. You might ask the folks at Angelinas (did I spell thst right?) they recently took over Bella Lunas space at Findley Market. Did you ask Kroger Boys at Findley?
