Deleted Posts on Chowhound
Thursday, April 6, 2006 12:18I didn’t realize that posts are deleted from the Chowhound message often. In response to this post about Spitz in Eagle Rock:
Chowhound’s Los Angeles Area Message Board: Re(1): Spitz in Eagle Rock - open yet?
I replied with a link to SoCalorie’s interview with Spitz’s founders. Shortly after that, my post was deleted. I wasn’t sneaky about it, I post there under my first name, I only link to la.foodblogging if it adds something to the conversation. I really thought that the interview would be interesting to people reading the thread.
Chowhound post deletion has been frequent enough that last week the moderators had to make a post defending their deletion policy. You can browse the site related message board to see the many instances of deletions.
I can sympathize that moderating a very open (as in, no registration required) message board would be a challenge. Chowhound does seem to lean a bit heavy on the delete button though.
By Jonah (see more of his posts). Jonah is the founder of la.foodblogging and also created Digesty, a food blog aggregator and Cheww.com, a spam free foodblog search engine.
anon says:
April 6th, 2006 at 1:07 pm
I have to stay anonymous here or else the Chowhound team will be after me. There are completely power mad people making decisions there. Failed chefs, people with no taste buds,etc. They often times just delete negative critiques of a place they like. I’d be thrilled to have a non-censored board.
MaxMillion says:
April 6th, 2006 at 2:21 pm
Well, I like their point about a well-pruned garden. Actually, all their points seem reasonable.
I can waste a helluva lot of time wading through all the posts and various replies on that board. If some people are behind the scenes keeping the unnecessary posts off the board, then they’re doing us all a service.
I was once flamed by some idiot bc I reviewed a restaurant called Maximilians and the person thought I was an unimaginative shill. Some one quickly came to my defense, which was gratifying, but the two responses (his and mine) plus the snarky comment were soon deleted, which was probably for the best.
I have occassionally commented on someone’s post with a link to one of my reports here on la.foodblogging — “report with pictures” — and as far as I know they haven’t disappeared.
I know they seem really heavy handed, but I do think the board is slightly more streamlined as a result.
The stats on psychos is kinda disturbing, tho. There are a lot of angry people out there who love to anonymously vent. If I want to remind myself how incredably venomous, misogynistic and racist people can be, I can head over to craiglist ‘rants and raves’.
Dan-o says:
April 6th, 2006 at 3:39 pm
Yea, they do seem heavy handed with the delete button. But never mind that - when IS Spitz going to be opened?
erin says:
April 6th, 2006 at 5:54 pm
A while back NY-based blog Eater had a discussion about Chowhound deleted posts–whether it was a conspiracy or not. You can find the discussion here
Jonah says:
April 6th, 2006 at 5:59 pm
I do appreciate the fact that Chowhound moderators are upfront about their policy, which seems to be overtly protective of the eater’s side and suspicious of anyone defending a restaurant.
I think what that leads to is a general negative vibe in the message boards. Sometimes is seems like a contest of who can be more picky about a meal or point out every flaw, rather than trying to guide diners to positive experiences.
I have seen eGullet called out as being too pro-dining industry, and Chowhound as being somewhat antagonistic to the industry.
In my vision, foodblogging would be somewhere in between. I like when insiders come to give their perspective and when very selective diners give theirs.
Christian says:
April 27th, 2006 at 10:27 pm
So, I am finding that others have had similar problems. I have a post about it here:
http://ocmexfood.blogspot.com/2006/04/chowhound-gestapo.html
After their craziness I wondered if maybe somehow I was a “bad person” who just didn’t know how to get along with others but it really is just a defect with how their whole site is run and that probably stems from some sort of personality defect(s) on the part of the people in charge there.
Jef says:
August 8th, 2006 at 10:14 pm
Not to dredge this topic up from the past but …
Now that chowhound is part of cnet, the deletion thing has gone
absolutely nuts. There are more posts being deleted than staying
up, it seems. What the heck could be going on?
Chubbypanda says:
December 15th, 2006 at 2:41 am
Jonah,
Welp, I’m late but I got here. Managed to get myself kicked out of Chowhound by finally refusing to censor myself.
http://epicurious-wanderer.blogspot.com/2006/12/chowhound-board-nazis-conclusion.html
Here’s my question to the blogosphere at large. If the “Chowhound Team” won’t let food bloggers and lover refer other board members to restaurants they really like, what’s left? How many posts about Cube, Mozza, or Jar can Chowhound members take before they move on to blogs like this one for truly meaty fare?
- Chubbypanda
http://www.chubbypanda.com
dolores says:
February 27th, 2007 at 11:55 am
How nice to find this site and to see there are others who have been victim to arbitrary censorship. I just had my posts deleted and then my registration banned because I didn’t agree with the moderators. Meanwhile, they did not once update me with a nice little note as to why they kept deleting my posts.
Funny thing is, they must hover over the site 24X7, because the minute I would post my opinion about a particularly odious restaurant, they would delete my post.
My, my, and here I thought this was the 21st century.
My bad. Heavy handed censorship is alive and well in America. Oh, and they even delete posts at a blog they apparently run.
dolores says:
February 27th, 2007 at 11:56 am
Christian, did they even delete your blog?
bulavinaka says:
February 28th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
I’m relatively new to Chowhound, and blogging in general for that matter. I tend to feel towards how most of you feel about how heavy-handed the “minders” or “Chowhound Ministry of Censorship” can be. I use these euphemisms because the sense that I get is that we are attempting to exchange our thoughts and information in a very social way - like in the spirit of the First Amendment. Just as some of these posts start to pick up speed, one notices that a fair amount of editing has occured. I rub my eyes and ask myself, “Geez, are we living in the good ol’ U-S-of-A, or did I just do a timeshift behind the Iron Curtain or Singapore(at least the food is great there)? However, after giving it some thought, I do have to keep in mind that I am a guest on that site, and I need to play by their rules. I don’t know what it was like pre-CNET, but like many other “little fish swallowed by the bigger fish” tales, the rules change, and things tend to tail towards the lower realm of common denominators. My guess would be that the bigger fishes are probably being told by the legal dept that liability issues may arise from certain types of comments. Maybe we need to start trying other food blogs? If anyone knows of any comparables, are they allowed to be reccomended?
stefankib says:
May 1st, 2007 at 7:01 am
Yes, I was new in Chowhound, who wanted to make popular a certain type of cuisine and they deleted every post of mine, I just posted once a link:www.findbgfood.com and after that every my innocent post was deleted.
dolores says:
January 4th, 2008 at 4:36 am
Fascinating, banned almost a year ago to the date. Deja vu all over again. The Nazis at Chowhound banned me once again, this time for trying to note that $500. for dinner for two at a restaurant in a suburb of NY is outrageous.
The Nazis at chowhound then did NOT have the courtesy to tell me why they banned me for this, other than the fact that they ‘could’.
Putzes, the entire lot of them.
SauceSupreme says:
January 5th, 2008 at 2:25 am
Believe me, I’ve had more than my share of posts deleted. Talking with other long time ‘Hounds, they have a common experience. I say it just goes with the territory, and it helps to have another outlet. I never really bothered to get too worked up about it because a) it’s still the best resource on the web and b) I have my own blog to post thoughts and c) I keep off-line contact with ‘Hounds whose palates I trust.
Curmudgeon says:
January 21st, 2008 at 2:47 pm
It sort of astounds me what is censored on Chowhound. Recently I’ve had postings about concern over using food ingredients from China and displeasure about the long lines at my local TJs and their discontinuation of stoned wheat thins censored. Once you’ve been censored once I think you go on a hot list and they carefully discriminate against everyone of your postings. The SF hounds have a picnic each year and this year the Chowhound Community Manager Jacquilynne Schleisier flew down from Toronto to attend. I had a chance to talk to her and what a piece of work! While food is obviously her main main interest (see the photo http://www.ample-knitters.com/jacquilynne.html ) She also talked about going on cruises with her parents. On her blog she talks about her thoughts about her main interest http://www.jacquilynne.com/mt/mt-static/diet/reasons_why/ I hope this gives some consolation to those of you who have been censored.