🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <33q3i.172$d%2.163@newsfe06.lga>, M.Safier
<msafier@charter.net> wrote:

> This is a typical snobbish putdown by the 
> know-all-there-is-to-know-about-food-and-everything-else and 
> oh-so-judgmental Arnie....ignore it--- Now Meg knew a lot and was modest 
> about it...but A. drove her off-she was most likely wise to leave...hmmmm, 
> maybe I should sub to ba.food? Or is he driving those folks off too?
> Marilyn

Knowing Meg--online only--I think it's way too big a leap to say that
Meg was "driven off" of any particular newsgroup. She no longer posts
to ba.food, even though she had been doing so for at least several
months (maybe even a year, I don't know the stats) after moving from
the Bay Area to the LA area.

She didn't seem to be the type to be "driven off" by anybody. 

She may be wrapped-up in other things, or just moving on from the old
habit of posting to food groups, whatever.

Arnie posts to ba.food, too, and not just as cross-posts from la.eats.
I don't see anyone talking about "leaving."

However, la.eats is indeed a very dead group. But almost certainly not
because of Arnie. There just aren't many contributors--haven't been for
many years--and the group seems to have fallen below critical mass.
Lots of possible reasons. For one thing, the generation younger than
about 35 seems to have little idea that Usenet even exists....if they
cite a newsgroup, they usually call it a "Google Group" (I've even had
numbskulls e-mail to me saying they have filed a complaint with Google
over something I wrote on "Google Groups"!).

For another thing, the rise of Web-based review sites, such as Yelp.com
and Chow.com. I usually go to them when thinking about a restaurant to
try in some particular town. Much better than asking a question in
ba.food and getting a few semi-on-topic replies...or asking in la.eats
and getting zero replies (because of the critical mass issue). (Plus
the obligatory comment from Arnie along the lines of "Sweet cheeks,
when did Santa Monica become part of L.A.? This is "la.eats," not
"santa-monica.eats! Go create your own group on one of the internets."

Ba.food seems to limp along because some people seem to know each
other, some people like to have a place to express their opinions about
restaurant trends, paper bags vs. plastic, and so on. 

This knowledge of other posters is almost completely absent on Yelp and
Chow, by the way, inasmuch as most of the reviewers have "handles"
along the lines of "tacogirl139" and "PacManDudarino." Hard to
establish _any_ sense of community. For example, I know you live in
southern Oregon and once lived in LA....I don't know a thing about
"tacogirl139," nor do I want to. Still, looking at Yelp and typing in
the name of a town, like "Manhattan Beach" (ObArnie: "Sweet
cheeks...."), and the name of a restaurant, I can quickly scan the 25
or 31 comments, etc., and get some idea of what to expect.

The other problem is that some areas--the major foodie cities--are
well-covered on Yelp and Chow, but small towns are bereft of entries.
It's be interesting for you to tell us what you find when you enter
your own Oregon town into Yelp or Chow and see what people have
written. 

Of course, Usenet is even worse for small towns, with nary a posting
even in the Usenet archives (excuse me, the "Google Groups search
engine") for tens of thousands of small towns and the restaurants
therein.

--Tim May