Not the Original Intent...

It's sort of interesting to see what Roadfood.com has morphed into over the past couple of years. From a well intended forum that would allow for the exchange of ideas regarding "roadfood" and the treasured restaurants which serve same throughout the country, we are now inundated with every subject possible. It pains me when I sign onto the site and see five out of nine possible recent active forum postings are contained under "Professional Hot Dog Vendors". Why? I would venture a guess that there are active users of this site who sell food products other than hot dogs, who in the same vein should have their own set of forums. Perhaps "Professional Bakers" or "Professional Cheese Purveyors". Already contained on this site is a forum for restaurant professionals, which could easily contain all of the various groups that wish to post pertinent information. Please do not take this missive as a dislike for those who sell hot dogs. I am one of their best customers as can be attested to by my waistline and cholesterol level. Yes, I realize that the argument could be made that providing a separate and distinct forum for any professional group serves to better the experience all of us as their customers would share in. Yet, I don't think it was the original intent of the founders of this site to provide dedicated space so that we may know what individuals may be doing to increase their income flow. Nor, IMHO do we need that same dedicated space to be informed of number of customers or ambient air temperature that one or another vendor may be experiencing on a particular day.
 
Just my 2-cents worth.

I solved my complaints. I go to the home page but once in the morning to check out the restaurant of the day and the digest entries and then I go to the forums. I simply use "Posts Since Last Visit" and read from there. The Restaurant Professionals, Hot Dog Vendors and Fast Food forums don't exist for me. I edited them out so I don't see them. It is that simple.

If you rely on the home page for new postings you are wasting your time. First of all they aren't edited out there as I desire and you are only seeing a few of many new postings. But you are right. This morning when I checked the Restaurant Professionals and Hot Dog Vendor forums did dominate that abbreviated home page listing of new posts and it might give an new forum user a distorted impression.

It's about the money the website can pull in, luvstoeat, not whether
we embrace it. The hotdog vendors generate google hits which generates $$$. It ain't our website.

Has it also occured to you that it might be the economy? Indies are going out of business left and right or reducing the quality of their fare in an attempt to stay solvent. Post Baby Boomers aren't for the most part interested in Roadfood or non-mainstream dining. Take for example my spouse and myself, both professionals who are in that golden demographic in our mid 50's for fine dining. We used to make an attempt to dine out at least once a week and seek out new and different restaurants. We can't afford to do that now. Like many others in our situation, our investments for the future are gone or greatly reduced, medical co-pay expenses are mounting, and we have to now vigorously protect our nest egg. We're comfortable and owe nothing, but with an uncertain future and now reduced to literally working just for our insurance, we can no longer afford the lifestyle. I wasn't crazy about the Hot Doggers being on the board either, but I have to now give them credit trying to suppliment their incomes or pensions in these tough times. Then there's another issue that some of you may relate to. Most of us in the demographic that this board was originally conceived for aren't getting any younger. Health concerns, decreasing mobility, and increasingly being responsible for eldercare, make it difficult to make a weekend or even a day of seeking out or discovering new places. There was no thought of hopping into the car and driving 90 miles to try a place we heard about and stay overnight in a motel savoring a freedom we didn't have as parents. Can't do that any longer being responsible for my 84 y/o "son". There's a small window once the kids are out of the house and the realities of entering into our senior years with limitations closing in around us that seeking out the pleasures of Roadfood are possible.

Perhaps there are those of you that have the disposable financial resources and freedom to still do this.
 
Increasingly, more and more of us do not. 

Luvs, Davy has the right advice. Just edit out the topics the you have no interest in. I'm interested in everything here though. :~)
Joe

DawnT, you really spelled it out for me. It isn't my seniors that limit my travel but my spouse.

It's good to see you posting, luvs. We missed you in Chicago last summer & spring.

I'd like to thank all of you who responded to my post. As you can tell by the relatively small number under my "name", I am but an occasional "post-er" to Roadfood even though I've belnged for 4+ years. As such I truly did not realize that I could edit which topics I see or don't see. Although, as PapaJoe referred to, everything here is interesting. Dawn, your response and thoughts were well presented. In that I am the ripe old age of 54 with two daughters in their 20's and parents in their 80's, I can relate to all you said. I truly have no argument with those "Hot Dog Professionals" who belong to this forum. I am a great believer in the free enterprise system, and truly respect those who seek alternative income streams. My observations were based more on the number of postings which occured and the fact that they (at times) seem to greatly outnumber the more "mainstream" Roadfood postings. Now that I've been educated as to how to avoid these, it appears my argument may be moot. Again, Thanks again to all of you for taking the time to both read and answer.

Thanks for the shout-out Stricken...I've missed getting together with all of you, and truly am planning to re-join the group at the next event!!!!

It can be all interesting as PapaJoe says but when you try to husband your time online and have narrowed interest it does pay maybe to customize your experience especially when the forum software allows you to. I find sometimes it can lower your blood pressure.

Kudos to Dawn T for an excellent retort to the original poster. The summary is almost identical to my wife and I's situation, we're in our late 50s and have both retired from our jobs we each were at for over 30 years. Our children are both married and are raising our grandchildren under fairly comfy home situations=especially considering the current economic crunch times here in CA. Whereas we would often do what Dawn described 8 to 10 to 12 times a year, we now only can afford to do it 2-3 times a year and eat out only once a week as opposed to twice a week we've done in the past

She is also on point about Baby Boomers/Greatest Generation and the post genrations including the milennials

There was a thread in the Professionals Forum back in November about putting up some sort of "divider" between the professionals and the people who are here to discuss EATING at roadfood places:
http://www.roadfood.com/Forums/The-Future-of-the-Professionals-Forum-m554583.aspx

The management of this web site is already exploring ways to make it easier to navigate the forums.

What I do find lacking is documentation for the board software. I sure we still have many members like Luvstoeat are not familiar with the Control Panel of this message board. The rating system is not explained for those sections that have them.

But after exploring a bit, I found that this software can be made to do just about what the old software did.

I have never really been all that exercised about the hot dog vendor posts. I don't read them, I generally avoid recipes and cooking threads. Thanks to all who contribute.

joined this website about the same time as LuvstoEat and some others who've posted here.  This website is not the same as it was in the past but I think the people making the changes have done so in an effort to improve it and to accommodate the requests of those who've asked for the hot dog vendors or the chain forums, etc.
They've also made it possible for those places to be avoided( as if avoiding them was not easy enough). 
Roadfood is still a good resource for all the things we like it for, and maybe then some.

Hmmm, although I don't often read the professional or hot dog posts, I do occasionally.  I even respond to some of the posts.

I like seeing the other side of the business.  I find them interesting.

I've also corresponded with new people that don't often post on the "Roadfood" type of thread.  It's nice being able to make all of these different backgrounded people.

I don't have to block them to not read them if I don't feel like it.

I just find that every forum has interesting reading at different times.