Suggestion to the Contingent

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (Rick F.)

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:17:06 GMT

Thanks to all who explained this to me. Much as I'd love to get back to the Chicago area, I doubt it will happen any time soon. I'm sure I'd be as welcome there as others are to the Glee Club!

I'm not criticising any person or organization for having or using a Facebook [or other social networking] page. I just don't use it myself.

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (X1)

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:34:06 GMT

Furthermore, Roadfood.com has a Facebook page, as well as a Facebook page for Roadfood Festival. Gonna criticize Roadfood for that, too, or is it only reserved for The Contingent?

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (X1)

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:32:42 GMT

Rick F.

I'm sure I missed something, but I've been hanging around Roadfood for a while now and have no idea who "the Contingent" is, and I certainly have no need to look beyond Roadfood for information on gatherings. I was talked into creating a Facebook account. I never do anything with it, nor do I want to. Roadfood ain't broke, and I don't want to fix it.

Again, I don't know why people aren't getting this, but The Contingent Facebook page is NOT replacing Roadfood.com. It's simply a supplement, as well as a way to post pictures and communicate with lurkers, occasional posters, and people who hang out more often on Facebook than Roadfood. It's also open to whomever wants to join. If you want to join in, great! If you don't, that's fine too. Nobody's twisting your arm. Relax.

And the fact that you, living in LA, don't know about The Contingent, a group based in WI and IL, is understandable. Then again, I've heard of The Glee Club, and I'm not in that part of the country. It's what you pay attention to, which goes back to why we created a Facebook page for The Contingent.

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (X1)

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:25:37 GMT

But, unless you know what to look for, you miss threads - especially when they're in the wrong forum, or have a title that really doesn't give a clue to what the content of a thread is. Or, if you're not on 24/7. The casual lurker or poster, who only goes on Roadfood.com once a day, or even once a week, will miss things.

I get notifications, sure, but only to threads I've already posted in. If I haven't seen/posted in it, it might as well be invisible. I can't subscribe to what I don't know about.

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (Stephen Rushmore Jr.)

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:25:52 GMT

Are you guys are aware that you can subscribe to threads and receive daily, instant, weekly etc. updates? That gives you pretty much the same functionality (better, IMHO) than Facebook etc. for collaborating and notifying people on events. Give it a shot - I do it with other web sites like AVSForum.com

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (BuddyRoadhouse)

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:18:46 GMT

Rick, The Contingent is the name chosen by a group of Roadfooders from the Chicago/Milwaukee area. We get together frequently to explore and share the many Roadfood offerings in and around both cities.

Mayor Al suggested that we should come up with a name for our group, not unlike The Glee Club group that meets up frequently. Since many of our Eat & Greet threads were addressed to "The Milwaukee/Chicago Contingent" we decided, after much discussion, to shorten that moniker to simply, "The Contingent" .

In addition to our core members, who are all Chicago and Milwaukee area residents, we have a handful of honorary members from other parts of the country who have joined us for some of our tours. Among our honorary members are buffetbuster, The Travelin' Man, wanderingjew, Mayor Al, and Buffalo Tarheel (sorry if I missed anyone. Feel free to correct me).

Rick, you or any other interested parties would be welcome to become honorary members. Just keep your eyes on the Eat & Greet forum for the next Contingent get together. We post full information on the thread as to where we will meet and where we'll be going for the day. Just drag yourself up for the next tour and you're in! At the moment I am working on a warmer weather tour of Chicago that will focus primarily, but not exclusively on places where we'll eat "ala trunk" (my favorite kind of dining!).

This discussion regarding Facebook relates to some of our members who wish to have an additional outlet for dispensing information and attracting new members to Roadfood in general and to our group in particular.

Hope we'll see you on our next run!

Buddy

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (Rick F.)

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:50:15 GMT

I'm sure I missed something, but I've been hanging around Roadfood for a while now and have no idea who "the Contingent" is, and I certainly have no need to look beyond Roadfood for information on gatherings. I was talked into creating a Facebook account. I never do anything with it, nor do I want to. Roadfood ain't broke, and I don't want to fix it.

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (Tastytoo)

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:18:39 GMT

I'd rather use roadfood.com to learn about the eats and greets. I don't need to log into MORE sites and get less work done!

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (Matt Gleason)

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:25:39 GMT

I created a Facebook page called Hot Dog Nation. Hot Dog Nation originally started here with the annual New Jersey Hot Dog Tours. The ability to create and post organized events is very useful and they can be set as private or open to thousands of Facebook users. Please check us out both here, there and everywhere we can post. Variety isn't just for food..

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (ChuckL50)

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 20:44:29 GMT

First, let me say that I sincerely hope that all is well with you now, and that you are fully on the road to recovery and on that road to some great eats.

While I believe that your analysis of the current social web is at least 2 yrs out of date, and could have easily been written by John C. Dvorak, (and then later on refuted by him as well), let's get to the actual issues here.
Your argument that it's "either or" is a false dichotomy. There is no split other than some Roadfood forum users do not want to use Facebook. So be it. The purpose as stated clearly is not to supplant Roadfood.com in any way. It is to draw in more users. It is to provide the Contingent members who are not regular visitors to this site an early warning that something is happening here. And, just so you know, there are a great many who enjoy our Eat and Greets, but as of now don't participate in this forum. I know this by the hit count I have whenever I use Twitter/Twitpic/Facebook to document our Eat and Greets. Hopefully they will now. By your logic Roadfood.com itself should take down it's own Facebook fan pages. This site will continue to be the "home" of the Contingent since this is, as you correctly stated, were it started, and many of it's lead members do not use Facebook. There are already people on the Facebook page who are not here yet, but they will be. Again, all postings on Facebook point back to here. The purpose is more frequent communication among all of us, not just the usual suspects.
And on a side note, you mentioned the use of Yahoo groups. Folks who know me IRL would agree that I'm pretty good at spotting trends, so I'll say for the record that I expect Yahoo.com to join Netscape.com and AOL.com in the "remember when" category in the next 5 years.

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (Davydd)

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 17:19:29 GMT

ChuckL50

And now this: The Contingent

I don't think my comments were off. Like I said I suspect I was an earlier adopter of Facebook and Twitter before most here in Roadfood.com. But my premise. The Contingent was coined here on Roadfood.com and has had some success with gatherings. But now there are two Contingents, one here and one on Facebook. Are the members of the Facebook Contingent regular contributors here? Will the Roadfood.com Contingent be regular contributors to Facebook? Already that seems to be a split as discussed in this thread. Now which Contingent is the official one? Which one takes the lead? Will it eventually split off into two distinct groups? Will dividing weaken one or the other or both? Will people get frustrated with conflicting information and messages between the two? Those are all real questions. As I mentioned over the past year I've been watching this happen with the RV.net Class B RV rally attenders.

One problem with Facebook Groups and Fan Pages I see are they are too passive. Yahoo Groups seem to generate more message interactivity as they seem more like the modern version of Usenet Newsgroups. People join Facebook groups but they don't participate as actively in message boards as they do on Roadfood.com. For sure there are just as many passive people on Roadfood.com reading boards here but the posters are the "actors" that provide the action. Actors don't seem to emerge on Facebook as readily. I think the shotgun anarchy like posting to group walls rather than the discussion boards contributes to the passivity. Notifications lack as well on Facebook.

I did mention the model may eventually supplant dedicated forums like Roadfood.com but right now Facebook is a friend driven system and the action takes place on peoples' individual Walls and the Home page that consolidates comments. That alone is an interesting dynamic because everyone's Home page is different than others. It is quite an interweb of intrigue. My wife's is entirely different than mine though we share numerous friends. When I had my little episode three weeks ago my wife wrote on her Wall to update our common friends. Upon waking and having the breathing tube removed I had to prove with my heart stopped for several hours that I still had some cognitive sense to instruct her how to post to my wall to inform the rest of my friends.

Facebook is in its infancy as well. It keeps changing and not always for the better. I think one of its downfalls may eventually be lack of control by individuals being dependent on Facebook's whims. Facebook quickly supplanted the early leader MySpace. Many think Twitter is more the future than Facebook. My problem with Twitter is too much babble and too many people that can't present coherently in 140 characters. So I follow very few and rely more on search or periodically go to the profile of an individual (rather than follow) to find things of interest to me when I feel like it.

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (ChuckL50)

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 15:17:36 GMT

Davydd,
I'm looking forward to meeting you at one of the Contingent's Eat and Greets soon. We can sit around and reminiscence about the good ol' days of UUNET, Usenet newsgroups, and the joys of setting up code strings in the registers on 300 baud acoustic coupled modems.

But to the present (and future). I'm afraid that your analysis of Web 2.0 or the social web pretty much reminds me of the response by many dead tree newspaper owners to the demand for online news. And we all know how well that's playing out now.

And with all due respect, I believe that you've completely missed the point. As any SEO worth his non-existent profession will tell you, it's all about driving the traffic. Having additional PM capability greatly improves the communication within this tiny walled garden. And for that I'm thankful. I am not one of the folks who sign on and stay on here all day. Many times I've been emailed by others here asking me why I haven't responded to something. It's because I didn't know about it. Now I will.

Even the good folks who are behind this recognize the reality of today's web. Hence the following: Roadfood or Roadfood New Orleans or even Roadfood123 and Kathrinecurry .

And now this: The Contingent

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (ChuckL50)

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 14:45:10 GMT

boyardee65

I don't have any social networking accounts nor do I want to have any, so this is a no brainer for me. Count me out. I would much rather read about it here on the original site.

Don't worry Dave. I'm not sure why the "totally unclear on the concept" response has been posted by some here. There is not now, nor has there ever been a movement by anyone to break away from Roadfood.com. This has always been, as far as I can tell, about communicating in a timely manner with each other when something new is happening, as well as bringing new folks in. Everything points back to Roadfood.com.

The older generation (including me) have a hard time navigating the WEB as it is. To add another site that I have to visit just to get info on meet and greets seems like overkill to me.

As always, J.M.H.O.

David O.

I wonder how old Jobs, Woz, and Gates are?
Like I said, nothing has changed. It will all still be here.
Enjoy!
Chuck

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (boyardee65)

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 05:12:11 GMT

I don't have any social networking accounts nor do I want to have any, so this is a no brainer for me. Count me out. I would much rather read about it here on the original site.
The older generation (including me) have a hard time navigating the WEB as it is. To add another site that I have to visit just to get info on meet and greets seems like overkill to me.

As always, J.M.H.O.

David O.

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (catosaurus)

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 23:56:56 GMT

I like the idea of a social networking site dedicated to informing folks of local eat-and-greet opportunities. I'm in!

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (Davydd)

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 23:41:33 GMT

X1

Also, Davydd - promoting growth and diversity is EXACTLY what social media is all about. It doesn't work? Please cite your information source for that statement.

I'm no spring chicken when it comes to social media. I've been online for a good 26 years now promoting all kinds of interaction including managing the nation's busiest (at one time) online message board and chat rooms with one or two moderated chats nightly on America Online at its inception in 1988. I've been on Facebook and Twitter since 2007. I've always been an early embracer and had started two groups on Facebook, Pursuing Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches with 466 members and BEE Social Group (Class B RVs) with 34 members that pretty much know each other through RV rallies and socials around the country.

The problem with Facebook is that groups with a narrow focus are extremely difficult to just happen upon and even once formed seem to have little interactivity because people remain strangers boxed into a narrow topic unless they are friends from outside Facebook. The Contingent formed here in Roadfood.com with three commonalities. The first is Roadfood.com brought them here (a common interest). The second is members found more familiar discussion commonality mainly because of region. The third is Contingent members got to know each other on a more personal basis not through any single contingent thread but a body of threads throughout Roadfood.com on a variety of topics. That last is more the cement bond than the first two and probably created the comfort and desire to get together.

Getting back to that Class B RV group. Much like Roadfood.com, RV.net has a Class B forum. It was there that people got to know each other and rallies spontaneously got started. People bonded through a variety of topics in the B forum. In RV.net's wisdom they decided that in the future if one wanted to organize a rally they could no longer do it in the Class B forum but had to do it in a separate Rallies and Shows forum. That immediately killed the organization and spontaneity. So now it is dispersed. One group set up a dedicated web site that was informational only. Another group set up a web site in Yahoo Groups and I volunteered to set up a Facebook group amongst those that met at a social in Louisiana last year. They are all deader than a door nail.

The Contingent is similar to what I observed in the B forum as is the other spontaneous gatherings that have been occurring with Roadfooders along with the more officially sponsored Roadfood.com gatherings. It happens here and if you want it to remain active and growing the focus should remain primarily here. If you disperse you end up with dispersed groups of people with no unity. Facebook has its place and may one day wipe out these traditional message board based forums but has too much uncertainty and oddly anonymity right now. It has been great for friends from before Facebook but is not a social media that seems to create new friends as has Roadfood.com. I have friends on Facebook from Roadfood.com here whom I have never met but feel very comfortable in being friends. In the PPTS group I formed with 466 members I don't think I have yet to cultivate a new friend from it that I didn't know from outside Facebook.

That's my opinion of course and my basis for that opinion.

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (irisarbor)

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 22:20:48 GMT

I think increasing the PM limit will help alot, because even if you have to send 2 PM's with a limit of 25, we should be able to cover the entire Contingent.

I have no problem with facebook-(as I am obviously there, ) but it does get a little complicated for some...

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (X1)

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 09:45:10 GMT

Thanks, MikeS!
That'll help things along a bit!

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (MikeS.)

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 09:36:19 GMT

Ask and you shall receive, well sort of sometimes...

The PM limit has been increased to 25. No e-mail option though.

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (X1)

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 09:10:10 GMT

Wonderful to hear!
I hope you're doing OK.

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (ChiTownDiner)

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 09:04:57 GMT

X1 -

Thanks! I've been out of touch the last few weeks but am back now. I did Roadfood Facebook page and will check out the NO festival page. I'm getting it...we might just be able to teach this old dog a few new tricks!

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (X1)

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 08:44:39 GMT

That's not a problem, ChiTownDiner. One of us will help anyone that needs it.

You have a FB page - are you a member of Roadfood's Facebook page, and their New Orleans Festival page? (I think you are, but I don't know for sure)

If so - then you would join The Roadfood Contingent page (when it exists) exactly as how you did it for the other Roadfood pages. Once you're joined, you'll see notifications of updates, whenever there are any. If there is an announcement, it'll be posted to the page, as well as e-mailed to all members of the group. Any pertinent information will then also be posted to a thread here. Plus you can post there, too, to respond to other members, just as you would in a thread here.

The key is to communicate with as many ppl as possible, and make sure to cross-post, so everyone will see everything. We don't want to exclude anyone - just the opposite.

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (ChiTownDiner)

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 08:38:51 GMT

We'll need a How To for those of us less experienced. i have a Facebook page. What's next?

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (X1)

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 08:36:55 GMT

BTW - Mich was never suggesting abandoning Roadfood.com for a new site altogether. I don't know how some of you got that.
It IS possible to be a member of more than one site. His page will simply be a supplement to Roadfood.com, not the only resource.

Also, Davydd - promoting growth and diversity is EXACTLY what social media is all about. It doesn't work? Please cite your information source for that statement.

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (X1)

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 07:26:12 GMT

Uh, despite what I said earlier, I AM going to have to disagree with a few people here about something - social media IS important for spreading the word and getting the word out there.

Do you think the brat taste-off interested people because they happened to stumble upon that particular thread, or on a Google search?
The answer is NO. The interest came because several of us posted about it on Twitter and Facebook, using that thread as a link to what we were talking about. I, myself, directly messaged a Journal employee with the information and thread links. Unfortunately, it was too late, otherwise we'd have had a news crew there, too. Due to Twitter, not Google. Not Roadfood.com

The Milwaukee ethnic grocery Meet & Eat was followed along vicariously by people on Twitter and Facebook, as was the WTMJ4 day. WTMJ4 did a story on us AND posted the story and video on their website, which led still more people here, and I recently wrote up a review of McBob's for Examiner.com, using links to here and to WTMJ4, which has generated even more interest. Not Google. Not just stumbling upon Roadfood.com

I am going to go out on a limb and say that WTMJ4 "discovered" Roadfood.com in part by the postings we've done on Twitter. We can ask Maureen, but I'm pretty sure I know the answer already, since I follow a majority of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and WTMJ4 employees, and they follow me back on Twitter.

Furthermore, interest in Roadfood's New Orleans Festival has increased because of the Facebook fan pages (not because of the practically-dead thread here), as well as me and others posting about it on Facebook and Twitter. Even Michael Stern is on Twitter now. In fact, the Facebook Festival page is FAR more active than the thread here on Roadfood.

The ones saying "we only need this site" and are writing off social media are sadly underinformed. Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Brightkite, Foursquare and many other sites are ways of helping, not hurting, this site, The Contigent, and Roadfood.com's presence, both online and in the meat world.

Mich - I've changed my mind. I'll join a FB group (not a Yahoo group, tho - gotta draw the line somewhere!). It doesn't mean that I'll stop coming here, but it'll be nice to have yet another way to reach everyone. Since I'm already on Facebook, it won't be another new site for me to visit - I'll just sign up for it and wait for the notification emails to roll in. There is no reason we can't cross-post or cross-communicate. I thought one of our unofficial mottoes was "The more the merrier". In using social media, we'll have much more.

And to Buddy and Jim, your family members both use Facebook - you, specifically, won't have to join any group or sign up for FB - I'm sure they'll join the group themselves and keep you informed, in addition to whatever's posted here on Roadfood.

My objection was to just one more site I'd have to visit. The other objections I'm reading seem to be just uninformed, centrist, anti-social networking phobia, with no grounds for the fear.

If someone wants to join the FB group, that's great. If they want to stay only on Roadfood.com, that's fine, too. If they join both, that's ideal. The people who are members of both will cross post, as a way to inform everyone. FB automatically notifies you of new activity on the page, plus has everyone's e-mail address, whereas with Roadfood, you actually have to subscribe or post in each individual thread to get notifications. If you miss thread, you missed the information. A lot of people don't post here on Roadfood hourly, daily or even weekly (I know that's hard to believe for the RF site addicts). That's a lot of threads to be overlooked for the occasional poster or lurker. FB also does not limit how many emails can be sent, and to how many members.

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (BuddyRoadhouse)

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 02:12:01 GMT

Tony Bad

BuddyRoadhouse

Mike, thank you for taking action on this matter. Just wondering though, why is there any limit on the number of PM addressees in the first place? Is this a limitation of the website's operating system or just an arbitrary number?

Any help you can give us regarding this issue is appreciated.

Buddy

Not 100% sure, but I am guessing that the limit is intended to make the system less useful for mass spam attacks. If there ius no limit, one could, in theory, send a spam PM to a lot of people in short order.

If that's the case, then there's an easy solution: Tie in the number of people a member can PM at one time to that member's longevity and "productivity". In other words, the longer you're a member and/or the more posts you have, the more people you can send PMs to at one time. Someone who is looking to use the site as a launching pad for junk email is not going to spend months and years posting legitimate comments, building a reputation among our online community, only to send a one time mass mailing for Cialis and get kicked off forever.

I won't be presumptuous enough to suggest the specifics of how this system might work, although if asked I'd be happy to contribute.

Buddy

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (Davydd)

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 10:54:50 GMT

My advice. Don't overthink this. Forget Facebook. Forget Yahoo Groups. Forget email. They don't work and they don't promote growth and diversity. The group spontaneously created itself right here in the Roadfood.com forums and that is where it belongs because it is the interactivity of its members not just through a specific thread but the whole body of the forum that created the bond.

Buddy hit it on the head. The last eat and greet got started in the wrong place and was missed by a few. A forum is setup for eat and greets. It just needs more diligence and awareness to guide it to the right location next time so it doesn't happen again.

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (quijote)

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 10:44:14 GMT

Even though I have a Facebook page, I'm not very active on the site (and I'm happy with that). A Facebook group might be a good way to issue supplementary messages and reminders about Roadfood eat-n-greets, but I would just rather come to the Roadfood site for the primary info.

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (Tony Bad)

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 08:54:04 GMT

BuddyRoadhouse

Mike, thank you for taking action on this matter. Just wondering though, why is there any limit on the number of PM addressees in the first place? Is this a limitation of the website's operating system or just an arbitrary number?

Any help you can give us regarding this issue is appreciated.

Buddy

Not 100% sure, but I am guessing that the limit is intended to make the system less useful for mass spam attacks. If there ius no limit, one could, in theory, send a spam PM to a lot of people in short order.

Re:Suggestion to the Contingent (BuddyRoadhouse)

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 03:21:47 GMT

Mike, thank you for taking action on this matter. Just wondering though, why is there any limit on the number of PM addressees in the first place? Is this a limitation of the website's operating system or just an arbitrary number?

Any help you can give us regarding this issue is appreciated.

Buddy