A public apology to Richard, Cathy Z and Sandra for my comments on Epi...

M

michael-in-phoenix

Well-known member
...when the "change" happened last October. I was dismayed that many regulars were not willing to stick around and give epi a chance.

It's obvious that I was the fool -with Epi editor Tanya Steel playing me for all I was worth.

What Epi has done is exactly what you folks pointed out when you called them out for killing the Swap. I held out hope that all the assurances that they actually "cared" about the swap and the incredible body of work compiled on that site by swappers over the previous ten years would be fleshed out in the tweaks that would come over the next few weeks and months.

But NO, their promises were empty. They DID kill the Swap, and I am sorry if I offended any of you with my comments.

This apology is sincere, and long overdue.

Michael

 
Michael: Such are the ways of "upgrading". . .

Someone got a wild hair up their a$$ and decided to make Epi look more modern and updated. Idiots.

I have tried to use that format, but it is just soooo much slower as I am stuck on dial-up. I really don't think anyone though about what an impact it would have on their board communities, nor did they think of the impact on the functionality of their site.

I don't even want to search for recipes there as I don't want to waste so much time putting them back into recipe format--which they should have been in, since they were in that format in the Classic Swap.

Idiots. Stupid idiots.

 
No need to worry Michael...Cathy, Sandra and I...

were the original ringleaders over at Epi and we were just carrying on true to form. : )

 
Thanks Richard. I was so hopeful for improvements, since there wasn'

(wasn't) any viable alternatives to Gail's at the time. Thankfully, Mimi and FK (and neener) stepped up to fill the void.

Epi hasn't cared since the inception of the site, and they certainly held true to form as well.

Michael

 
I totally agree with you

on Epi not caring. I truly don't think they knew what they had there and the potential. When all the old-timers started setting up cross-country foodie parties, we contact Epi, thinking they would really get behind it, after all, isn't that the purpose of their magazines and Web site? To increase the enjoyment of people getting together over food? They never responded to one email that I know of and never commented on any of the increasingly numerous Swap foodie gatherings. What an amazing human interest story it could have been for them. Not to mention the little laboratory to measure and guage foodie trends, test the reception of new recipes before they hit their magazines (and let's face it, there have been many a dud in the pages of Gourmet and Bon A mags over the years), and just see what was important to an audience of their customers. It should be documented in a Web business text as a case study on how to do everything wrong.

But in the end, it was their arrogance that caused me to leave.

 
As a subscriber to Gourmet pretty steadily since the 60's, I finally concluded that they have become

a shill for the restaurant and hotel industry and couldn't care less about us at home. I finally had enough with the Reichel (?) character and did not renew. They seem the same way with Gail's -- We are not their "market segment".

 
aajay, I too let my 40+ year long subscription to Gourmet expire

even twenty years ago it was still a very worthwhile, fabulous magazine. Ten years ago I started to notice more ads than magazine content and too much trendy stuff with arrogant commentary. I kept the subscription hoping the next editor might take it back to its glory days but I truly do not like the direction Ruth Reichel took and let it expire. I still like Bon Appetit even though it sometimes makes me scratch my head.

I suspect, behind the scenes, magazines are really struggling because of the internet.

 
I feel bad, too...

...because I posted several messages asking folks just to give the new format a chance. (Thanks for not holding that against me!) I did like some of the features, but they amount to nothing if the community doesn't want them. Sometimes, just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. (And I find it really hard to believe that they user-tested all those changes.)

I've been online since 1991, before search engines when people built their sites and included lists of other sites you could go to and it was wild and fun. This is the first instance I've seen where the creators of a site really didn't listen to the users, to the detriment of the product. I felt it was such a betrayal of what the Internet represents, or at least what it used to represent. Perhaps it doesn't anymore. This is what happens when business needs trumps community.

At least we're all here now with a fresh start.

Amanda/Illinois

 
No worries Michael!

You are ever the optimist, and that's great!

Too bad that all that "over there" is gone, but you know what? The fact we all turned up here and kept is going makes it so much better!

EPI WHO?

 
Well put Amanda - and I will post a private message sent to me by Epi inside here...

To: DawnNYS
From: epicuriouseditor
Sent: Feb 2, 2006 2:57 PM

Hi, Dawn. Your last message was to Tanya Steel and I'm an editor at Epicurious, so I forwarded it on to her. However, I know she is swamped, so I suspect she hasn't had a chance to draft a reply yet.

I think this is how Swap will be going forward. I passed on everyone's comments, but because the company's using the same forum software across all its sites, I think there were tough technical restrictions.

I hope you'll stay with us -- while sadly we lost a number of regulars, we have picked up some enthusiastic new Swappers, and I'm happy to see plenty of recipe exchanging going on.

Thanks for taking the time to write, and I'm sorry for the delay in replying.

Epi editor


To which I replied:
Private Message: One more question...
To: epicuriouseditor
From: DawnNYS
Sent: Feb 4, 2006 2:46 PM

Thanks for replying. Last month you indicated that you had "changes to come" - am I right to assume that from your reply to me, there will be no further changes at all? The current posts being bumped to the top - you did stop that in the test swap, so it can be done, technically. Is it your decision not to have the posts be stationary?

(no answer)
my original message to them:

Private Message: Hello
To: epicuriouseditor
From: DawnNYS
Sent: Jan 26, 2006 1:20 PM

Hi Tanya,

So does this mean no more changes/updates/changes in format to the current "Epicurious Recipe Swap" forum then? You may have noticed a lot of discussion is gone from the board (about our displeasures) but really, that it only because most of the regulars have moved to finerkitchens.com

Not being impolite, just wondering if you are still thinking about making any of the requested changes. A lot of us were kind of sticking around because we were told by you that technical changes were in process, but that you didn't want to announce exactly when they would take place until you had a firm date.

Hope so, I'd love to return on a more regular basis.

Dawn

 
I sent a post to Epi on November 18th and asked

them a lot of questions about the changes.
I also told them I hate the new format because it is not very user-friendly, IMHO.

I never heard back from them...!

 
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