Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Hello all!
I don't know how many of you know that I had a post deleted at the Cooks Board. They sent me this note:

From: CooksEditor
Sent: 12/14/2008 8:25 PM
Hi-

I deleted the unhappy people poll you started. While we invite people to email us with their issues with the new site, having a post devoted to bashing it is inappropriate.

That said, we are working to rectify the new site's problems.

Again, please email me (mari.levine@americastestkitchen.com) or our customer service representative Jacqui Valerio (jacqui.valerio@americastestkitchen.com) regarding issues with the new site.

Thanks,
Mari



WIth the holidays and all and the short work weeks, I have been busy here at work and not checking in. I had quite a few PMs from people wanting to know why my Angry People Poll Topic was deleted. I responded to them privately and just decided to post it on the board. Well that didn't happen. This is the response I got from CI.

Hi Todd,

Your original post may not have intentionally encouraged bashing the new CI site, but it certainly lent itself to such. We should have deleted it well before we did, but while we were working on the site's imperfections, it got lost in the shuffle.

Also, private messages are meant to be between the sender and recipient. I try to always privately message people who are having a post deleted. If I had wanted it on the boards I would have posted it on one.

Having said that, I can appreciate you having enough interest in CI to let us know your qualms with it. If you have any other comments or concerns regarding the new site, please email Jacqui Valerio (jacqui.valerio@americastestkitchen.com).

Mari


I wish I had saved a copy of my post that didn't make it to the board. I just wonder if they are screening private messages also.

Todd

And just today, I had three polite but pointed post deleted that basically said "CI's new approach to dealing with their problems on the board was to delete any posts that brought attention to those issues."
Mari dealt with it by (what else) deleting my posts.

They forget who pays the bills around there I guess....

Same with me too. I had two posts deleted and they were mild, like most of mine usually are. They are getting so very sensitive, it's unbelievable.

Frank,

We delete posts while we work on the issues they bring up. Just because they're deleted doesn't mean their content is lost on us.

And the bulletin board company is a different entity altogether, not handled by ATK.

Mari

--------------
From: Da Bull Man
Sent: 1/7/2009 8:20 AM
Fritz,

CI has many, many, MAJOR problems with this Bulletin Board! The advanced search function is inoperable also.

You will find that rather than addressing the problems in any meaningful way CI usually chooses to delete posts that highlight their failings.

Not a good way to run a business in my opinion...but who am I??

_____________________________________________________________

Above is my post, and CI's response, after deleting it. What am I missing here??

It's a shame that they wasted money on the website like they did

Well I don't believe that is true for one minute! I know the bulletin board was written and developed by someone else but CI is administering it!

As for private messages on any bulletin board: NEVER EVER believe they are private. I have personal experience (as an admin & mod) on another php based board where the top admin (read board owner) WAS reading private messages and outed themselves by bringing up a topic that was "private" and that they should NOT have known. NOTHING you write is ever **PRIVATE** any more unless it's in your paper journal which you keep under lock and key

As for CI, they have been overbearing in the push for cash and it's only getting worse. Likely it's increased because of the economy. Whatever the reason, it's unseemly and definitely offputting.

What they seem to forget is that you can't sell to people who dislike your methods of business. My own disklikes: transparency of motive for $ rather than joy in their own product/service and apparent intent to confuse and confound with admin/sales tactics for the purpose of driving up sales. I have little patience for someone who wants me to sign up with my credit card in order to take a "trial" subscription which I may "cancel" because I am wise enough to know they are only trying to lead me down the garden path. I'm not going and it makes any further sales or garden path attempts that much more of a glaring affront to me in the future.

As for the major problems with their site, I can't believe they are in such a dream world that they believe people should pay for the privilege of the site. Personally, I've never subscribed to the site but do use the current episode information. I can see subscribing for some of the archived tests and reference info for some - it would be of value. But not now. Even that current episode info that is supposed to be free for viewers is not reliably accessible at this point, a nagging problem that makes one want to quit all visits to the site. I can't imagine how anyone who's paid for web is not screaming bloody murder to them and the BBB right now.

edit: whoops, I meant **PRIVATE** in the 2nd paragraph...

All,

BCP management has never understood the Internet or the Web, and their ignorance is profound enough that they don't even know who to hire or when they were screwing up. Businesswise, it would probably have been a better idea for them never to have had a web site, but then we would never have met, so it's not all bad. For that matter, for the past 2 years the quality of everything produced by BCP has steadily slid downhill: the magazines repeat more and edit less and the books have more misprints, reprints and lower print quality. And BCP's idea of customer service makes the Post Office look downright sycophantic.

Publications, like companies and people, grow, mature, reach their peak, then suffer decline, decrepitude, and death. Clearly that's happening to BCP. 23 years is a pretty good run in the magazine business.

The answer for the BB is to come here. My answer for cooking magazines is Saveur, which has spent the last 2 years improving.

For those of you whom CI owes money for web subscriptions they never fulfilled ... well, there's always small claims court.

I've always been curious as to the relationship of the various entities. Is BCP the parent company of CI, ATK and CC? How are they structured? Who "reports" to who? What is CK's role? Does he own the whole kit and kaboodle?

Signed,

nosy

Ya...I got a post deleted too today and all it said was..

"That is a great point. I agree 100 percent".

Mari PM'ed me saying that while I am a great contributor to the board it is her responsibility to monitor "posts of this nature". Ya I can see how enraging it was. I really should learn to contain myself.

I was nice in my response to her thanking her for the heads up that she was deleting my posts, but I also made sure to say that as paying customers to the website we should be allowed to have a voice. Futhermore, the glitches to the website have been going on for quite some time with no resolution.

Admittedly, my participation on the CI forum is way more about the comraderie and the friendships I have forged there than it is about CI anymore. I am not sure I will renew my web subscription next time, not unless I see some major changes and a turn around in CI's attitude in general. They just don't give me the sense that they care about any of it anymore and I do agree that their motive is way more about making money now than what their original mission probably was.

Oh well, thank you for starting this forum, Fuzzy. It's nice to see some of the old names that I used to see around the CI BB!

Renee

I'm going to fool them - I just renewed my web subscription in late fall, and then of course we moved. By the time my subscription comes around for renewal I'll have closed down that debit card account so I won't have to fight with them to cancel.

I use the website a lot because I don't want to mess up my hardcover books (the bindings have come apart on a few). But I just can't support them anymore unless they do an about face, which I doubt will happen.