What's it like?

Hi George,

I've been curious.

What's it like to run your website?

What's a typical day like for you?

Would you do it all over again if you had too?

What are some of the challenges you face?

I have no desire to do it myself, just curious.

By George (George) on Friday, May 31, 2002 - 09:46 am: Edit

>What's it like to run your website?

It's actual several sites.
Some times it's a lot of fun some times it sucks.
Mostly it's fun, as long as the natives aren't too restless.

>What's a typical day like for you?

No such animal. Most of my day is timed around my daughter. That's my real job.

The sites are 24X7. In the past 6 years I've just had one 4-day stretch where I didn't check the sites at least twice a day, normally many times. In that period my provider screwed up my DNS so one of my key sites was unreachable for over 48 hours. Murphy's law.

Most of my time on the sites is spent marketing the CJN site and handling administrative stuff for that site and here. Once in a while I get a chance to do some actual web stuff- site changes, software upgrades, new features etc but time and funds don't allow as much of that as I would like. I've done everything you see, that's helpes keep costs way down but limits the polish of the sites.

>Would you do it all over again if you had too?

Sure.

>What are some of the challenges you face?

1) Users that think they are owed something, even though I pay all the bills around here and handle all of the mundane administrative and technical issues. The WFP site generates virtually no income and is just a way for me to keep a foot in the business, a hobby more than anything else.

2) Keeping WFP relevant. There is a fair chance that I'll shut down most of the forums since the concept of being "on topic" is lost on most folks. I'm thinking of just having a chat kind of area for the off-topic banter and complaints (50%+ of the postings) and a moderated (all postings approved) ask or answer a question by topic kind of thing. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy the banter, but I feel it dilutes my basic goal of the site- to provide culinary related information. Separating the two concepts would serve both purposes.

3) Competing with the mega job sites. That part is fun. I believe I have more "close to scratch" cooking Chef job listings that any other public access site.

Thanks for asking!

George

By Chefgbs (Chefgbs) on Friday, May 31, 2002 - 11:47 pm: Edit

Hi George,

And you gave up cooking for this?

As far as shutting down most of the forums, that's too bad. I learn a lot from all the ranting and raving. I was just telling Spike that the best part of coming to chefs' forums is being able to chat with colleagues. When I was a cook, there were a lot of coworkers to talk with and when I became a Sous, there were even less people to talk to. Now that I'm an Exec, there's no one to talk to. Lonely at the top kind of thing. Who else is going to understand what I go through except another chef.

I wouldn't worry about the polish of your sites. All the bells and whistles wear pretty thin after awhile, especially if they prove to be non functional.

Keep up the good work!

Ciao for now

By George (George) on Saturday, June 01, 2002 - 11:57 am: Edit

By "shutting down" I mean make them fully moderated or censored, as some here would call it. Allow postings, but have to approve each one to keep them related to culinary topics, related to the forum they are in (what a concept). It would slow down the pace of postings but it would improve the signal to noise ratio. During the work week things would be approved pretty quickly but the late night and weekend stuff would be slower (I try to keep civilian hours)

To make up for the slow pace of the content related areas they would be augmented by a chat area most likely the current Chefs Food Fight forum. When one of the rambling things started it would be moved over there, or started there hopefully. There is a real possibility a lot of this forum could be done via e-mail so as time moves on, and folks get more connected, we could have folks participate while working, using the messaging capabilities of the newer cell phones. There would still be the web based version, but you could make and receive postings via a cell phone.

Just thoughts at this time, we'll see what actually gets done. ;<)

As far a cooking I still do party work for friends in clubs and off prem catering. Don't tell the catering police but some are quasi legal things through local Fire Departments. I'm just an indian in these, not a chief.

TTFN,

George

By Chefgbs (Chefgbs) on Saturday, June 01, 2002 - 10:14 pm: Edit

Dear Tigger,

Who would dare say anything about catering for fire departments?

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Saturday, June 01, 2002 - 10:17 pm: Edit

Why do all that?
Why not just sit on what you have?
Unless of course providing these threads is costing WAY too much money. Then I would understand closing them or making them cost and time, efficient.
Anyway, I'll be happy with whatever.

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Saturday, June 01, 2002 - 10:21 pm: Edit

Who's Tigger?
He's from that Pooh thing, Yes?
And since I'M Ex Fire Dept. I don't think anyone should say anything about that.
Anyhow, it's not the same.

By Chefgbs (Chefgbs) on Sunday, June 02, 2002 - 05:07 am: Edit

Chefspike,

Tigger is indeed from Winnie the Pooh. Instead of saying goodbye, he would say TTFN - Ta Ta For Now.
Get it?

By Cheftim (Cheftim) on Sunday, June 02, 2002 - 05:44 pm: Edit

George,
Participate while working? That wouldn't be right would it, I mean I never do that now.
;-)

Tim
who never wastes time on the internet while working