Rumors of Closings

Hooray, she came back!

I agree with you intellectually Deb but my take is not to over-inflate the importance/influence of this forum. There are like 600 members and maybe only a hundred that actually contribute and of that maybe 15 contribute to any one thread. The Sala Thai thread was looked at 345 times. 40 of them probably belong to me. So dont put too much stock into the impact of negative or positive free advertising. Then again, dont underestimate the forum either. I did learn of your place through this medium. I also sympathize with the craziness that happened at your establishment the day before your closing. Your case was a direct result of the forum and can understand why you would have a general feeling on the subject.

[Robin Garr]

I agree with you intellectually Deb but my take is not to over-inflate the importance/influence of this forum. There are like 600 members and maybe only a hundred that actually contribute and of that maybe 15 contribute to any one thread. The Sala Thai thread was looked at 345 times. 40 of them probably belong to me. So dont put too much stock into the impact of negative or positive free advertising. Then again, dont underestimate the forum either. I did learn of your place through this medium.

Don't forget unregistered guests who don't trigger the counters.

I agree with you intellectually Deb but my take is not to over-inflate the importance/influence of this forum. There are like 600 members and maybe only a hundred that actually contribute and of that maybe 15 contribute to any one thread. The Sala Thai thread was looked at 345 times. 40 of them probably belong to me. So dont put too much stock into the impact of negative or positive free advertising. Then again, dont underestimate the forum either. I did learn of your place through this medium.

Don't forget unregistered guests who don't trigger the counters.

Also can't forget how fast we figured out whether Sala was opened or closed. People dont just take things at face value. If the info is coming from me, I hope they research it.....yikes . That whole Sala thing was fixed in a jiffy and someone said something about them having a place called city wok downtown, which, I had no idea and will now check out. I do have to sympathize with Deb, she got the bad end of the crazy info flying everywhere deal.

John,

Thanks for the thoughts.

Again, this posting wasn't Sala Thai specific at all , it's happened several times since I've been a regular. While the official numbers on the site are not overwhelming, as Robin points out that doesn't count a significant portion of the readers, and even more importantly: it doesn't count word-of-mouth. From my marketing/PR experience, the person who reads the posting "tells two friends, and they tell two friends, and ... ". But bad news travels a lot faster than good, and what that means is that a lot more people hear the original rumor than ever hear the correction. We all see it because we read it regularly, but other people never hear the correction.

I think all we need to do is what Robin suggested: be a little cautious and check facts before reporting something, and we won't unintentionally cause a business problems.

Deb

I agree with you intellectually Deb but my take is not to over-inflate the importance/influence of this forum. There are like 600 members and maybe only a hundred that actually contribute and of that maybe 15 contribute to any one thread. The Sala Thai thread was looked at 345 times. 40 of them probably belong to me. So dont put too much stock into the impact of negative or positive free advertising. Then again, dont underestimate the forum either. I did learn of your place through this medium. I also sympathize with the craziness that happened at your establishment the day before your closing. Your case was a direct result of the forum and can understand why you would have a general feeling on the subject.

The latest count shows 2525 members, not 600. Plus there is almost always more non registered people reading than members.

... my take is not to over-inflate the importance/influence of this forum. There are like 600 members and maybe only a hundred that actually contribute and of that maybe 15 contribute to any one thread.... So dont put too much stock into the impact of negative or positive free advertising...

I disagree, John... I think that this forum is highly relevant in Louisville and it would be foolish to underestimate it's influence.

Though the membership may be comparitively small, (the number is actually in the thousands, not 600) it is really an issue of quality vs. quantity.
The people who frequent this board are those who consider themselves "foodies", and most offer an extensive knowledge or at least a lot of experience dining and working in Louisville restaurants. Though they may represent only a small part of the population of the Ville, it is a well-informed population and one that is most likely to dine out on a "destination" basis.

I would venture to assume that forumites are often the go-to person for dining info in their respective social circles. You know, that friend that everyone has whose advice you revert to when the time comes to choose a place to eat. That person who always has a new suggestion or reminds you of the old classics. The one who always has the scoop on openings and closings and the latest dish.

The forum is also pretty well respected on the industry side. Most owners and managers recognize it as a tool for feedback, as well as the potential repercussions of a bad thread that goes unresolved. It may only be read 326 times, but those 326 people included much of your customer base and you can bet that they tell their friends and so on.

Whether it's glowing praise for a new place like Mojito or a "blah" rating for a place like Puccini's, i would definitly not underestimate the power of this forum to set the tone for a restaurants reputation.

[Robin Garr]

i would definitly not underestimate the power of this forum to set the tone for a restaurants reputation.

Thanks, Madi. I don't really feel comfortable going too deep into this kind of business data - it's sort of like asking your favorite restaurateur to spill out all the details about his gross, net and markups and how business is going.

But in addition to all you've said, I really wouldn't base too much speculation on the numbers of members or posts read by logged-in members. The number of people who "lurk" here without joining is much, much larger than many people realize - exceeding registered readership by a very large multiple. Judging the readership of this forum by the number of active participants - as much as I love all you guys - would be like judging the CJ's circulation by the number of letters to the editor.

I agree with you intellectually Deb but my take is not to over-inflate the importance/influence of this forum. There are like 600 members and maybe only a hundred that actually contribute and of that maybe 15 contribute to any one thread. The Sala Thai thread was looked at 345 times. 40 of them probably belong to me. So dont put too much stock into the impact of negative or positive free advertising. Then again, dont underestimate the forum either. I did learn of your place through this medium. I also sympathize with the craziness that happened at your establishment the day before your closing. Your case was a direct result of the forum and can understand why you would have a general feeling on the subject.

The latest count shows 2525 members, not 600. Plus there is almost always more non registered people reading than members.

On the memberlist it shows like 639, am I wrong to look there? I will admit though that I have not exactly focused on the best way to prove my point and the amount of member thing that I used actually does nothing to aid in what I was trying to get across. Which was, I don't think people on here are fools enough not to follow up and research on the info they hear. I was generalizing the word influence and shouldnt have. You have to forgive me. I confuse easily and I get on the forum when I am doing 10 things at once.

Madi, you should have quoted me entirely. You left this part out,
" Then again, dont underestimate the forum either. "

Although it is out of the scope of my point because of my lack of focus, in my opinion, most people that know of this site aren't reading the forum. They are looking at Robin's list of restaurants. That is just my opinion. Also to clear it up, I wanted to get across that the people on here don't believe everything they hear so the forum isnt so influential as people believe. It gets the word out, but people dont always believe the word. You have to forgive me. I confuse easily and I get on the forum when I am doing 10 things at once.

Deb, I agreed with the recommendation to be more thoughtful. I appologize by throwing numbers and such up because it really had little to do with my point. I took umbradge to this "Recently we've had a couple of restaurants announced as "closed' that were not actually closed; that causes people to stop driving to those places to eat- both those who read this board, and those that hear the rumor. Some will never go back because they don't frequent that area and don't now know otherwise, so the business is lost." in your first post and I very pitifully tried to explain that there are a lot of people on this forum actually do the opposite of what you have there. Sala Thai was a perfect example. Your unfortunate experience was a perfect example. People were calling to find out if it were true, not avoiding your place and writing it off. Hear all and believe nothing seems to be the way of this board. Which is very wise indeed. So that is what I mean by the forum isnt as influential as people think. Basically I was saying that, from what I can tell, this forum is not full of fools. I just had a little trouble expressing myself when I am multitasking.

We can all have posts that lack political correctness. I have had those as I am sure most if not all of the frequent posters have experienced. We should all verify information before posting unless it is simply a question. I have been guilty, but we are all well intentioned.