The End of Eatchicago.net

http://eatchicago.net/, the blog that has been run for many years by our own Eatchicago, is closing. Mike explains why on the homepage, but suffice it to say that his site was in the vanguard of what is now a burgeoning number of websites and blogs devoted to Chicago chow; eatchicago.net was one of the most informative and up to the end has had much better pix than many more fully-funded sites.

Thanks for the kind words, David.

It was a labor of love for years, becoming much bigger than I ever thought it would, but not nearly valuable enough to continue on.

Ultimately, I found myself enjoying the give-and-take of the discussion format of LTHForum much more than the "graffiti on the wall" feeling that I got from writing on my blog. I would write posts for LTHForum that I never bothered to add to eatchicago.net.

Over the past year or so I tried to find ways to re-energize my interest in the project, but I finally came to the realization that the well was dry.

I really appreciate all the feedback I got over the years, positive and negative.

Best,
Michael

Michael,

Sad to see it go. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was waiting for a table at Kow Kow and noticed the nice reprint of the post you did about their eggrolls, which they have proudly displayed on their wall. The counter lady, the one who usually seems as if she would just as soon spit on you as talk to you, mentioned that "they did a big survey and thought we were the best. The people from eatchicago are very friendly."

I'll miss those people...and who are your people, anyway?

As part of my business, I help with website maintenance as well as creating and updating blogs for arts groups, theatre companies and such. The folks I consult with are always shocked as to how much time it takes on a daily and weekly basis to keep a blog up to date and running at full speed--so I understand your decision.

I enjoyed the site myself and hope to see more of your writing and reviews here on LTH!

stevez wrote:The counter lady, the one who usually seems as if she would just as soon spit on you as talk to you, mentioned that "they did a big survey and thought we were the best. The people from eatchicago are very friendly."

I'll miss those people...and who are your people, anyway?

Yeah, it really is a shame that I had to lay off my 300 employees. I'm putting my corporation into receivership and I expect the lawyers to be cleaning things up for a while.

It's amazing how some professional graphics can change the perception people have about your site.

Still, it is the best damn egg roll in town.

Thanks steve.

Best,
Michael

Hopefully, we can look forward to increased participation here, then, right?

Mhays wrote:Hopefully, we can look forward to increased participation here, then, right?

Seriously, Michael. Quit slacking.

Thanks. I'll see if I have another 4000 posts in me.

Mike,

I've sure enjoyed your reading your site and writings over the years. A great loss to the Chicago and world community.

stevez wrote:I'll miss those people...and who are your people, anyway?

Michael,

The lady at Kow Kow, who I do not find as unfriendly as Z, added you had Your People pick up egg roll from Peking* House for a side by side and Kow Kow was the clear winner. I like the way your review is positioned in a place of honor, right next to the pic of Steven Seagal.

I'd also like to express my appreciation for the years of effort you put into EatChicago, it was one of the very few, and I do mean very few, blogs I read with any frequency.

Enjoy,
Gary

*Purposefully misspelled so Steve Z can have the pleasure of correcting me.... once again.

By closing, do you mean simply no new entries? Or will all the archives go away? There is a lot of useful info out there that I'd hate to see vanish.

Cynthia wrote:By closing, do you mean simply no new entries? Or will all the archives go away? There is a lot of useful info out there that I'd hate to see vanish.

He answered this on the site:

[quote=EatChicago]This website will stay up for a while, probably until the domain name runs out. [/quote]

Might want to download stuff now.

Sorry to see it go, but I completely understand. Just don't stop eating.

I understand what you said about liking the give and take around here, but sometimes there's the want to post something without restraints - I'm talking about topic and rambling restraints, not online rule or etiquette restraints.

My food blog has been dormant for months, the first time it's been that dry (being broken under the hood is one reason, but lack of time is the main one). However, I don't feel there's any reason to either shut it down or write posts just for the sake of writing posts. Bloggers really don't have any responsibilty to post, and it shouldn't ever feel like a job (excepting pro-bloggers obviously).

It's interesting to see that most bloggers who shut down go through the same cycle - dormancy, and than a short period where they force themselves to get it going again, and then the realization not only that they don't want to do it anymore, but that they don't have too.

kiplog wrote:My food blog has been dormant for months, the first time it's been that dry...However, I don't feel there's any reason to either shut it down or write posts just for the sake of writing posts. Bloggers really don't have any responsibilty to post, and it shouldn't ever feel like a job (excepting pro-bloggers obviously).

Possibly off-topic (except not, if it relates at all to Michael's reason for shutting his blog down): I have a blog, and it does feel like a job to me (even though I'd rather feel as you do). Once I started it (back in March), I soon realized that unless I put something new up on it every few days at least, what I was doing was essentially training people not to visit. (If it can be compared to a Skinnerian experiment, people who come to a blog hoping to find something new and finding nothing new are getting negative reinforcement for coming to that blog; their disappointment will soon get them out of the habit.) Since the only reason I started a blog was so that people would visit and read it, training them to do the opposite seems counterproductive. So I have to keep posting. But I never do unless I feel I have something to say worth reading. So there's this constant tension between "do I have something new to say worth reading?" and "if I don't post soon, the people who come to my blog are going to stop coming." It's rough, I tell ya!

This is why I like Livejournal. I subscribe to my friends' journals, and they to mine. If I write something, they see it, and if I don't, it's OK.

leek wrote:This is why I like Livejournal. I subscribe to my friends' journals, and they to mine. If I write something, they see it, and if I don't, it's OK.

FYI, this is pretty much how all blogs work:

www.google.com/reader
www.bloglines.com
and many more

eatchicago wrote:

leek wrote:This is why I like Livejournal. I subscribe to my friends' journals, and they to mine. If I write something, they see it, and if I don't, it's OK.

FYI, this is pretty much how all blogs work:

www.google.com/reader
www.bloglines.com
and many more

but if you don't write something, and I go there, won't I be disappointed and stop going? Whereas if I don't write on my Livejournal, there are still 12 or so other people I read regularly, at least one or more of which is likely to have written something.

leek wrote:

eatchicago wrote:

leek wrote:This is why I like Livejournal. I subscribe to my friends' journals, and they to mine. If I write something, they see it, and if I don't, it's OK.

FYI, this is pretty much how all blogs work:

www.google.com/reader
www.bloglines.com
and many more

but if you don't write something, and I go there, won't I be disappointed and stop going? Whereas if I don't write on my Livejournal, there are still 12 or so other people I read regularly, at least one or more of which is likely to have written something.

Nope... any of these sites work similarly to the LiveJournal friends page you're familiar with. The social networking is slightly more integrated with LJ, but otherwise they're functionally the same. Except you don't have to go through the LJ syndication process to read sites outside of LJ.

Dmnkly wrote:

leek wrote:

eatchicago wrote:

leek wrote:This is why I like Livejournal. I subscribe to my friends' journals, and they to mine. If I write something, they see it, and if I don't, it's OK.

FYI, this is pretty much how all blogs work:

www.google.com/reader
www.bloglines.com
and many more

but if you don't write something, and I go there, won't I be disappointed and stop going? Whereas if I don't write on my Livejournal, there are still 12 or so other people I read regularly, at least one or more of which is likely to have written something.

Nope... any of these sites work similarly to the LiveJournal friends page you're familiar with. The social networking is slightly more integrated with LJ, but otherwise they're functionally the same. Except you don't have to go through the LJ syndication process to read sites outside of LJ.

Exactly right. I use Google Reader to follow over 100 different blogs and news feeds (including some livejournals). All I have to do is go to my Reader page to see what's been updated.

Livejournal even has basic rss aggregator functionality - you can create a syndicated journal from a feed, and add it as a friend.