Full disclaimer: I am currently friends with Frenzy Sushi owners John and Neary Arteaga. I was not at the time the incidents described below occurred. There was no conflict of interest when I made my first Frenzy post.)
It's been exactly one year since I was banned from Chowhound for refusing to acquiesce to what I considered the arbitrary, mercurial, and inexplicable policies of their moderators. Under contention was Frenzy Sushi, a restaurant that some of the moderators had blacklisted after I'd posted an enthusiastic review. I was accused of being an "insider" and "shilling". While the details of our fracas can be read about here, suffice it to say that neither of these accusations were true. My evaluation of Frenzy Sushi was later borne out by veteran, highly-respected Chowhounds like Russkar, Stormin Norman, and Elmomonster.
In the year since my willing departure from Chowhound, Frenzy Sushi appears to have been removed from the Chowhound blacklist. It's garnered favorable reviews on Chowhound, various food blogs, and in the restaurant review columns of respected news publications. It is, as it was when I first posted about it, an excellent Orange County sushi establishment. Thus, I thought it fitting to post this photo tribute to Frenzy Sushi on the anniversary of my banning from Chowhound. I urge you to go and give Chef John Arteaga's wonderful dishes a try.
With this post, I've decided to close the book on Chowhound. While I continue to feel that their moderation process would benefit greatly from more transparency, consistency, and internal customer relations quality control, it appears that they are trying to improve. On the flip side, their work won't be complete as long as there is a need for sites like Fauxhound, created by frustrated Chowhounds, which offers a highly informative article revealing the Secret Rules of Chowhound. The Chowhound moderators still have a long way to go. Hopefully, with guidance from their parent company, CNET, we'll one day see a Chowhound with clearly listed and uniformly enforced posting rules; a Chowhound where open debate is encouraged and freedom of speech is respected. I wish them the best of luck.
Frenzy Sushi
369 E 17th St, #17
Costa Mesa, CA 92627
1-949-646-1333
http://www.frenzysushi.com
Read my two Frenzy Sushi reviews:
- Frenzy Sushi (Super Post) - Costa Mesa, CA [Eating]
- Frenzy Sushi (Vegetarian Omakase) - Costa Mesa, CA [Eating]
Read Frenzy Sushi reviews by other food bloggers:
Posts
8 comments:
Whoa, I had no idea that Fauxhound existed!! Thanks to your tip, I've now got this paged bookmarked! :) Can sympathized with your Chowhound feelings here, I've had two or three posts removed...more dissapointed than angry, I suppose. I just wish that I didn't waste the time to write the post if they we're just going to delete it!
Yeah, Chowhound is messed up, and that's putting it mildly. I used to have a post on my blog called "The Chowhound Gestapo." The funniest/(saddest?) thing they did was when they deleted a post of mine that linked to my blog even though they said it was okay. When I asked why they deleted mine but didn't delete other such entries by other people they wrote back and said, "We can't punish every violation of the rules," even though they also admitted that there was no violation of the rules on anybody's part, just that they wanted to delete some posts. Of course they did plenty of other stupid things.
Going to have to check out Fauxhound.
Ditto on what Kathy said about the Fauxhound find. Question remains: does Fauxhound moderate? ;-)
Kathy,
The site seems mostly like a place where Chowhounds can bash silly comments. The secret tips article is probably the most helpful.
ChristianZ,
I'm not sure how much longer Chowhound can keep running like a volunteer organization or startup. CNET needs to demand some accountability.
Elmomonster,
Find out! =D
- Chubbypanda
wow CP, your chowhound scandal is so disgraceful! I used to visit the site a lot more years ago more for research but now hardly ever... but that leaves me more time to drool over your pictures of bluefin tuna at Frenzy Sushi!
Checked out Fauxhound, and although they make some valid points, the focus seems to be to put up "idiot posters" for ridicule. Too much bad karma there for me.
Foodhoe,
Yeah. I prefer Yelp.com these days.
Elmo,
I agree completely. Sorta uncomfortable to read, isn't it.
- Chubbypanda
How can you support a place when the owners are stealing the server's tips? Opps.. Now you know.
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