Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Room for Improvement


We are closing in on the end of 2010, and with that comes our yearly performance review. But this year instead of looking back on what we did wrong and what we did right, we would like you the readers to offer up some suggestions on how we can improve Blackened Out.

No, Lumbergh. We will not start writing on Saturday and Sunday.

While we love writing about food, our increasing responsibilities outside of Blackened Out have made it more and more cumbersome to provide entertaining and insightful material to you every day. We strive not to throw up just anything on the blog simply for the sake of posting. "Mailing it in" serves no real benefit for you, and it reflects poorly on us. (Though I'm not saying that we have not in the past.) Thankfully, because there are two of us, we are able to post something worthwhile almost every day. Still, often at times it is a struggle for us to be creative week in and week out.

So with that in mind, we are open to your suggestions. Many people have expressed a desire for us to venture outside of the usual spots that so many other people are writing about, and we think that the 2011 Challenge will introduce our readers to a few more places off the beaten path. Stay tuned till Monday when details of the 2011 Challenge are revealed.

In addition, here are two other questions which we would like your opinion on:
  1. Does anyone actually use the Blackened Out on the Town calendar? (For those who don't know, the calendar is located on the left hand side of our web page.) We spend quite a bit of time entering in all of the events that are happening in the city, but we have no real way to track if any of you are benefiting from our efforts. An alternative option may be a weekly post dedicated to all of the upcoming food and wine events in the city.
  2. What is your reaction when we write about our bogey or double bogey experiences? Are reports of the bad meals just as informative as the good ones? Or would you rather us just stick to places that we would recommend you try?
Thank you in advance for your feedback. The comments are open. We will see you again in 2011.

14 comments:

Shellie said...

Since I live out of town I do like looking at the calendar to see what's going on when we will be there. However, we normally don't plan that far in advance (except for Mardi Gras), so a weekly post would work just as well for me personally.

I also like reading the bogey post, because I like knowing where not to go! When we are in town, I want to make sure we don't waste any meals on bad experiences/food!

jshushan said...

Please keep the bogey and double bogey reviews coming. I like to know what to avoid if I end up in one. I also like to know which spots to avoid at all. Thanks.

Jonathan

Ned said...

Please continue posting bogey and double bogey reviews! I think that is one of the great qualities of the blog.
A good new addition would be to review one new restaurant a week which seems feasible between the two of you.

Anonymous said...

More recipes would be great! Also loved the cookbooks you recommended in a post earlier this year. My favorite blog.

Celeste said...

Always interested in new & different places in ALL pockets of the metro area...not just the usual uptown/downtown/old Metairie covered by mainstream media. Kennah, brah...and how about Da Best Bank? People eat there, too (not just Vietnamese food).

Christopher Bloch, Sound Engineer said...

as someone who consumes your content via an blog aggregator, I would prefer to see the calendar events in post form. I didn't even know they existed until I visited the site! Great blog, keep up the good work.

Shedd said...

Review everything. I like to know the places you recommend, but I also like to see which places are falling behind or still need work. It's good to know both pros and cons.

Anonymous said...

Do not use the calender, but I like all reviews, good and bad. Keep on trucking.

James said...

I actually use the calendar. Have in integrated into the google calendar on my phone. Thanks :)

Adrastos said...

Love the blog but never use the calendar since 90% of the time I read y'all on a feedreader. A weekly post would be good.

I think the bad reviews are just as important as the good ones and a helluva lot more fun to read.

Fire Miles.

TheFolkSinger said...

Read on a feed reader and knowing how much time it takes to create the calendar, I think you should nix it in favor of a weekly schedule post.

And I love the bogey & double bogey reviews!

DizWiz said...

Please keep the bogey and double bogey reviews. They're just as important as the reviews for the above average restaurants.

A weekly post instead of the calendar would work. Like others, I read the posts through RSS feeds and I don't see the calender.

Your blog is very entertaining and informative. Thank you!

Peter said...

To all,

Thanks for all of the comments and suggestions.

We will definitely be keeping the bogey and double bogey posts. We agree that these are just as beneficial and informative as the are positive write ups.

As for the calendar, we will keep it going for now and try to start a weekly post outlining the events.

The people have spoken.

Anonymous said...

Bogey, double bogey, eagle- I always end up turning around to my husband and asking what it means... (Although reading the article gives me a pretty good idea how you feel)