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To Do List for dr.com - Volunteers Needed


DonRocks

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I'm going to keep a running list here of tasks here that need to be performed in order for this to be a better community. Please PM me if you have any interest in volunteering - these simply will not get done without help! And also, if you have an idea that I haven't thought of, please also PM me to let me know your thoughts - I'm all ears!

1) Investors - If you, or anyone you know, sees a bright future with us going national, and no longer being limited to restaurants (refer to Yelp, Chowhound, Angie's List, Craig's List, etc.), write me at donrockwell, the dcdining-dot-com address. We need money, and lots of it, in order to thrive going forward - there's no pretty way to say that, so I just came right out and said it.

2) Dining Guides - Duplicating "important" restaurants that are currently in the Multiple Locations Dining Guide into DC, MD, and VA. This is the #1 complaint we get, and justifiably so, but until now, I haven't made the time to do it. I suspect I'll simply do this myself, but for now, I'm going to list this here.

3) Member Outreach - We care. So much so that I consider our members to be our #1 resource and most important asset, and I don't mind shouting that from the rooftops. Our members set us apart from all other restaurant resources on the internet. I have several ideas regarding this that will serve to make the already-strong bond between website and members even stronger.

4) Award Program - 2,000 people at the RAMW awards last night? Well, it's good PR for the restaurants, I suppose, a huge money-maker for RAMW, and certainly an ego boost for the chefs, but I'm betting that an award coming from this community will be something recipients tell their grandchildren about. It will necessarily start out as small potatoes - a certificate and a pat on the back - but the winners can be darned sure that they deserve to win. Do you know who the judges of the RAMMYs are? I'll leave it at that.

5) Updating the Indexes - Leigh, you were *great* when you were great, but now you're gone, and there's no audit trail. Our forum indexes have fallen badly out of date, and we need to get them current again - our indexes are what make this website a valuable resource. I've got the Restaurant Indexes covered (and that alone is a full-time job), but we badly need to get moving on the other forums.

6) A News Hound - Just as the amazing cheezepowder has latched onto restaurant openings like a pit bull, we need to clone her and have that same level of enthusiasm for various other things, one of which is to keep current in linking to articles written by other news sources. We should be your "one-stop shop" for any and all restaurant news on the internet, sort of like what DC Eater does. It sounds vacuous, but it's very useful to be able to get interesting and relevant content from one central repository.

7) Helping Me Update dcdining.com - We've got to eliminate the concierge stuff, and turn it into a pure blog (in other words, have *only* the WordPress blog as the landing page, and hide all the other stuff). This should be extremely simple for anyone who knows how to program websites - hopefully just a few hours' work - and I will rededicate myself to writing restaurant reviews if this can be done.

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Are you kidding me?

Dude, I am *terrible* at things like that!

Okay. Tell you what: send me a DM or an email or something, or hell, just post here, and just give some of the info you'd want to get across in a 3 minute or so spiel.

For instance:

* Why should they invest? What makes DR.com special? (Yes, I know why, but I'd prefer to start with your words.)

* What would they get from investing? How do you expect to earn their money back and more? (That, I think, is the tricky question.)

* What size investment are you looking for, and what ownership stake does that give them? How did you come by those numbers?

The way I'm thinking about it, for instance: the owner of my company invests in a lot of small companies. He started out in white box computer manufacturing, now does reselling and services through our company, has a recruiting spin-off, and has investments in everything from recording studios to drone companies to cybersecurity. He comes into our main office regularly, but he's a busy guy, so if I wanted to give him a pitch on something (anything) I'd need to answer those questions quickly to even get on his radar, and that's despite the fact that he likes me...

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I will have some time when I get back from vacay and would be willing to help, I would just need someone willing to show me how to do some of it- program wise, if one of the forum hosts would be willing to show me, I would definitely be willing to help. I just need some know-how, I can bring my laptop and wi-fi.

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Restaurants with multiple locations that Don recommends (or that Sietsema or Kliman have recently recommended) are incorporated into the appropriate neighborhood in DCDiningGuide.com. I'm finishing up the Virginia guide, which is now 95% complete, and I still need to tackle Maryland. However, when it's done everything will be there.

Enjoy!

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