Dave's ESL Cafe - a prehistoric beast

[Antonio]

I'm certain most of you have seen Dave's ESL Cafe. It was one of the first ESL websites, and to this day, probably still gets the most amount of ESL traffic around. However, the technology behind this site is rather old and needs an urgent upgrade.

Many are jealous of just how easy his job is. He charges anywhere from $75 / job ad for casual rates, to discounted rates for frequent postings. Just count the amount of new job ads he gets a day, and you will soon realise how much money the guy makes. With all that money, I would think he would have the resources to improve the site and give a bit back to the ESL community.

Many parts of his website haven't been updated for years. Just take a look at the Links page and start clicking on the links. You will soon see a huge amount of them point to dead pages. His phrasal verbs and idioms pages are the same - it's like taking a trip down memory lane.

He really needs to revamp his site and turn it into something of a more pleasurable experience to visit. I think the only thing that drives his site today is the traffic. He was just lucky to be one of the first out there. Starting a site like his today would get you very little traffic.

[BrandeX]

I concur. If it wasn't what it was, just some random new site without all the traffic from users/employers, I think I would find myself not using it very often due to its archaic layout.

[Hypiereon]

I like this site better. I think everyone should just come here instead! to the webmaster!

[gfell]

Oh, you're so sweet Hypiereon. Just sometimes it's hard to motivate people here to share info. You've been good in that regareds. Anyway, perseverance will hopefully pay off.

Cheers.

[kdavid]

If I was making as much money as him without having to change anything, I wouldn't bother either.

Or, perhaps the real reason is that Mr. Sperling fears change.

[son of coco]

I've found Dave's a little difficult to navigate, and usually avoid it unless it's absolutely necessary.

[sethimayne]

Yeah, I was turned off it when I first saw it...didn't realize that it is actually a very useful site

[Boke]

I eard that he censors a lot of post, especially if they say something bad about a company that advertises with him

[DavidVincent]

Originally Posted by Boke

I heard that he censors a lot of post, especially if they say some. thing bad about a company that advertises with him

The censorship at the Cafe is embarassingly over the topThis is one of the main reasons why so many of the former regulars have abandonded the cafe for ELT World Discussion :: Index along with the fact that the moderation policy is, quite frankly, bad.