About Monroe Eats

Monroe Eats was created to solve one enormous problem in our lives: Where do we go for lunch?

We work for an IT services company in Monroe, Michigan, and we often go to local restaurants as a group. The daily problem we face is getting everyone to decide on where to go, so we wrote this program to help us figure out where to eat. Every day we took this survey to find out what everyone wanted for lunch. It worked very well, but our small group can't claim to know everything about our local restaurants... so we decided to launch it as a public website to let everyone in Monroe help out. There are great restaurants in and around Monroe, and we're counting on the good citizens of our city to let everyone know where they are!

Along the way, we decided that this is going to be a positive-only website: we are only interested in finding the best restaurants. For that reason, we're only showing the Top 10 restaurants and we're not releasing the scores publicly. We think that with the excellent restaurants in the voting pool, it's an honor to be placed in the top list. Also, it was decided that the Top 10 list will only show results from the last 24 hours, to give all local restaurants an opportunity to rise to the top.

Monroe Eats is not affiliated with any restaurants. We just count the votes, and we make sure that all restaurants are given equal representation in the voting. All the results are stored, and we recognize that this information might be useful to local eateries, especially to restaurants that don't regularly appear on the Top 10 list. We can prepare reports on the results for anyone interested (see here for details).

How we rate / Privacy policy

All votes are based on a match-up between two restaurants and are recorded as a vote up for the winner. In the case of skipping a match-up, the restaurant with the lowest score is voted up (this is to prevent cheating).The list may appear random, but over time all eateries are matched together evenly. As you vote, you may notice that the match-ups get more difficult; this is how the program sorts out what you really like.

All voting is tied to your IP address and/or other identifiers (this is also to prevent cheating). As you vote, the program will begin to generate a personal top list for you that will become more accurate as you vote. Your votes count towards the overall results, but your personal top list is not saved. While voting, you also have the opportunity to send comments about restaurants; this information is appreciated and recorded, but is not displayed on the website. It may be given to restaurants who request this information, but it will be presented anonymously. No other personal information is requested or saved when voting on the restaurants.

The accuracy rating (the third box at the bottom) relates your personal voting for the day against the overall results. A higher percentage means that your opinions more closely match the general trends. In statistical terms, it's known as standard deviation. The number doesn't really do much, but some people see it as sort of a game.

Contacting Us

We'd love to hear from you! Monroe Eats is a work in progress, and we would appreciate any comments that would help our site connect with the people and restaurants in our fine city. We will try to answer all inquiries as quickly as possible.

Please click here if you own a restaurant in the Monroe area.

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Monroe Eats is a fun way to rate local restaurants and find out about great places to eat in and around Monroe, Michigan.

The Monroe Eats Top 10 List allows you to find out what restaurants are popular, and your personal Top 10 List is automatically created while you vote.

How to Vote

The voting page will ask you a question and you will have to choose between two restaurants. The match-up may appear random, but over the course of voting the website will start to create tougher match-ups as it begins to understand your preferences.

If you get a match-up where you can't decide (possibly if you are unfamiliar with one or both of the restaurants), you can click on the Skip button to throw this aside and try again with a different matching.

In addition to voting, you also have an opportunity to "Leave more feedback" in the form of a comment. This is entirely optional and comments are not displayed anywhere on this website. It the future, these comments might be anonymously presented to the restaurants.

After voting for a while, you can go to the "My Top 10" page and see what the website thinks are your favorite restaurants.

How the Top 10 List is Made

The Top 10 List is created from the total score based on all votes over the last 24 hours. Every vote for a restaurant is counted as one point. Also, when a match-up is skipped, a portion of a point is added to the restaurants (this is to prevent vote fraud).

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does it say I've already voted a bunch of times when I haven't?

We keep track of votes by IP Address, so anyone with the same internet connection will be counted together (this might be a single home or an office).

How many questions are there? Do I ever reach the end?

There is no end. You can vote as often as you like. The more votes you cast, the more accurate your My Top 10 list will become.

What happens to the comments I submit? I don't see them anywhere.

We are trying to keep this website on the positive, so your comments (good or bad) will not be displayed. We are keeping them safe for now, but it the future we may be passing them on to the restaurants. If we do give them to the restaurants, anonymity will be maintained.

Can someone vote up one restaurant by clicking the skip button they see it?

We are trying to keep this fair, so to prevent this sort of thing we are assigning portions of points to skipping. This and other measures have been taken to try to cut down on vote fraud.

How do I see all of the restaurants at once?

The "List All" page displays the entire voting pool in alphabetical order. This page also includes photos, maps, and addresses in case you want to visit the location.

Can I see the scores for all of the restaurants?

Sorry, but in order to keep this website positive we are not releasing the scores to the public. We think that all local restaurants are part of our local culture and they all deserve an equal chance to be on the top list.

I don't see Restaurant X on the list. Why isn't it listed?

We probably forgot to include it. Let us know what restaurants should be added. If you are the manager or owner of a local restaurant, please click on the "Add my restaurant" link to get in the listing. It's free.

Technical Problems

I click on the map buttons but nothing happens. Where is the map?

This is probably caused by one of two reasons:
1. The map appears in a pop-up window, so please disable your pop-up blocker. With many blockers, you can temporarily turn on pop-ups by holding down the "CTRL" key when you click on the Map button.
2. The map requires Javascript. Make sure that you have Javascript enabled.