Here? I’d actually be fine with discussing the stuff that @chienrouge is interested in. I understand that there’s an aversion to those discussions on Hungry Onion, so I was wondering if anyone knew where to find them elsewhere.
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No. Not here.
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I know you’re trying to be helpful, but you haven’t given me much to go on. You remember invitations to participate in discussions. Where? and from whom?
My apologies. I will do my best to get back to you. I was not prepared to share details here. I come here for something else. Again, my apologies for not being more helpful.
That’s okay, no harm done.
@small_h , and others; Let me start by saying I didn’t really think this post through. None of these are forums. For me, more of a " be about it" than a "talk about it ". More apologies.
I learned about this one “here”.
I’ve posted about this in the past.
These are from my personal bookmark list. Part of my research when applying to be a master gardener.
I shared this one before
Some I researched for a conference that was supposed to happen in 2020 and didn’t.
From The Table to the Gardrn Programs
BUILDING CHARACTER TO BUILD COMMUNITY
Some were closed since.
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I’m not really looking for fora to engage in a political discussion, but I’m sure they exist given the infinity of the Internet, and Reddit is certainly an easy place to start.
Regarding food, specifically, I recall past discussions here about access and so on that definitely veer on the edge of or dive right into food politics.
If a thread linked to an article about food politics, my expectation would be that the discussion would naturally be about food politics.
But when someone intentionally tries to politicize an unrelated discussion away from the topic, that’s when the drift has been shut down at least in my experience. Even then, it usually used to go for a while until it got too heated and the mods had to be flagged.
There always seemed to be a pattern, though – the same posters, the same topics brought up across different and unrelated threads, seemingly to incite an argument and usually completely off the main topic.
But even when that happens, as a community member, my preference would be that comments be left up as long as they are not directly insulting, offensive, or bullying, so the thread memory isn’t erased, as happened with the thread that prompted this latest discussion.
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Thanks! I’m familiar with some of those, but others are new to me. But! As I’m sure you’ve figured out, my question was “if I can’t discuss it here, then where can I discuss it?”
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Yes, I’m certainly anti-baiting. But there’s a place for political discussion of food-related topics, and I wish I could find it (and hopefully somewhere not-Reddit). I’m particularly interested in cultural appropriation, controlling restaurant waste, workers’ salaries, etc. Those topics have the potential to lead to disagreement, but that’s not something I typically shy away from.
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If you or someone else started a thread on a topic related to any of those, I’m sure there would be a fulsome discussion. I’ll pm you some past ones. It’s the baiting / one-track-mind irrespective of main topic that I personally anyway stay away from.
It may well depend on the discussion participants, but I’ve seen people flip their shit online over random things that aren’t even political or divisive, and I fear that it would generally escalate to name-calling and/or hurt feelings.
QED @chienrouge accusing me of bullying and hostility when I merely pointed out the site rules. The truth is some people go online almost exclusively to be offended at something, others exclusively to offend.
I suppose I would simply stay away from those discussions if they were allowed around here.
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Except they are against the rules, which is why they are taken down. There’s no point in moderating the board if everything is a gray area. There are people who delight in going full asshole on each other for fun, and I personally believe most members do not come here for that.
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The comments that were deleted were not just those, they were all of them. I’m all for the offensive ones being deleted. But when everything is deleted, there is no context left.
Since all the comments on that thread have since been deleted, it doesn’t help to reference it, but @chienrouge didn’t actually accuse you — there were later, inappropriate comments that were directly offensive.
None of that matters, though, because it’s all deleted now, so it’s who-remembers-what and that’s inherently both flawed and biased.
Away from that, there have certainly been prior discussions (often based on articles people posted) that didn’t end up in name calling or a locked thread.
There are plenty of folks here who could / would engage in a thoughtful discussion on charged topics even if their perspectives are different, if that’s the thread topic. But then of course there are also people who can take a benign discussion and charge it enough to get it locked.
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For good reason. It is toxic and full of a-holes.
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I know they have good cooking threads, so maybe at some point I’ll plunge in.
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If some of you are interested in another food forum, check out Food Talk Central. I never signed up for an account but lurk at times. They do allow politics on certain threads like the random Covid thread and others depending on the subject. But stand forewarned, it’s a rough CA crowd over there and the site owner is not exactly Mr. Personality.
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Isn’t the discussion there predominantly centered on L.A. and CA?
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The irony in this is truly delicious.
Especially given the title of this thread … “Insular crowd”
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heehee, isn’t that true.
FTC is highly exceedingly west coast couple cities oriented. others need not apply.
it is a spin off, just like HO, when Chowhound mightily leap on their very dull ban-everyobdy-sword.
I joined, dropped out when the forum owner opined that, since they’re all adults, any member should be able to edit any other member’s posts. yeah, that’ll work out well…
HO is not innocent either. there are TOS - and when they’re not enforced by the staff, members tend to revolt. to wit the recent "political’ flappola. should never have happened.
ChefTalk is another splendid example - recently sold. new owners attempting to monetize the place have an advertising section. spam and more spam, piled on top of spam. checking the moderators - “last seen” from 02Apr2022 to 23+ hours ago.
basically forums need to maintain focus on their charter or simply let it fade away into pixel dust.
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