That’s a rather pessimistic take, but you’re the boss 
And yet, hiding an entire category under a blanket seems a little heavy handed. I came to HO for the food, but NAF helps foster the sense of community that keeps me coming back. To emphasize, I don’t come back because of the NAF category, but because of the sense of community it helps maintain. Muting NAF seems to be the rough analog to an office policy telling people not to gather at the water cooler.
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Plus it’s not like potential new users wouldn’t find an abundance of food info were they to do a google search and land here.
@hungryonion I’m curious how many new users does this site acquire on a monthly basis?
THIS. THIS. THIS.
First and foremost for me, Hungry Onion is about the food and sharing with like-minded folks from everywhere.
But NAF, with its threads about sillies/funnies, running commentary about our critters (who are most definitely family members), what’s on our mind, what we are watching, reading, listening to, holiday greetings, a HO member’s well-documented historical story about a war from over 100 years ago and how the two opposing sides interacted temporarily as humans on this earth, not as enemies, for a short period of time…THIS is a good part of what makes HO a community. Gathering around the virtual kitchen table or living room fireplace, just shooting the shit. While enjoying the pictures of the meals we are enjoying in our homes or while out to dinner.
You people were there for me during my illness and hospitalizations last year. Seeing what you wrote meant more to me than you will ever EVER know.
So hiding that part of the boards would, for me, make the site a bit less welcoming.
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I disagree. The analogy is to move the water cooler, which has taken up substantial amount of the office space, to the back of the office rather than right next to the reception, especially since the option is provided for everyone to customize the site as they want. please see below.
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Sounds like the site owners are more interested in quantity / new users than community / existing users
I’m just glad you’re still with us, here and IRL 
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No. Don’t misrepresent my position.
The active users on this site are valued highly because, as you mention, the community built. Otherwise I wouldn’t dedicate 10 years of my time and sweat building the community, despite all the time invested, loss of sleep and getting attacked all the time about moderation decisions. Forums as a breed are already dying, except for very specific purpose forums such as Stack Exchange, or hobby forums where people are pursuing a specific interest.
Even active users that you all are, drift off over time. They have new interest. Life gets in the way. They age out. etc. etc. Forums, without new bloods, are just dying forums. Its just math.
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That certainly wasn’t my intention, but thank you very much for clarifying your position for all of us who have been enjoying the site in its current iteration.
As I pointed out further upthread, your site, your rules
I would agree that that would be bad. Hell, I came to HO when CH bit the dust, and if CH were still going - the current CH is a joke - I may not have ever even tried HO. I’m glad HO is still operating, and am willing to live with the rules as enforced. That’s the part of being a community. Still, just because I’m a member of a community doesn’t mean I have to like everything that goes on within it. I’ll just grouse around a bit, then continue as usual.
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Your site, your rules. But the idea that hiding up to 40% of the traffic will create a more vibrant site seems counter-intuitive at best.
I deeply appreciate what you have put into this forum and am sure everyone else does too. I am sorry you feel attacked. I hope respectfully expressed disagreement does not feel like that but I if it does, I am sorry.
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Thanks for the transparency on this, @hungryonion. Is one of the reasons for muting the non-food topics that the site needs to temain relevant for search engines so that new folks can find the HO community through search? If so, that makes sense to me.
As a regular around here, I appreciate being able to still enjoy the watercooler topics without those adjacent discussions potentially overwhelming HO’s focus on food. That’s my lens, anyway.
I’m sure I don’t say it often enough: Thank you for this community space.
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Add me to that number.
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(post deleted by author)
Thank you for commenting here in-thread, and also for the separate message explanation.
We’re cool, but as I mentioned in the modmail you sent me, I do have trouble figuring out how you believe that I made “your decision to single out the poster” when I neither named said poster nor linked to that person’s post. Edit - other than naming the subject-matter, referentially, of course.
(Note I’m coming at this serially after several hours of being away, so if you’ve already explained this aspect, I will come back and delete or amend this comment.)
LoL. Yes, many of us have been mods before and/or still are, and it’s a thankless task. (Although for me, nothing with the amount of traffic HO gets.)
I don’t think anyone here thinks overall this is a poorly moderated `site. I’ve already given you my opinion that it’s among the best, overall, and everything considered, even if we disagree a bit here and there.
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I wonder if this is why it seemed quite to me last week!
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You can (well, you have to now) change your personal settings to unmute the NAF category.
It’s also the holidays, so peeps are likely extra-busy cooking and entertaining 
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