As someone who’s on both these sites and also still on Chowhound, I’d say that thread points out the need for moderation. That was a lot uglier than the fuckity fuck fucks we’re getting on this site, but online, the opposite of mean or arbitrary moderation isn’t freedom: It’s a free-for-all and a flamewar. Remember that, everyone, when some of you get mad at the moderators here, because mark my words, some of you will, just because they represent power in some small sense. But again, the opposite of power is not freedom. Either power is exercised responsibly or it may go to the most obnoxious.
OK, I hope I didn’t say too much, but that’s my thought.
from the conversations, I’d take it as a complement, JAB – they’re recruiting people who someone has expressed a desire to see over here because they like you.
I signed up to check it out – I’m open minded. Well, now that I’ve seen their LA/SoCal board, I would call it moribund and not worth the time. I don’t plan on returning anytime soon because that’s the location I’m most interested in and, of course, I’m here because I enjoy your feathered plumage so much JAB.
Wow! I just got into a little issue with two long-time posters there apparently because I wanted to amplify a discussion about whether Robert has to consider that his board is ‘public domain’ in the sense that people can question his motives in not wanting to merge. The fear was, supposedly, that just the specific mention of FTC & HO would cause the thread to be locked. At least that’s what it appeared to be to me. Double WOW!!!
Oh yes, they’ve locked many topics that even mentioned FTC and HO, and threatened the posters in email. I’m surprised they’ve left the LAT topic open for so long–they closed the topic on the East Bay Express article very quickly.
“There” where? Chowhound? HO? I don’t understand anything in that post.
My intent is that everything here should be transparent. This board is literally not public domain in the strict sense that all posters own their own copyrights.
I’ve given no thought to merging the two boards. ipsedixit suggested I approach them about it, so I did, haven’t heard anything back, have no reason to give it any thought unless and until I do.
I’m the one that was stirring that pot over on CH. Was just calling out what I thought was a blatant mischaracterization, but given the bickering that ensued, I’m sorry that I even bothered. I must say, FTC has been refreshingly free of such nonsense thus far.
OK, calm down. I just assumed that, since so much is being posted here about CH that “there” would be self-explanatory. Sorry.
If you don’t understand “any” of my post then I’ve totally misread the conversations that talked about whether you should merge with HO. Two posters on CH were jousting about the subject and I questioned why it was anyone else’s business but yours.One shut off the conversation because they said just mentioning FTC or HO would get the topic locked.
thank you for clarifying that, Robert – I had a hunch that there hadn’t really been a set decision about any possible merger.
It would be nice, but if it doesn’t, we’ll just see what happens – I’m guessing the two boards will develop their own personalities, which is a good thing – and posters will gravitate to the one from which they derive the most info/enjoyment.
I just hope that it doesn’t degrade into some kind of snarky us vs. them – CH’s paranoia about mentioning FTC and HO is more than enough of that crap.
I see it another way. To me they’re flip sides of the same coin, and I detect little distinction between them. I sometimes find myself posting to one, then copy/pasting to the other. So IMHO, one would be much better than two.
I may be totally wrong, but it seems to me most of the traffic on this board is region-centric (Cali boards in particular) while HO posts seem more spread across both regional and non-regional interests. And indeed, given the drop down categories for FTC is one region after another and one at the end for everything else, that seems somewhat by design.
Or more simply: this board seems to be for diners, and the other seems to attract the cooks. The 20 day old “What’s for Dinner” thread on HO has at this point 342 comments, while the 19 day old one here has 48.
I’d say THIS site is more left-coast centric than HO, but since I’m on the other coast, that really doesn’t matter to me. My region, Philly & 'burbs, doesn’t get much traffic on either site. But if you set regional posts aside, there seems to be a lot of overlap between the two.
As for WFD, I’m more likely to post on HO than here because WFD on HO gets more attention than it does here. Kind of a chicken-and-egg scenario. And maybe that’s what will happen – in time, maybe some categories will blossom more on FTC and others on HO – kind of like natural selection.
Just have to comment that making the same post on both boards is imposing on the time of people who follow both. I have no real sense of what the crossover is but it might be significant. Does anyone here have a sense of that?