Are product catalog pages now "best of the web"? January 23, 2015 5:09 PM   Subscribe

Am I missing something, or is this post -- literally a link to two product catalog pages for bread and to their parent bakery -- now considered good enough to be FPP material?
posted by shivohum to MetaFilter-Related at 5:09 PM (307 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite

Yep.
posted by Literaryhero at 5:10 PM on January 23, 2015 [5 favorites]


It's a very thin post, but it's also Friday night where I am and it seemed like a nice place for folks to enjoy riffing on funny bread jokes.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 5:10 PM on January 23, 2015 [24 favorites]


So it's basically an open thread, with the FPP just an excuse for people to post random stuff? Why not just start having actual open threads then? I think dropping quality as a criterion just because it's Friday night is problematic. Brings down the utility of the site, and makes other deletions based on quality quite arbitrary.
posted by shivohum at 5:18 PM on January 23, 2015 [4 favorites]


i'm sorry that crazed gunmen broke into your home or place of business and forced you to read a post that doesn't interest you, that's really a shitty way to spend a friday night and i hope you're okay, and that the rest of your weekend is uneventful.
posted by poffin boffin at 5:19 PM on January 23, 2015 [173 favorites]


I've literally never seen anyone start a conversation on the internet with "am I missing something" in good faith. It's always just the passive tip of a gigantic aggressive iceberg.
posted by kate blank at 5:22 PM on January 23, 2015 [64 favorites]


MetaFilter has a lot of posts about a lot of different things. That post you're looking at isn't actually about two product catalog pages for bread. It's about gendered marketing and how ridiculous it can get.

Plus, yeah, FIAMO. This MeTa isn't going to yield anything, really.
posted by hippybear at 5:27 PM on January 23, 2015 [18 favorites]


Breadst of the web.

Or maybe yeast of the web?
posted by tonycpsu at 5:27 PM on January 23, 2015 [11 favorites]


I honestly feel like MeFi would be improved roughly two million percent if the extreme haughtiness and frankly bizarre sense of elitism attached to it and the userbase, as well as the frankly ridiculous hostility towards everywhere else on the internet on a website based around linking to other places on the internet, were toned down considerably if not actively discouraged. The weird tribalism is not at all what makes this place "The Best of the Web", on the occasions when that's an accurate moniker. It's also something I see in every. other. single. community. online. All of them! Every one. Even Reddit. Especially Reddit.
posted by The Master and Margarita Mix at 5:42 PM on January 23, 2015 [56 favorites]


tonycpsu: Breadst of the web.

Or maybe yeast of the web?


Rising to the occasion.
posted by gman at 5:44 PM on January 23, 2015 [12 favorites]


The Master and Margarita Mix, could you maybe specify what it is you're railing against here? Is it something in the blue FPP that shivohum is referencing? Something in the comments here?
posted by tonycpsu at 5:47 PM on January 23, 2015


the extreme haughtiness and frankly bizarre sense of elitism

My dear chap, I do believe I've lost my monocle.

ಠ_ರೃ
posted by SpacemanStix at 5:51 PM on January 23, 2015 [31 favorites]


My dear chap, I do believe I've lost my monocle.

I believe it fell in your man yogurt.
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:52 PM on January 23, 2015 [19 favorites]


Tony, I believe it's the idea that a site designed to *gasp* sell things is intrinsically beneath us.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 5:54 PM on January 23, 2015


TELL ME ABOUT IT METAFILTER HAS ALL GONE A-RYE
posted by standardasparagus at 5:56 PM on January 23, 2015 [51 favorites]


So it's basically an open thread, with the FPP just an excuse for people to post random stuff?

Yes - mefi is wonderful at this.

Master presumably means the sort of tendency to demand high culture types of fpps. Like a Wagner devotee would be annoyed at hearing a pop song and so forth.
posted by sgt.serenity at 5:56 PM on January 23, 2015 [2 favorites]


what a crumby "weblog"
posted by standardasparagus at 5:56 PM on January 23, 2015 [6 favorites]


OK,wow, I didn't get that at all. I blame the cold medicine.
posted by tonycpsu at 5:56 PM on January 23, 2015


no knead to get upset.
posted by standardasparagus at 5:58 PM on January 23, 2015 [12 favorites]


I'm not really railing, exactly, it's just shivohun's comment made me roll my eyes in a way I have rolled them many many times before, at many many other similar comments. Just like... posting about how great MeFi is (and it is great, I don't deny that!) and how much better it is than all the other websites with all the plebes sheeple "the rest of the web" is not what makes this website great, and it's like the first thing butthurt MeTa posters go to when their personal vision of the site doesn't necessarily line up with reality as enforced by the mods. It's also just really comical, because this kind of behavior also a feature of literally every other website I've ever come across that has enough of a community to be self-conscious about being a community.

On preview: yeah, the high brow/low brow thing is part of it too, but it's not just that. It's a certain kind of overinvestment in What Being A Poster On Metafilter Means that also comes attached to it. Just, seriously, I feel like the only reason the kind of commenters I'm talking about don't use the word "sheeple" is because it's currently unhip and deprecated and redolent of neckbeard, not so much that they really disagree with the sentiment.
posted by The Master and Margarita Mix at 6:04 PM on January 23, 2015 [14 favorites]


Did you contact the original poster to discuss this meta? That's the yeast they can expect...
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 6:04 PM on January 23, 2015 [9 favorites]


This MeTa seems like a naan-starter.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 6:04 PM on January 23, 2015 [69 favorites]


I doughn't know about this Meta - can we get a rise out of the OP with these puns?
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 6:05 PM on January 23, 2015 [8 favorites]


Ciabatta be kidding me.
posted by tonycpsu at 6:05 PM on January 23, 2015 [41 favorites]


The humor is a bit rye, isn't it?
posted by The Master and Margarita Mix at 6:05 PM on January 23, 2015 [7 favorites]


I hope they spelt it out for him.
posted by Melismata at 6:06 PM on January 23, 2015 [9 favorites]


For serious though it's not the thinnest post we've had by a country mile which makes me think that what we're hearing here is less grain being milled than an axe being ground.
posted by invitapriore at 6:06 PM on January 23, 2015 [18 favorites]


shivohum: " Brings down the utility of the site"

That would be a post about ColdFusion. Wait, that would just be bringing down the site. Or would that actually be a David Byrne post.
posted by boo_radley at 6:06 PM on January 23, 2015 [2 favorites]


It's a stale post, but the fact that the comments have risen to the occasion--that is, they've been leavened rather than crusty--is cause for a toast.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 6:08 PM on January 23, 2015 [13 favorites]


These puns are awful, I'm levain this thread.
posted by invitapriore at 6:12 PM on January 23, 2015 [14 favorites]


Ok but can I be bitter that this bread post is getting way more activity than my bread post did? I'mma be bitter.

If anything we need more posts about bread, not fewer.
posted by phunniemee at 6:14 PM on January 23, 2015 [6 favorites]


Bread joke.
posted by angerbot at 6:19 PM on January 23, 2015 [22 favorites]


Hey, I have no problem if MeFi wants to turn into Fark or whatever. I'm just saying if quality doesn't matter, let's celebrate that openly, not allow some things through based on what Tom Friedman ate for breakfast this morning. Let's stop all deletions of posts for being too thin and be happy about it.

Oh and if we're doing pun threads, let's learn from the masters.
posted by shivohum at 6:21 PM on January 23, 2015 [3 favorites]


I'm just saying if quality doesn't matter

Quality matters. So does presentation. So does how the mods are feeling that day. So does what other members find amusing. There are very few bright line rules and a whole lot of rough heuristics that go into whether something is FPP-worthy. This is not new.
posted by tonycpsu at 6:23 PM on January 23, 2015 [16 favorites]


Hey, I have no problem if MeFi wants to turn into Fark or whatever. I'm just saying if quality doesn't matter, let's celebrate that openly, not allow some things through based on what Tom Friedman ate for breakfast this morning. Let's stop all deletions of posts for being too thin and be happy about it.

Counter-proposal: Lay off the "I Am The One True Defender Of Metafilter, The Chosen, He* Who Knows The True Path, The Keeper Of The Old Ways" schtick and just settle down, hoss.

*Apologies if you're a ladytype, but we work with what we're given.
posted by The Master and Margarita Mix at 6:26 PM on January 23, 2015 [22 favorites]


m not really railing, exactly, it's just shivohun's comment made me roll my eyes in a way I have rolled them many many times before, at many many other similar comments. Just like... posting about how great MeFi is (and it is great, I don't deny that!) and how much better it is than all the other websites with all the plebes sheeple "the rest of the web" is not what makes this website great, and it's like the first thing butthurt MeTa posters go to when their personal vision of the site doesn't necessarily line up with reality as enforced by the mods. It's also just really comical, because this kind of behavior also a feature of literally every other website I've ever come across that has enough of a community to be self-conscious about being a community.

Bring back w.t. snacks
posted by Going To Maine at 6:31 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


no knead to get upset.

It certainly got a rise out of shiv.
posted by octobersurprise at 6:35 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


I swear to God.. sometimes you guys are such a PITA.
posted by phaedon at 6:36 PM on January 23, 2015 [42 favorites]


I can't believe you guys just deleted my comment in that thread. What's wrong with "trans-sandwich"?
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 6:36 PM on January 23, 2015 [2 favorites]


It sounds like a kind of mean or weird joke about trans people, and we don't hold with that around here. I'm sorry if that wasn't your intention, but that was how it struck me.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 6:39 PM on January 23, 2015 [21 favorites]


Brings down the utility of the site, and makes other deletions based on quality quite arbitrary.

Meh. I think that's a naan-sequitor.
posted by Golden Eternity at 6:43 PM on January 23, 2015 [2 favorites]


you guys just deleted my comment

Your comment—toast!
posted by octobersurprise at 6:43 PM on January 23, 2015 [8 favorites]


Oh and if we're doing pun threads, let's learn from the masters.

damn ... that thread is a chaff riot
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 7:00 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


Boooooooo
posted by Joseph Gurl at 7:01 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


it's bad, is what I'm saying
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 7:02 PM on January 23, 2015 [2 favorites]


I swear to God.. sometimes you guys are such a PITA.

Get it? Pain in the ass?
posted by phaedon at 7:03 PM on January 23, 2015 [30 favorites]


Even if "trans-sandwich" wasn't intended to be mean, it wasn't going to go over well, because "trans" doesn't mean "half boy half girl" in a way that a sandwich with two pieces of opposite-gendered bread would make a "trans sandwich."

And honestly, CP, you're kind of a rabble-rouser around here at times, especially around issues of gender / political correctness, so my impression is you knew exactly what you were doing there.
posted by tonycpsu at 7:03 PM on January 23, 2015 [16 favorites]


Oui
posted by Golden Eternity at 7:05 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


It's also something I see in every. other. single. community. online. All of them! Every one. Even Reddit. Especially Reddit.

Not Tumblr, though. Tumblr knows it lives in, eats and is trash.
posted by emmtee at 7:15 PM on January 23, 2015 [2 favorites]


It certainly got a rise out of shiv.

We shouldn't be too teff on him, it could be injeras to his self-esteem.

Bread can be boring to some people but we shouldn't banneton MetaFilter on account of one complaint.
posted by XMLicious at 7:15 PM on January 23, 2015 [8 favorites]


Is tonycpsu a mod now? Why's he giving deletion reasons?
posted by Joseph Gurl at 7:17 PM on January 23, 2015


He's not. He's commenting on a deletion, which people are free to do in MetaTalk.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 7:18 PM on January 23, 2015 [9 favorites]


I mean, they're either speculative or they're flagging reasons. But a mod has already given the deletion reasons, so zuh?
posted by Joseph Gurl at 7:18 PM on January 23, 2015


I've literally never seen anyone start a conversation on the internet with "am I missing something" in good faith. It's always just the passive tip of a gigantic aggressive iceberg.

I've definitely used it in response to someone just baldfaced shitposting, but i can't deny that there's an air of smugness and upturned nose "amirite?" to it.
posted by emptythought at 7:18 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


Eh, not a hill to die on. Carry on.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 7:18 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


Eh, not a mill to rye on. Barley on.

Fixed.
posted by The Master and Margarita Mix at 7:21 PM on January 23, 2015 [18 favorites]


Confession: I really wanted to make an FPP about the saga of Jenny and Zack and the kisses over on Reddit earlier this week, but I was 100% sure that it would inspire a MeTa just like this one. And then the whole thing imploded and the guy who started the whole thing deleted his account. So.
posted by Sara C. at 7:37 PM on January 23, 2015 [4 favorites]


We shouldn't be too teff on him

You're right. At yeast we should leaven our criticism.
posted by octobersurprise at 7:38 PM on January 23, 2015 [2 favorites]


I would like to thank the OP of this meTa for creating another thread for riffing on a Friday night!
posted by rtha at 7:41 PM on January 23, 2015 [8 favorites]


I usually pan MeTas like this one because I loaf them no matter how you slice it. But usually I'm too well bread to say it. Quinoa stop it?
posted by barchan at 7:45 PM on January 23, 2015 [6 favorites]


shivohum has demonstrated a certain elasticity with regards to the puns, to be sure.

ELASTICITY.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 7:46 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


Aw man, I arrived at this thread too late. I matzo missed out on all the good puns!
posted by softlord at 7:46 PM on January 23, 2015 [4 favorites]


You know, if *I* had posted this Meta and saw it devolve into bread pun lols - oh, I blanch at the thought!

BLANCH.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 7:48 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


I'm getting them from here.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 7:48 PM on January 23, 2015 [2 favorites]


That comment was kind of spongey, jcisfa, and makes certain of us look poolish.
posted by barchan at 7:49 PM on January 23, 2015 [4 favorites]


I've literally never seen anyone start a conversation on the internet with "am I missing something" in good faith.

No need to be so sour. D'oh!
posted by phaedon at 7:51 PM on January 23, 2015 [7 favorites]


"Brings down the utility of the site, and makes other deletions based on quality quite arbitrary."

Metafilter has a lot of great qualities, but 'utility' isn't one I would ascribe to it. More of the anti-productivity tool (I mean that in the highest regard).

It's a pretty crumby argument, actually.
posted by el io at 7:52 PM on January 23, 2015 [4 favorites]


Eucharist, what an asshole.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 7:54 PM on January 23, 2015 [22 favorites]


oh jesus.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 7:54 PM on January 23, 2015 [3 favorites]


He's a gluten for punishment I guess.
posted by rtha at 7:55 PM on January 23, 2015 [27 favorites]


Let's not get carawayed away, people.
posted by tonycpsu at 7:56 PM on January 23, 2015 [9 favorites]


Don't be crumby, or your account will be toast. The OP paid the same dough as you to be here.



You know I'm like buttah, cause I'm on a roll.
posted by 4ster at 8:05 PM on January 23, 2015 [6 favorites]


Challah atcha boy!
posted by Joseph Gurl at 8:09 PM on January 23, 2015 [8 favorites]


I'd like to apologize for my derail about deletion reasons. I see now that it goes against the whole grain of this thread.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 8:10 PM on January 23, 2015 [19 favorites]


I don't want this thread to turn sour, dough.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 8:10 PM on January 23, 2015 [6 favorites]


and it's like the first thing butthurt MeTa posters...

I thought the term "butthurt" was on the list of ingredients not to be added to Metafilter? Is there a new recipe?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:13 PM on January 23, 2015 [2 favorites]


IIRC we've had a few discussions of that term, and they uniformly reveal two separate camps (each of which is surprised by the existence of the other camp) -- people who think it's a mild description like saying "crybaby," and people who think there's an uncomfortable homophobic suggestion attached to it. I don't think it's something we delete, particularly, but it's always good for the two camps to be aware of each other.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 8:22 PM on January 23, 2015 [9 favorites]


I think what I am learning is that now, more than ever, it's specialty breads.
posted by tomboko at 8:51 PM on January 23, 2015 [3 favorites]


It's probably time for this thread to come to an end. Mods--care to baguette?
posted by Joseph Gurl at 9:31 PM on January 23, 2015 [3 favorites]


Back to the "butthurt" thing: I'm not sure which camp I'm in, but I do know that it's no joke when your buns are in pain.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 9:34 PM on January 23, 2015 [3 favorites]


Here, have a ric-roll.
posted by clavdivs at 9:36 PM on January 23, 2015 [2 favorites]


I'm not Belgian (although I believe some of my ancestry is Danish), but I'll apologize again, this time for waffling. I'm really not as much of a milktoast as I may seem; I've just gotten myself twisted like a pretzel. I should get off the internet and zwei back to this great book.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 9:39 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


Alright, the quality of the site has now dropped to 7, mostly because of these puns. I hope you jokers are happy.
posted by aubilenon at 9:40 PM on January 23, 2015 [4 favorites]


Not really.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 9:48 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


My shitty night has been ameliorated by everyone hijacking a MeTalk post to make bread puns. In short, I knead MeFi to make my heart rise.
posted by missmary6 at 9:54 PM on January 23, 2015 [5 favorites]


Let's all turnover a new leaf. Who's with me?
posted by Joseph Gurl at 9:54 PM on January 23, 2015 [3 favorites]


"But their envy could do nothing against the vacuum. Sweets climbed to the peak of the social scale of Tortilla Flat."

Pg. 161, ibid.
posted by clavdivs at 10:26 PM on January 23, 2015


Maybe we should say bread-hurt instead of butt-hurt in honor of this MeTa thread. Like "I have a bread ache, I'm in a world of bread-hurt."
posted by oceanjesse at 10:35 PM on January 23, 2015 [5 favorites]


Sweat Loaf
posted by Joseph Gurl at 10:40 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


You're all a bunch of fruitcakes.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:55 PM on January 23, 2015


No name-calling - you be leaven me alone! 🍞
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 11:22 PM on January 23, 2015


(breads)
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 11:24 PM on January 23, 2015


I think we should lavash some praise on LobsterMitten for putting up with this...
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 11:25 PM on January 23, 2015 [5 favorites]


I would use the contact form to complain to mathowie about this, but I am a bit of a milquetoast.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 11:29 PM on January 23, 2015


this post is not exactly a good time to lose one's head
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 11:32 PM on January 23, 2015


Aha, so it's basically an open bread, with the FPP just an excuse for people to...etc. etc.
posted by Namlit at 11:33 PM on January 23, 2015 [3 favorites]


At any rate, it's naan of my business how this meta turns out.

(I think I'm done now... it's painful for me to continue.)
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 11:33 PM on January 23, 2015


your attention is crumbling, I see
posted by Namlit at 11:37 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


now how would you spelt "Knäckebröd"? Hmmm?
posted by Namlit at 11:41 PM on January 23, 2015


It's a very thin post, but it's also Friday night where I am and it seemed like a nice place for folks to enjoy riffing on funny bread jokes.

I find the idea of posting to the blue intimidating to start with. Does this mean it's ok to post links to product pages for my favourite biscuits next Friday, with scant commentary? I can't promise any jokes, by the way.
posted by Juso No Thankyou at 11:43 PM on January 23, 2015


Now there's your problem. No jokes, no biscuits.
posted by Namlit at 11:45 PM on January 23, 2015 [2 favorites]


I can get plenty of snowflakes from the green. Will snowflakes do?
posted by Juso No Thankyou at 11:47 PM on January 23, 2015


Hey, whatever pumpers your nickel.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:26 AM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


brioche bread bejune.
posted by clavdivs at 1:00 AM on January 24, 2015


It's probably not the (subjective) "best" of the web, or a (again, subjective) cool thing on the web. But it is quirky in a way which has generated a lot of comments that are informative (man yoghurt?!) and funny in an oft sophisticated and uncrude manner.

And heck, with most - the vast majority - of social media being a grim, negative or fighty and angry place, a bunch of +ve, interesting and humorous comments somewhere is an essential, mentally healthy, relief.

I couldn't complain anyway. Few of my posts have arguably been the best of the web. A very recent one was on another food-related controversy. An older one was more weird of the web, as opposed to best. Looking through the posts I've done, it's just struck me that more than a few are some combination of food, sex, cats, Eurovision*, the English, and the English being a bit weird (lots of material there). Hmmm.

Now back to Twitter. What bad thing in the world, online or off, are we angrily forming a temporary online hate mob (that will change nothing) against this morning?

* Less than four months to Eurovision 2015 now, btw
posted by Wordshore at 1:03 AM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


You guys are still at it and more have joined in! Oh well, I guess Viennoiserie loves company.
posted by XMLicious at 1:09 AM on January 24, 2015 [6 favorites]


NO LOAFING!
posted by Slap*Happy at 1:12 AM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


I suck at puns.

So here's a song that shuffled up on the iPod this week after many years of hiding that is bread related.
posted by eyeballkid at 1:50 AM on January 24, 2015


Or at least cracker related.
posted by eyeballkid at 1:51 AM on January 24, 2015


tl;dbr
posted by phaedon at 2:36 AM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


Crust, what an asshole.
posted by spitbull at 2:59 AM on January 24, 2015 [8 favorites]


As much as I'm unsurprised that shivohum's beef *just happens* to be with a thread regarding gender issues, at least they've not started throwing around any panettone arguments.
posted by ominous_paws at 3:02 AM on January 24, 2015 [12 favorites]


all these breadpan jokes
posted by Namlit at 3:08 AM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


dear god I love this website
posted by Stunt at 4:01 AM on January 24, 2015


YOU ARE CLEARLY MY PEOPLE
posted by Stunt at 4:01 AM on January 24, 2015 [4 favorites]


I got home late last night, but on the way stopped at the bakery and picked up a couple of nice loaves of bread (a nice banquette and a small loaf of spinach/feta) to go with some soup I made earlier in the day...

As I sliced the loaves, just about 8 pm, there was a strange sense of having released terribleness into the void...

And, this morning, I find this thread....

It's all my fault...
posted by HuronBob at 4:03 AM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


I'm no good at buns.
posted by progosk at 4:05 AM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


Butthurt can't be homophobic unless you think only gay men are involved with the butt. And if you do, then you might want to examine your thought processes a little.

However, the other complaint about the word was from those who associated it with more serious forms of trauma. I've always associated it with the light smack or the small hurt when a toddling child slips over, but the opinions, naturally, differ. That's why a number of people made a point to strike it from their MeFi lexicon.


Uh. Pumpernickel.
posted by gadge emeritus at 4:07 AM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


Hops to it, people!
posted by Melismata at 4:56 AM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


Don't worry shivohum, the only time I ever posted a MeTa it was turned into a poll about eyebrows - not rye-buns - rising, which is a mill-lion times batter than a flamewar.

It actually made me feel all spongy and fluffy inside.
posted by ipsative at 5:05 AM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


Okay, i'mma try to be serious -

Am I missing something, or is this post -- literally a link to two product catalog pages for bread and to their parent bakery -- now considered good enough to be FPP material?


Yes, you are missing something - the fact that those two product catalog pages were from a company that is trying to make gender-specific versions of a product for which it is utterly ridiculous to do so. And the resulting discussion has been about that specific trait of trying TO make gender-specific versions of things, and speculating why some companies may be obsessed with doing so (arcane views of the sexes? An attempt to convince families to buy double their usual amounts of things?).

Then again, the post was quite clear in its presentation that it wasn't just about "hey look at these two products". It rather was about "hey look at how these two gender-specific versions of a single product now exist". I actually wonder whether you're not "innocently missing" that fact so much as you are actively ignoring it.

But don't worry, the mods already deleted one other single-link gender-related post in the same day on the grounds it was too thin, so you can rest assured your unique standards are being catered to where possible.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:29 AM on January 24, 2015 [17 favorites]


Butthurt is a word I've excised from my vocabulary under normal circumstances, so please forgive me, but...
I can't help but wonder, if a MeFite--who's comes to MeTa to challah about some posting injustice--rolls off the counter, do the laws of physics dictate that they fall butthurt-side down?
posted by drlith at 5:40 AM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


It was just a link to zero content for the purpose of getting MetaFilter to mock something they traditionally like to mock. Not a good post, and saying so in MeTa is a reasonable thing to do.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:58 AM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


I had a joke about a loaf, but someone pinched it off me.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 6:01 AM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


It was just a link to zero content for the purpose of getting MetaFilter to mock something they traditionally like to mock.

...you say "they", I notice. Do you think gender segregation in bread is a good idea, then?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:26 AM on January 24, 2015 [9 favorites]


Butthurt is a word I've excised from my vocabulary under normal circumstances, so please forgive me but...

I have eaten the butthurt
That you were saving for MeTa

Etc.
posted by spitbull at 6:30 AM on January 24, 2015 [5 favorites]


Then again, the post was quite clear in its presentation that it wasn't just about "hey look at these two products". It rather was about "hey look at how these two gender-specific versions of a single product now exist". I actually wonder whether you're not "innocently missing" that fact so much as you are actively ignoring it.

I was actively ignoring it, because that only makes the post worse. FPPs are not supposed to editorialize, and that is exactly what that gender-related comment was. That's "get your own tumblr" material.

I was giving the post the benefit of the doubt as something admitted despite being bad and editorializing, not because of it.

But since you insist on mentioning it -- would the same thing have been let in if the editorial snarking was making a men's rights point? Of course not. It would have been flagged and deleted instantly.

Or if someone posted a single link to Ayaan Hirsi Ali's comment that feminism is now concerned with "trivial bullshit" -- a concern for which the original post could be exhibit A -- would that have stood? Highly doubtful, despite her being someone who labors every day for women's rights around the world.

So why not post these policies publicly then? Why the hypocritical coyness?

I am not a men's rights activist, or even a conservative per se, by the way, though I'm sure people have immediately leapt to that conclusion. (And really it should not matter if I were. So why am I mentioning it? Because the reality is that it does matter: it gives me more credibility here.)

What I am is someone who likes to see a site with viewpoints from across the ideological spectrum, and wants a free-spirited rough-and-tumble of ideas. I try to fight the echo chamber and filter bubble effect here. It appears to be a losing fight.

If the gender editorializing is what made this bad post acceptable, then this should be posted in the guidelines: "We do not welcome posts with views to the right of Andrea Dworkin, but even bad posts otherwise will be accepted." Let's face up to the truth of what the Blue is turning into, a place where the quality threshold for accepted posts is very low, but the political correctness threshold is very high.
posted by shivohum at 7:18 AM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


Andrea Dworkin?
posted by spitbull at 7:37 AM on January 24, 2015 [8 favorites]


The mods are busy. They allow benign filler posts sometimes the way parents might put on a TV for a toddler. Usually it works.
posted by michaelh at 7:40 AM on January 24, 2015 [4 favorites]


Mefites are turning into an ill-bread lot.
posted by tofu_crouton at 7:51 AM on January 24, 2015 [6 favorites]


Political correctness? Posted guidelines? Deary me. No matter how you slice it, Metafilter will never be gluten-free. If you can't stomach it, feel free to skip it and read the next post which may be more digestible.
posted by h00py at 8:04 AM on January 24, 2015 [6 favorites]


I liked it better when I thought you were complaining about the post being too thin. But now I feel like you're complaining that "The label for the women's bread is, helpfully, pink." is some kind of intense feminist statement that might be too political? Wut.
posted by tofu_crouton at 8:08 AM on January 24, 2015 [34 favorites]


Is this a parody of a clueless asshole MeTa post? Or "am I missing something?"
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:08 AM on January 24, 2015 [17 favorites]


Last night I ate the highest level of spicy "Mount St. Hell No!" chicken in a stupid attempt to get my picture on the board with the five people who have completed that plate. I was doing ok until I tried to eat the spice and sauce-soaked bread the chicken had been sitting on. Most of the water in my body began exiting via my scalp. I became a spectator sport.

The Evil Bread left me unable to drive because my eyelashes were flicking so much sweat onto my glasses.

I told son that I couldn't drive, took off my coat and sweater and hat, exited the car and walked around in the almost freezing rain for ten minutes.

Today, I think I get to use the term "butthurt" without maligning anyone. I don't know how much detail you want about that.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 8:22 AM on January 24, 2015 [23 favorites]


What I am is someone who likes to see a site with viewpoints from across the ideological spectrum, and wants a free-spirited rough-and-tumble of ideas.

And therefore, this idea should be made to go away!
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 8:23 AM on January 24, 2015 [36 favorites]


Let's face up to the truth of what the Blue is turning into

An all night bakery ?
posted by sgt.serenity at 8:24 AM on January 24, 2015 [14 favorites]


I am not a men's rights activist, or even a conservative per se, by the way, though I'm sure people have immediately leapt to that conclusion. (And really it should not matter if I were. So why am I mentioning it? Because the reality is that it does matter: it gives me more credibility here.)
What I am is someone who likes to see a site with viewpoints from across the ideological spectrum, and wants a free-spirited rough-and-tumble of ideas.


As long as those ideas aren't from the women's perspective, it appears.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:25 AM on January 24, 2015 [23 favorites]


oop i had wondered how long it would take to get some blowback from the awesome feminist lovefest.
posted by nadawi at 8:29 AM on January 24, 2015 [11 favorites]


What I am is someone who likes to see a site with viewpoints from across the ideological spectrum, and wants a free-spirited rough-and-tumble of ideas.

And therefore, this idea should be made to go away!



Free speech is too valuable to let just anyone speak.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:31 AM on January 24, 2015 [13 favorites]


Bloody feminists and their commitment to equal ryets.
posted by h00py at 8:32 AM on January 24, 2015 [11 favorites]


surely crusty feminists, not bloody. unless there's something about bread making i'm unaware of.
posted by nadawi at 8:34 AM on January 24, 2015 [4 favorites]


You want the bread to the right of the Andrea Dworkin bread is what you're saying?
posted by Ashenmote at 8:36 AM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


Red velvet bread, nadawi. You have to be a very special feminist to know about it. Pungent and powerful, able to emasculate misogynists with a single slice.
posted by h00py at 8:42 AM on January 24, 2015 [7 favorites]


then this should be posted in the guidelines: "We do not welcome posts with views to the right of Andrea Dworkin, but even bad posts otherwise will be accepted." Let's face up to the truth of what the Blue is turning into, a place where the quality threshold for accepted posts is very low, but the political correctness threshold is very high.

Come on man, maybe make some serious suggestions if you want to be taken seriously? It was a lighthearted "Hey isn't this weird?" post on a Friday night which is not that unusual of a thing. Discussion followed. No one's being coy. The guidelines haven't changed. This was something interesting on the web that other people hadn't seen that started an interesting discussion. 1, 2, 3.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 8:44 AM on January 24, 2015 [34 favorites]


I'm sad to see this post quickly devolve into a pun-fest about bread, of all things. I think we've missed an opportunity to discuss the ever-declining quality of Metafilter posts and comments. Only a few people were willing to throw shivohum a few crumbs by discussing the actual matter at hand.
posted by double block and bleed at 8:58 AM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


Did you guys know that they make gluten-free water now?
posted by double block and bleed at 8:59 AM on January 24, 2015


the political correctness threshold is very high

SILENCED ALL MY LIFE
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 9:15 AM on January 24, 2015 [12 favorites]


Good news everybody, the quality of the site is back up to 12! Keep up the good work
posted by aubilenon at 9:16 AM on January 24, 2015 [7 favorites]


1, 2, 3? What about the other numbers? This site can be so numberist.
posted by oceanjesse at 9:16 AM on January 24, 2015 [4 favorites]


Oh yeah, where's the proof? If you haven't spelt it out then we'll knead more evidence than just your soy-so. Personally, I think the posts and comments on this site are great but you can take or leaven it, as you will.
posted by h00py at 9:17 AM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


I thought this MeTa was going to be about loafers that look like loaves.
posted by exogenous at 9:23 AM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


If the gender editorializing is what made this bad post acceptable, then this should be posted in the guidelines...

Give your tendency on this site to argue against many things viewed by most as supporting gender equality and your railing about political correctness, and now this comment, makes me think that the issue you have with the post isn't its thinness, but that it is about gender. Maybe that's whats making you sourdough?
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 9:30 AM on January 24, 2015 [18 favorites]




Cries of "political correctness" have never meant anything other than someone sneering at minorities getting uppity.
posted by poffin boffin at 9:33 AM on January 24, 2015 [41 favorites]


Here we go with the breadsplainin'.
posted by phaedon at 9:36 AM on January 24, 2015 [11 favorites]


You really can't blame minorities for not wanting to feel any more pain. Oui?
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 9:37 AM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


Somebody got up on the wrong side of the pancake this morning.
posted by oceanjesse at 9:42 AM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


Somebody wants a cookie.
posted by amorphatist at 9:46 AM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


Whenever I see MeTas like this I end up going to the "Day in MeFi History" sidebar. I've only been reading this site for a couple years, but it seems to me that appeals to particular standards or tradition here represent an idealized sort of memory not backed up by the actual "quality" of the site on any given day 10 years ago (or 5, whatever).
posted by stinkfoot at 10:17 AM on January 24, 2015 [5 favorites]


SLICED ALL MY LIFE .🍞🍞🍞
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 10:18 AM on January 24, 2015 [26 favorites]


(that dot is a crumb)
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 10:20 AM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]




feel free to popover to another thread (or site) if you don't like it.
posted by misskaz at 10:22 AM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


As long as we're on topic, meet Bernd the Bread.
posted by ipsative at 10:24 AM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


I find the punning distasteful. This topic is breadly serious.
posted by amorphatist at 10:31 AM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


I was actively ignoring it, because that only makes the post worse.

No, you were pretending that your objection was something other than it actually is, because you're aware that your actual objection is not one shared by the majority of the user base and wouldn't gain any traction. You therefore made a disingenuous bullshit meta so that you could gripe with the audience that your ho-hum viewpoint apparently merits in your mind.

But since you insist on mentioning it -- would the same thing have been let in if the editorial snarking was making a men's rights point? Of course not. It would have been flagged and deleted instantly.

Your speculations about the imagined outcomes of things that have not actually happened are not actually the big rhetorical burn you think they are.

I am not a men's rights activist, or even a conservative per se, by the way, though I'm sure people have immediately leapt to that conclusion. (And really it should not matter if I were. So why am I mentioning it? Because the reality is that it does matter: it gives me more credibility here.)

Well, when you start where you have, your credibility is already in the cellar, and this doesn't help. The issue is not how you identify your own political stance, it's whether or not your issues with the bread post are shared by a wide enough percentage of the people here that some further action is needed. It appears that they aren't.

What I am is someone who likes to see a site with viewpoints from across the ideological spectrum, and wants a free-spirited rough-and-tumble of ideas. I try to fight the echo chamber and filter bubble effect here. It appears to be a losing fight.

This is bullshit. "Free-spirited rough-and-tumble" just means that people get to shoot their fool mouths off without regard to the effect that their behavior has on other people here. The "site" has no viewpoint. The members, collectively, have a wide variety of viewpoints, including viewpoints about what kind of posts they want to see on the front page. Your own viewpoint in that regard, and particular in relationship to the post you're complaining about, doesn't seem to line up with the broad consensus.

And should you take it upon yourself to break up the supposed echo chamber? Who asked ya? You don't seem to be bringing any argument to the table beyond your own personal taste, and that's just not as compelling as you seem to think it should be.

If the gender editorializing is what made this bad post acceptable, then this should be posted in the guidelines: "We do not welcome posts with views to the right of Andrea Dworkin, but even bad posts otherwise will be accepted." Let's face up to the truth of what the Blue is turning into, a place where the quality threshold for accepted posts is very low, but the political correctness threshold is very high.

Ok, Rush.
posted by Ipsifendus at 10:33 AM on January 24, 2015 [35 favorites]


Tater bread
posted by clavdivs at 10:35 AM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


Are product catalog pages now "best of the web"?

Not according to Breaderidge's Law of internet posts.
posted by Golden Eternity at 10:38 AM on January 24, 2015 [6 favorites]


Metafilter: issues with the bread post
posted by amorphatist at 10:42 AM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


Are we overthinking a slice of bread?
posted by HuronBob at 10:52 AM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


If the gender editorializing is what made this bad post acceptable

It being a not-a-big-deal kinda-goofy post that isn't the acme of Serious Metafilter Posting but is nonetheless easily within the realm of the normal mix of serious-and-goofy that has characterized the front page since forever is what made it acceptable. It was not a post anyone would engrave a plaque about, but most posts aren't. You don't have to like it, most folks won't like everything on the front page, but your reaction to it here has seemed pretty overzealous and disconnected from the actual casual reality of what the front page tends to look like.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:56 AM on January 24, 2015 [22 favorites]


Quick shout-out to invitapriore for calling this one from the get-go:

For serious though it's not the thinnest post we've had by a country mile which makes me think that what we're hearing here is less grain being milled than an axe being ground.
posted by tonycpsu at 11:11 AM on January 24, 2015 [11 favorites]


I can't even wrap my mind around how deep and powerful one's hatred of 'political correctness' must be to take serious offense at people joking about gendered bread.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 11:12 AM on January 24, 2015 [22 favorites]


It's the same old, though: _____ist people don't want to admit they're _____ist because that means they stop getting to receive primary consideration in all things.

So they attack 'political correctness' out of fear that they won't be special anymore. And by extension, that the less special people will be, gasp, equal.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 11:15 AM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


Crêpe, I'd flatbread out missed that post! Thanks for raising my awareness, I'll roll on over there now.
posted by billiebee at 11:16 AM on January 24, 2015 [5 favorites]




These threads are never about the actual post. They're about some other, previously deleted post that the OP feels shouldn't have been.
posted by yellowcandy at 11:24 AM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


Loave'n it or leaven it, for butter or wurst -- bake your choux, shivohum
posted by jamjam at 11:25 AM on January 24, 2015 [4 favorites]


For the OP: if you're short of ideas for dinner tonight, here's one of Britain's most famous meals. God Save The Queen.
posted by Wordshore at 11:30 AM on January 24, 2015 [4 favorites]


not bloody. unless there's something about bread making i'm unaware of.

No, the blood only really comes into play when you're making pie:
Hark, villains! I will grind your bones to dust
And with your blood and it I'll make a paste,
And of the paste a coffin I will rear
And make two pasties of your shameful heads;
And bid that strumpet, your unhallow'd dam,
Like to the earth swallow her own increase.
...and that's good eatin'!
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 11:36 AM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


Come on man, maybe make some serious suggestions if you want to be taken seriously? It was a lighthearted "Hey isn't this weird?" post on a Friday night which is not that unusual of a thing. Discussion followed. No one's being coy. The guidelines haven't changed. This was something interesting on the web that other people hadn't seen that started an interesting discussion. 1, 2, 3.

Thanks for the friendly, reasonable tone.

Taking it in under the lighthearted category, though, seems to me to be the problem: it's lighthearted precisely because it played to sentiments that many here share. But would the same kind of post that didn't share that ideological bent also be considered lighthearted and get a pass on quality?

I'm just suggesting that the mods should seriously consider the issue, and make a more conscious, transparent decision as to what's really permitted.

You don't have to like it, most folks won't like everything on the front page

And that's fine. It's not about what I like or dislike -- it's about having more uniformity and openness about what is deleted and why. Why are thin posts sometimes allowed and sometimes not allowed? Let's specify. It doesn't have to be an exact rule, but more clarity would be helpful. Is the number of flags a post gets grounds by itself for deletion, and if not, what saves it? And what does that mean for the ideological diversity of the site? Let's get specific.

That transparency would force some decision-making about what the site is really going to be; it is very easy to slip into becoming an echo chamber without even knowing it's happening. All it takes is a steady stream of individual mod decisions that steer away from "controversial" thoughts and opinions and towards majority-approved viewpoints.

And I can totally understand when the mods do that, because controversy creates a lot of unpleasantness, and doubly so with a reduced staff. But the long-term consequence of a such a series of decisions could be a real and totally unintended diminishment of the site.

must be to take serious offense at people joking about gendered bread.

I wasn't remotely offended, just annoyed by the fact that low-quality posts seem to be getting a pass just so long as "everyone" is snickering about what "everyone" agrees on.
posted by shivohum at 11:41 AM on January 24, 2015


...a place where the quality threshold for accepted posts is very low, but the political correctness threshold is very high.

They see me rollin'
They hatin'

posted by drlith at 11:43 AM on January 24, 2015 [14 favorites]


Overthinking a plate of buns.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:44 AM on January 24, 2015 [8 favorites]


What you see as low-quality, we don't.

Want to see better posts? Make some.

it's about having more uniformity and openness about what is deleted and why. Why are thin posts sometimes allowed and sometimes not allowed?

Because this is MetaFilter and there are very few hard and fast rules which has been the case since the first cat got wedged in the first scanner, and you know this.

Your comments are coming across as seriously disingenuous.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 11:44 AM on January 24, 2015 [19 favorites]


Forgive us if we're not moved by pleas for transparency from someone who didn't have the stones to be transparent about what this MeTa was actually about until it became clear that it wasn't actually about ethics in gendered bread.
posted by tonycpsu at 12:03 PM on January 24, 2015 [20 favorites]


drlith I regret I have only one favorite to give to that picture.
posted by winna at 12:05 PM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


Why are thin posts sometimes allowed and sometimes not allowed? Let's specify. It doesn't have to be an exact rule, but more clarity would be helpful.

We're never going to have an exact rule; that's totally unworkable and at odds with how this place works. The idea of a firm, quantitatively enforceable set of decisions for whether a given post will be/won't be deleted is a non-starter.

What we do have, and have reiterated for years and years: the idea that a lot of things will play into whether a post gets deleted or not, some things weighted more heavily than others, and it comes down to being a sort of probabilistic thing depending in part on the current circumstances, rather than something that can be sorted into will vs. won't buckets.

This is an example of a post that sits in pretty shruggo territory; it's not some landmark post, but it's also not a typo-filled link to a Daily Mail editorial rant. It's just sorta fine, and went fine, and there we go.

If your feeling is that there's a problem because a different post that wasn't this one would be badly received because it was different, that's not something we can really answer; that kind of Yeah But What If counterfactual is more the stuff of arguments over beer than mod policy.

But the long-term consequence of a such a series of decisions could be a real and totally unintended diminishment of the site.

Or it could be that things are actually going pretty okay in general, the site's fine, and you dislike some of what gets posted here anyway and project that into a decline narrative. I don't think we can settle an abstract argument about this based on a disagreement about that general point, and I think if your concerns are about the ideological content of that post or about the ideological content of some actual other counter-examples that were deleted, you should have been a whole lot clearer about it up front instead of framing your complaint as being about this post being too thin and linking to product pages.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:05 PM on January 24, 2015 [18 favorites]


Like shivohum, I have long been aware that the opinions of the pro-gendered-bread factions on MetaFilter have been silenced. Ladybread may seem silly to some of you PC Dworkinite feminazis, but some of us take it seriously indeed.

hamburger
bun
posted by neroli at 12:06 PM on January 24, 2015 [8 favorites]


It seems relevant that these "Yeah But What Ifs" are never testable, because the anti-PC crusaders are too fucking lazy to make the actual posts that they think would be silenced.
posted by tonycpsu at 12:08 PM on January 24, 2015 [11 favorites]


Ladybread would be a pretty awesome band name.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 12:08 PM on January 24, 2015 [6 favorites]


on a quick search, the first straight forward accusation of metafilter slipping into an echo chamber appears to date back to 2003. it seems like we're already there and so far gone that there's no hope or that this accusation has always been sky is falling bullshit (and to my eye, nearly always pushed by the i'm-just-telling-it-like-it-is-political-correctness-gone-maaaaaaaad types - make of that what you will).
posted by nadawi at 12:08 PM on January 24, 2015 [10 favorites]


nadawi that's just the kind of thing someone in league with Big LadyBread would say.
posted by winna at 12:14 PM on January 24, 2015 [13 favorites]


Are product catalog pages now "best of the web"?

"Best of the web" was deprecated what, almost a decade ago now?
posted by Chrysostom at 12:17 PM on January 24, 2015


it is very easy to slip into becoming an echo chamber without even knowing it's happening.

How come any time someone mentions the "echo chamber" of mefi it's always a complaint targeted towards people agreeing that racism and sexism and homophobia and transphobia &c &c &c are terrible things that we want no part of. Like oh my god, I can't imagine anything more ghastly and oppressive than being somewhere where people openly agree not to tolerate bigotry, this is your complaint? This is always dressed up in some really hilariously transparent requests for "fairness" and "open debate" and "ideological diversity" and it's so gross, so incredibly gross.

tl:dr you're not fooling anyone
posted by poffin boffin at 12:22 PM on January 24, 2015 [60 favorites]


It's the Fox News/Rush Limbaugh version of "Fair and Balanced."
posted by soundguy99 at 12:34 PM on January 24, 2015


The idea of a firm, quantitatively enforceable set of decisions for whether a given post will be/won't be deleted is a non-starter.

Who said anything about quantitatively? You can get far more transparent without making it some sort of mathematical equation.

"Posts which contain viewpoints which go against American left-wing opinion -- think Rachel Maddow or Glenn Greenwald -- tend to generate a lot of heated discussion, and are therefore much less likely to be approved unless they are of exceptionally high quality."

See how easy that is if that is the case? It need not be quantitatively enforceable.

Look, it's ok to have a site where only posts of a certain quality are allowed. Whatever that threshold, the original post fell below it.

It's also ok to have a site where posts regardless of quality are allowed.

The problem comes about when the site allows posts of some ideologies to come in at much lower quality thresholds than others -- especially when that rule is hidden in an undisclosed weighting, perhaps one that disapproves of controversy.

instead of framing your complaint as being about this post being too thin and linking to product pages.

The post was too thin and posts which just link to product pages paired with an editorializing comment should not be allowed, period, in my opinion. But IF they are going to be allowed, they should be allowed across the ideological board.
posted by shivohum at 12:36 PM on January 24, 2015


Look, it's ok to have a site where only posts of a certain quality are allowed. Whatever that threshold, the original post fell below it.

You are literally the only person in this thread, to say nothing of the however many hundred comments in the original post, who seems to feel this way.

But IF they are going to be allowed, they should be allowed across the ideological board.

Why? Some ideologies are hateful. We should give them airtime because?
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 12:38 PM on January 24, 2015 [9 favorites]


yes because remember if your hateful viewpoint is shunned by the majority of metafilter then you are the true minority being oppressed
posted by poffin boffin at 12:42 PM on January 24, 2015 [21 favorites]


But IF they are going to be allowed, they should be allowed across the ideological board.

Seriously, can you give me an example of a post you think would be the ideological counterweight to "haha, ladybread"? Are you literally talking about a pro-gendered-bread post?
posted by neroli at 12:44 PM on January 24, 2015 [12 favorites]


shivohum, I don't know if your real objection here is mainly to thin posts (when you would prefer to see meaty posts about serious issues) or mainly to the idea that jokes with anti-feminist presuppositions would go badly here. But supposing it's the former, I think honestly we have the same mix of serious and silly that we've always had.

We have a site where we have a mix of things, with a certain degree of unpredictability in what stands, depending on a bunch of factors because deletions are managed by human beings. Also we have a site where mods will explain their reasoning for those decisions, as I did with absolute candor at the beginning of this post.

I find it weird that you continue to harp on the idea that this is deceptive. My explanation at the top is exactly the real reasoning for leaving the post up. You're right that it was a thin post (as I said), which under many circumstances would have been deleted. The circumstances last night were such that I felt it was ok to let it stand even though it was thin. Those circumstances were: it was Friday night, it was a post about a totally silly thing that everybody is going to find silly, so it's going to be a place for bread jokes or for goofing on the (I hope you agree, silly) idea of gender-unrelated things being made in a pink version "for women."

I'm not sure why you think the latter is a deeply ideologically laden thing -- don't you think it's silly to have pink bread for the ladies, or have special man bread? That doesn't seem feminist to me particularly, just preposterous in a goof-ass "marketing is nuts" way.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 12:47 PM on January 24, 2015 [19 favorites]


IF they are going to be allowed, they should be allowed across the ideological board.

There's no indication that's not happening. I know proving a negative is a lousy and thankless task, but honestly I feel like what you're saying is that a lightweight "Look at this goofy thing" post that rankles some people because they don't agree that the thing is goofy should somehow not be allowed. And I hear what you're saying, there are some groups it's a lot less okay to post "Look at these wacky ________" posts about.

Offhand, usually I think about the mentally ill, nasty stereotypes about people from different races (but especially people of color) intended to be "ironic", posts that make fun of poor people (this one gets touchy here a lot). "Point and laugh" type posts of a lot of different types usually don't go okay whether they're pointing and laughing at MRA folks, Anne Coulter, feminist posturers or save the whales folks. But it's less because they're editorializing than because they bring out the worst in this community and usually that's more heat than light.

This was, what, gently making fun of hippies? Canadian hippies? So I get that you don't think it's funny and found the ensuing grabassery sort of dumb, but then we're really back in the "You're not going to like every post" territory. I get that it sat wrong with you, but I'm really not seeing the editorializing (besides "this is goofy, gendered bread is goofy") unless you're really talking about something that has almost nothing to do with this post.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 12:48 PM on January 24, 2015 [5 favorites]


I am not a men's rights activist, or even a conservative per se

I am a conservative (though NOT a men's rights activist I hasten to add) and I think mass marketed gendered bread products is ridiculous and deserving of mockery. I found the post amusing and appropriate.
posted by Jahaza at 12:49 PM on January 24, 2015 [18 favorites]


But IF they are going to be allowed, they should be allowed across the ideological [bread] board.

Oh for Quidnuc Kid's Sake.

Is this really the hill of oats and barley you want to die on?

To the extent that there are issues with politics and religion and one-sidedness on Metafilter, this is not that problem.
posted by Jahaza at 12:53 PM on January 24, 2015 [4 favorites]


Who said anything about quantitatively? You can get far more transparent without making it some sort of mathematical equation.

Except there's already a whole lot of transparency here—we'll talk about the decisions we make and why and how at tedious length, and have done so consistently for as long as metatalk has been around. What you're asking for is for us to accept the axe-grinding characterization you're trying to put in our mouths, which is bullshit and we aren't going to comply with that.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:54 PM on January 24, 2015 [6 favorites]


I'm not sure why you think the latter is a deeply ideologically laden thing -- don't you think it's silly to have pink bread for the ladies, or have special man bread? That doesn't seem feminist to me particularly, just preposterous in a goof-ass "marketing is nuts" way.

Also, it seems like it's almost certainly nutrition-science hokum.
posted by Jahaza at 12:55 PM on January 24, 2015


Canadian hippies

We smell like patchouli and maple syrup
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 12:55 PM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


The post was too thin and posts which just link to product pages paired with an editorializing comment should not be allowed, period, in my opinion. But IF they are going to be allowed, they should be allowed across the ideological board.

Look, it's pretty clear this is riling you up more than it otherwise would thanks to the (barely) feminist angle. "Look at this ridiculous mass media thing" -- for instance, an ad for something outlandishly luxuriant, literally only affordable by (or desirable to) a new upper strata of wealth -- doesn't make for a great post, but it's not like there isn't precedent.

I am a conservative (though NOT a men's rights activist I hasten to add) and I think mass marketed gendered bread products is ridiculous and deserving of mockery. I found the post amusing and appropriate.

Yeah, this is a great point. Making fun of bread, of all things, being marketed to us in a new ridiculous gendered way is something that the straight-shooting heartland conservative can get behind (death of civilization, "in my day," etc.) as easily as the snide elitist city-dweller. Hell, I'd imagine even a true MRA-type would have no objection to laughing at this bread company's crass opportunism. So...it's really looking like you picked the wrong post to grind this axe on?
posted by nobody at 1:01 PM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


I think people have been discussing this calmly without condemning any conservatives to the deepest pita hell.

The framing of the MeTa does seem a bit disingenuous so I doubt you'll get the outcome you're after, shivohum. Oh well; you made your bread, now rye in it.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 1:01 PM on January 24, 2015 [15 favorites]


Yep, we're all going to hell in a breadbasket.
posted by Melismata at 1:02 PM on January 24, 2015 [5 favorites]


Thanks, winna. The fresh stylings of #Bread Rappa have been grossly underappreciated in the hip-hop community. I mean, who can forget lyrical gems like "My anaconda don't want none unless you got buns, hun" and "I got 99 problems, but a brioche ain't one."
posted by drlith at 1:09 PM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


I really wish we could take this topic a bit more seriously. Bread puns? Is that really the best we can do? How about we touch on what the real elephant in the room is?

The hell does leotrotsky have against cheese?
posted by Celsius1414 at 1:12 PM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


So...it's really looking like you picked the wrong post to grind this axe bread-knife on?

TRY people.
posted by Jahaza at 1:12 PM on January 24, 2015 [4 favorites]


Taking it in under the lighthearted category, though, seems to me to be the problem: it's lighthearted precisely because it played to sentiments that many here share.

So basically you want this site to be more tolerant of posts making fun of blacks, gays, trans* people, women, equality etc.? I've seen that site, and its called the rest of the internet. No thanks.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 1:37 PM on January 24, 2015 [16 favorites]


Aren't there supposed to be recipes by now?
posted by 4ster at 1:44 PM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


TRY people

Eeeeasy. We are breadst of the web. Don't baguettellize what we already have achieved.
posted by Namlit at 1:44 PM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


We smell like patchouli and maple syrup

* faints *
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 1:45 PM on January 24, 2015 [12 favorites]


*faints*


The terrible thing is, I know such people.
posted by Namlit at 1:48 PM on January 24, 2015


Yeah Namlit, it's called Saltspring Island.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 1:52 PM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


Isn't there a whole chunk of the Bible where people are endlessly baguetting each other?
posted by Mr. Yuck at 2:02 PM on January 24, 2015 [9 favorites]


This is really a request for affirmative action in MeFi moderator policy, isn't it?

When liberals and conservatives talk about affirmative action, the fulcrum of the debate is often "equality of opportunity" versus "equality of outcome." To a conservative, as long as everyone has had an opportunity to prove themselves, the specifics of how their appeals are viewed in the marketplace of ideas should not be questioned or influenced in an effort to compensate for the biases of the population that's evaluating each applicant. Liberals, generally supportive of affirmative action, recognize that biases exist, and that in order to address the fact that there are very few ways to evaluate true merit, and that these biases are often disguised as allegations of insufficient merit, public policy should provide a countervailing force to combat this bias.

What I see here -- and please, correct me if I'm wrong -- is a request to encode equality of outcomes into MetaFilter moderation decisions. That is, as long as two FPPs are of the same objective "quality" (leaving aside the difficulties of measuring a post's quality), we must ensure that the biases of the MetaFilter user base have no opportunity to influence the moderation policy. In other words, the user base should not be able to say "this is content we believe is low quality", because they may actually be reflecting some of their ideological bias into their evaluation of the post's quality. This puts the moderators (themselves not free of their own biases) in a position where they are asked to evaluate quality, and when they feel the post is low quality, consider that maybe their biases are causing them to unfairly evaluate it.

Tell me -- how is this not a request for equality of outcomes for liberal and conservative viewpoints on the front page?
posted by tonycpsu at 2:02 PM on January 24, 2015 [4 favorites]


Isn't there a whole chunk of the Bible where people are endlessly baguetting each other?

Proverbs 17:1 "Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than an internet community full of feasting, with strife."
posted by Golden Eternity at 2:08 PM on January 24, 2015


What I see here -- and please, correct me if I'm wrong --

But this one goes to e-leaven.
posted by phaedon at 2:09 PM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


To continue my struggle with assuming good faith from users, I'm going to take this MeTa seriously and offer that in my understanding of MeFi culture the mods are a bit more casual with Friday posts. The first post that I ever made on the blue was about the pope offering indulgences via twitter. I specifically waited until a Friday to post it as I was aiming for the post to be more "haha the juxtaposition of papal business and twitter" and less "haha Catholics," and I hoped that posting it on a Friday would help cast it in the goofy light that I intended. So, it's not surprising to me that a strange gender-bread post rolled up on a Friday night and everyone made a joke about it. That aligns somewhat with my understanding of the Mores of MeFi. I mean, yes, it's a thin post, but it's also a Friday post.
posted by Shouraku at 2:19 PM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


I love a good, thin slice of post.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 2:23 PM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


Wait, are you guys absolutely sure that science hasn't proven that men's bodies naturally crave hard, manly vitamins in their enriched bread, like iron, selenium, and puppy dog tails, while women need more soft and yielding fare like calcium, vitamin D, and everything nice?
posted by sfenders at 2:23 PM on January 24, 2015 [7 favorites]


Cries of "political correctness" have never meant anything other than someone sneering at minorities getting uppity.

Oh, i don't like your tone at all. Clearly you need to be baked a little longer.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:31 PM on January 24, 2015


I always like to point out that matt's first post to the site was about scanning cats.

Best of the web doesn't mean what you think it means, in other words, and goofy lightweight posts are our oldest tradition.

Laugh. Cry. Pun. Metafilter.
posted by spitbull at 2:34 PM on January 24, 2015 [5 favorites]


Some of these puns are sooo bad, I read them over and over though and all I can do is just let out a multi-groan.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 2:37 PM on January 24, 2015 [6 favorites]


Some are bad, many are incredibly deft, A+ punning. It's a multigrain thread.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 2:38 PM on January 24, 2015


I've never associated "butthurt" with gay anything. To me, it's a reference to the painful tearing in one's anus when one's poops are too big. That's how my husband and I use it, at least.
posted by Jacqueline at 2:39 PM on January 24, 2015


like a bagel?
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 2:41 PM on January 24, 2015


A dark bagel?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:43 PM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


I always like to point out that matt's first post to the site was about scanning cats.

And clearly the PC echo chamber was in place from the start:

July 14, 1999 6:03 PM
Cat-Scan.com is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their scanners, or why. But when the glorious revolution comes, and all the white men are made to pay for their crimes, perhaps we'll find out.

posted by mathowie (115 comments total) [add to favorites] 132 users marked this as a favorite [!]


does anyone read the posts down here?
posted by phooey at 4:50 PM on October 13, 2000 [49 favorites +] [!]

i do.
posted by AndreaDworkin at 6:12 PM on November 17, 2000 [937 favorites +] [!]
posted by neroli at 2:45 PM on January 24, 2015 [14 favorites]


Metafilter: the painful tearing in ...

Never mind.
posted by spitbull at 2:45 PM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


All I know is that whenever I drop my toast, it lands butthurt side down.
posted by chavenet at 2:46 PM on January 24, 2015 [5 favorites]


Funny, when I scan my cat the same thing happens.
posted by spitbull at 2:49 PM on January 24, 2015


> I mean, who can forget lyrical gems like "My anaconda don't want none unless you got buns, hun"

That's a misquote of the lyric, I think? I always heard it as "My anadama don't want none unless you got buns, hun."
posted by rtha at 2:54 PM on January 24, 2015 [5 favorites]


Actually, it's about ethics in grain journalism.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 2:56 PM on January 24, 2015 [23 favorites]


But would the same kind of post that didn't share that ideological bent also be considered lighthearted and get a pass on quality?

Dude (I'm going to assume dude, here): it isn't really clear what you're after. What exactly is the "ideological bent" one must exhibit in order to think gendered bread is ridiculous (and thus amusing to mock)? Can you give an example of a different valid take on gendered bread, so we don't have to talk about the "rough and tumble" of ideas in such abstract terms?
posted by busted_crayons at 3:14 PM on January 24, 2015 [6 favorites]


"I always like to point out that matt's first post to the site was about scanning cats."

That was absolutely, positively, 100% Best of the Web™.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 3:15 PM on January 24, 2015


Oh for Quidnu[n]c Kid's Sake. Is this really the hill of oats and barley you want to die on?
posted by Jahaza at 8:53 PM on January 24


As a confirmed "quidnunc's rights activist," or "QRA," I just wonder how my name is being used here - in place of a deity (which apotheosis I humbly approve of), or in place of a vulgar expression, perhaps for fornication? Time for MeFi to finally admit its ideological bias - am I to be your "god", or your "fuck"? Either way, vote #1! I just need to know what outfit to wear to the inauguration.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 3:17 PM on January 24, 2015 [42 favorites]


I've never associated "butthurt" with gay anything. To me, it's a reference to the painful tearing in one's anus when one's poops are too big. That's how my husband and I use it, at least.

I'm in the "butthurt means fussy whiner" camp, and my association is literally the exact opposite: butthurt is how you act when you have an enormous stick up your ass and you're really, really angry about it.
posted by The Master and Margarita Mix at 3:18 PM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


Butthurt Origin:

The term “butthurt” originates from spanking, the act of striking the buttocks of another person, which is often seen as a method of punishing a child. Though some cultures view this as an acceptable form of discipline, it can be interpreted as abusive corporal punishment. Online, one of the earliest archived mentions of “butthurt” appeared in a 1998 comment posted on the website of Swiss surrealist painter H. R. Giger.

“Hollywood has tossed Giger for more talented artists, and even those artist who can emulate his style, without the tears and the hurt butts. If giger reads this I would be amazed, not only that he can comprehend a bunch of letters placed into groups and spaced randomly to create words which in turn create sentances, but that he can even UNDERSTAND the INTERNET! GIGER is LAME. all he can do is rely on his ALIEN paintings to make him famous! Well I used to be impressed until I read all this BUTTHURT he has been going through. Oh poor baby Giger.”

The comment was left by a poster named Doug in responding to Giger’s grievance over not being credited as a designer for sequel titles in the Aliens franchise. In the original 1979 film Alien, Giger based the extraterrestrial monsters after one of his 1976 paintings, Necronom IV.
posted by Shouraku at 3:25 PM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


While acknowledging that "Breaking Bad" is an anagram of "baking bread", one noticed this quest in the MMORPG Dofus.
posted by Wordshore at 3:58 PM on January 24, 2015


I think fun light hearted posts are fine, I just skip them when I've had my fill of whimsy likewise there are site norms about politics and stuff, and it's true that extra care is kneaded when going against them. But I think those norms are both pretty transparent, and the help the site rise over its competitors.

I think you just have to be the biga man, here
posted by smoke at 4:11 PM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


Does anyone read the posts down here?

Waffles and beans..............
posted by bjgeiger at 4:14 PM on January 24, 2015


Wait hold on since when is "a company is now selling gendered bread" some kind of leftist tirade? I mean if there were a post equally thin about the evils of capitalism or how the US should unilaterally and permanently pull out of any war/"armed conflict" anywhere in the world, or, shit, if you want to talk srs radical feminist bsns, a post about some controversial goings on at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, yeah, sure, that's pointless and axe-grindy and probably spoiling for a fight.

But is even the most strident anti-feminist in favor of gendered bread? Really? For real?
posted by Sara C. at 4:43 PM on January 24, 2015 [9 favorites]


yeah you'd think they'd want to PREVENT women from having anything especially for them, right?
posted by poffin boffin at 4:49 PM on January 24, 2015 [4 favorites]


OK, so I just read this whole bizarre thread, including the baseless complaint that began it.

And I can only ask, wheat the hell is all this naan-sense?
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 4:51 PM on January 24, 2015 [4 favorites]


It's like some people think PCU was a documentary.
posted by tonycpsu at 4:51 PM on January 24, 2015


do we all love naan as much as this thread would indicate or is it just a handy word.

y'all need to get deeper with Indian kulcha.
posted by winna at 4:54 PM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


I mean I ain't gonna lie I adore me some naan. I could eat all the naan in the world without taking a breath.
posted by winna at 4:54 PM on January 24, 2015 [4 favorites]


Naan is humanity's greatest achievement. Roti is a close second. No puns, this is too important.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 4:56 PM on January 24, 2015 [12 favorites]


Onion naan or garlic naan, that is the question.

BOTH HAHAHAHAH
posted by winna at 4:58 PM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


Dosa some good points, winna.

(Chinese breads need some love too. Who wants to take on the mantou of this responsibility? Not me, I'm baoing out.)
posted by wintersweet at 4:59 PM on January 24, 2015 [11 favorites]


Oh, Fritters.
posted by clavdivs at 5:12 PM on January 24, 2015


What is the ideology that favors gendered bread? I'm crust curious.
posted by Area Man at 5:20 PM on January 24, 2015 [5 favorites]


That's a bit chaffy.
posted by clavdivs at 5:26 PM on January 24, 2015


I think it's not that conservatives think gendered bread is ok (although, maybe they do?) I think there's a deep down fear of meaning, and of meaning being out of the control of traditional power. How dare someone decide that it's inappropriate to market something inherently universal in a pointlessly gendered way just because of what they decided the deeper meaning was. I am supposed to be the one who decides what's appropriate and what things mean. It's been that way ever since the virus of hierarchy invested my forefathers with that power.

I'm not good at puns.
posted by bleep at 5:26 PM on January 24, 2015 [10 favorites]


If thin posts weren't okay, we wouldn't be able to enjoy about 70 percent of what Matt posts.
posted by maxsparber at 5:55 PM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


I am supposed to be the one who decides what's appropriate and what things mean.

I find this an interesting line of analysis, bleep - and of course it calls to mind the infamous question Humpty Dumpty puts to Alice in Through the Looking Glass about the meaning of (his) words: "The question is, which is to be master."
posted by the quidnunc kid at 6:04 PM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


What is the ideology that favors gendered bread?

Christian? Pagan? Ancient Roman? Probably something medieval.
"the women and children carried in the procession, at the end of their palm branches, a phallus made of bread, which they called undisguisedly a pinne, and which, having been blest by the priest, the women carefully preserved during the following year as an amulet. A similar practice existed at St. Jean-d'Angély, where small cakes, made in the form of the phallus, and named fateux, were carried in the procession of the Fête-Dieu, or Corpus Christi. Shortly before the time when Dulaure wrote, this practice was suppressed by a new sous-préfet, M. Maillard. The custom of making cakes in the form of the sexual members, male and female, dates from a remote antiquity ..."
posted by sfenders at 6:12 PM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


At the feeding of the 5000, Joy De Vivre did not give the fish to the men and the loaves to the women, or vice versa. Everyone got a bit of both.
posted by busted_crayons at 6:25 PM on January 24, 2015


I'm not good at puns.

It's OK, we got your back. You doughn't knead to be good at puns.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 6:30 PM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


PRUNE DANISH
posted by poffin boffin at 7:08 PM on January 24, 2015 [5 favorites]


sorry i panicked
posted by poffin boffin at 7:08 PM on January 24, 2015 [18 favorites]


Hey, whatever pumpers your nickel.

Hey, I paid a fiver to get in here too. We each get one pun per nickel.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:25 PM on January 24, 2015 [8 favorites]


Baby, I'm-a want you to stop with these puns!
posted by blurker at 10:25 PM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


All right, I think I've said my piece on this topic. Thanks to everyone who responded politely.
posted by shivohum at 10:46 PM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


Well, some folks were able to rise to the occasion.
posted by Celsius1414 at 10:50 PM on January 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


After the rising comes the punching down.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:14 PM on January 24, 2015 [7 favorites]


Wow, either you guys are baked or you're just loafing around.
posted by Elmore at 11:31 PM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


Take one bun, pass it around...
posted by clavdivs at 11:36 PM on January 24, 2015


Baked. Yeah.
posted by rtha at 12:07 AM on January 25, 2015


posts with views to the right of Andrea Dworkin

I always wonder how many folks who invoke Dworkin have actually read her work.
posted by rmd1023 at 8:01 AM on January 25, 2015 [8 favorites]


All right, I think I've said my piece on this topic. Thanks to everyone who responded politely.

"Rough and tumble of ideas", lol.

More like standard FUD-injection/concern-trollery: slink in, make some odious point that not even you believe, then disappear without serious discussion, because you understand human suggestibility enough to know that coherence, truth, and fucking remembering the conclusion of a discussion are less important, rhetorically, than the fact of some drama's having occurred.

In other words -- Ipsifendus's words -- okay, Rush.
posted by busted_crayons at 8:09 AM on January 25, 2015 [6 favorites]


I must say, this whole thing has been pretty half-baked.
posted by octobersurprise at 8:27 AM on January 25, 2015


I like small dumb things! This may also be why I like hermit crabs.

NOT HERMITCRABBIST
posted by busted_crayons at 8:50 AM on January 25, 2015 [2 favorites]


You should be. Those decapod crustaceans are an unsavory lot, can't be trusted.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:03 AM on January 25, 2015


Can I interrupt the punning for a moment to say that today I discovered gluten-free bread from the local bakery that tastes like REAL BREAD!!! I had the most amazing sandwich I've had in the last 3 years (ever since I've gone gluten free) and I just wanted to share that with someone.
posted by colfax at 9:23 AM on January 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Oh, right! I've heard they'll steal your shell right off your back.
posted by busted_crayons at 9:23 AM on January 25, 2015


And they're always crabby! Probably because they're always stuck at home
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:26 AM on January 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


These are fine posts, mind! But I really delight in these kind of one-off single-link "lol genderbread" posts. Where would I have seen that otherwise? Ha ha, it's great! Good times. I'm pretty jazzed that clawsoon posted it! In fact, I often see posts that I worry might get deleted for being "too thin", and wonder if flagging them as fantastic or something might encourage the mods to let them stay.

I can seriously enjoy McDonalds and five star restaurants. I'm perfectly willing to let both coexist here, and to let the former be paced and approved (or not deleted) at the discretion of the mods, even if there isn't a stated criteria for what stays and what doesn't, and at what times. Saying that we indulge in McDonalds occasionally does not mean that there isn't veto power to say, no, we already ate there six times this week, let's give it a break for awhile. Also, I'm cool with that veto power being based on a subjective opinion of timing and appropriateness for the current needs of the community.
posted by SpacemanStix at 9:27 AM on January 25, 2015 [4 favorites]


How come we never go to Burger King?!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:29 AM on January 25, 2015


Am I too late for a bread pun? Or has the thread gone stale?
posted by nubs at 9:56 AM on January 25, 2015 [2 favorites]


How come we never go to Burger King?!

That already is a five star restaurant.
posted by SpacemanStix at 10:05 AM on January 25, 2015


This thread is now just one big pita party.
posted by Rumple at 10:23 AM on January 25, 2015


Saying that we indulge in McDonalds occasionally does not mean that there isn't veto power to say, no, we already ate there six times this week, let's give it a break for awhile.

Yeah, but in the current situation it's more like saying "We already have six salads on the buffet so no more salads! People need to bring main dishes!" only it's a buffet that can expand to accommodate as many dishes as needed — a dish a day from every single person who attends, if they all want to contribute — so complaining that the salads are somehow crowding out the main dishes doesn't seem reasonable.

Just to torture an analogy a bit.
posted by Lexica at 11:43 AM on January 25, 2015 [2 favorites]


'Carby demon' -- and I'm stealing that, IGTLP.
posted by jamjam at 11:45 AM on January 25, 2015


so complaining that the salads are somehow crowding out the main dishes doesn't seem reasonable

It does if you hate salad.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:48 AM on January 25, 2015


only it's a buffet that can expand to accommodate as many dishes as needed — a dish a day from every single person who attends, if they all want to contribute — so complaining that the salads are somehow crowding out the main dishes doesn't seem reasonable.

Just to torture an analogy a bit.


That's a good point. Maybe it's more an issue of not allowing salads to the buffet that have beets in them. Even if anyone can decide not to eat that particular salad themselves, it's still pretty wrong and probably not in good faith to put beets in a salad, and as such, we wouldn't want to encourage something like that.
posted by SpacemanStix at 12:04 PM on January 25, 2015 [1 favorite]




Did you know that there are some 1,100 species of hermit crabs? Also, the terrifyingly awesome coconut crab is actually a type of hermit crab and lives inside a host shell in its youth. Also, crab salad sandwiches are tasty.
posted by drlith at 12:08 PM on January 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Nah. Beets in salad are delicious. Little bit of chevre, pickled or roasted beets, some crispy fried shallots, arugula maybe--or watercress would be better, orange vinaigrette.

What people in this thread are saying is more like "don't piss in the soup."
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 12:08 PM on January 25, 2015 [3 favorites]


Ginger beet sauerkraut, get some.

I never knew I needed this in my mouth. But I do. Oh I do.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 12:13 PM on January 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Ok, I could be persuaded to eat all of those beet things just mentioned.
posted by SpacemanStix at 12:14 PM on January 25, 2015


I've done super thin-sliced raw beets with likewise raw Fuyu persimmon, pea shoots, grapefruit vinaigrette. Tasty! Beets are also great in coleslaw. And candied! omg candied beets. SO GOOD. Do them the same way you'd do candied orange peel. Beets also pair surprisingly well with dark chocolate. And good in cole slaw, shredded raw.

Beets beets beets beets beets.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 12:26 PM on January 25, 2015 [3 favorites]


it's still pretty wrong and probably not in good faith to put beets in a salad

Your favourite band sucks.
posted by busted_crayons at 12:38 PM on January 25, 2015


I had beet beer last night. It was tasty but I just liked saying it over and over beetbeer beetbeer beetbeer.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 2:16 PM on January 25, 2015 [5 favorites]


You know what're good? Beets by Dre.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 3:21 PM on January 25, 2015 [6 favorites]


There's a restaurant near my office that serves a "Big Bowl of Beets." Does what it says on the tin.
posted by spitbull at 7:34 PM on January 25, 2015 [2 favorites]


As an Australian I am concerned about the Friday Night Rule. In order to comply I would have to post my thin, fat-free FPP on Saturday morning, a time when I am no longer sufficiently baked, fermented or stoneground to think that was a fun thing to do. At that time - glutenous, barely risen and far from lite-hearted - I am donning my floury pink wrapper and heading off to work to prove myself worthy of the pitance they pay me.

Now I'm well-bread, my parents raised me right. I'm not trying to kneadle the mods, or beet up on them. Whichever way you slice it, MetaFilter is still buttered on both sides for me. It's just an unfortunate "jam yesterday, jam tomorrow but no jam today" situation. And I like to jam.
posted by valetta at 8:06 PM on January 25, 2015 [5 favorites]


Just keep yr Marmite/Vegemite-pickin' hands offa the Blue is all I ask.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 8:21 PM on January 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


But Joseph Gurl, it puts a rose in every cheek. What could possibly be wrong with strewing a few cheeky roses on the Blue?
posted by valetta at 8:32 PM on January 25, 2015

What does the lovely flush in a beauty's cheek mean to a doctor but a "break" that ripples above some deadly disease? Are not all her visible charms sown thick with what are to him the signs and symbols of hidden decay?
Mark Twain
posted by Joseph Gurl at 8:35 PM on January 25, 2015


WWMTS?*

"Two Ways of Seeing an FPP" could well be the title of this thread.

*What Would Mark Twain Say
posted by valetta at 8:51 PM on January 25, 2015


(as a GMT+9 resident, I sympathize with your plight, btw. And I have nothing against yeast extract, despite the horrible crimes it's committed against perfect good toast over the years.)
posted by Joseph Gurl at 9:00 PM on January 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Quidnunc, you are my fucking god!
posted by a humble nudibranch at 2:05 PM on February 1, 2015


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