ottawa foodies

Is it just me, or are things taking a snarky turn around here in the last few days? I've noticed particularly with Trailer Pork Boys, Fudge Factory (?) and the new fro yo place, both good and bad reviews are getting thumbs down, and people seem to be decidedly grumpy with each other...

Just wondering - maybe it's time to check in with oursleves and give people the benefit of the doubt, including new members, vendor posters, and people we might disagree with? I have always thought of this site as a friendly place, and this kind of behaviour might scare new (valuable!) members off.

Just my thought. Feel free to disagree :)

All the thumbs down you point to seem pretty reasonable to me, especially at Spoon. I think keeping a certain quality of reviews standard is a pretty noble goal and the users on here have a keen eye for nonsense. That said, people are grumpier and way more critical than they used to be me thinks. I think food snobs just have to up the level of snobbyness now that foodieism has gone mainstream.

I never read the reviews just the forums so have not noticed that

One of the things I like about this forum is that it's very democratic. If a review is well written and supported with detail, I will never give it a thumbs down, even if my experiences or opinions are not the same.

I wonder if FF is back from vacation.

Our trusted OF creator/over-seer has a great 'smoothing' effect in here.

The thumbs are a fairly innocuous 'ratings' system.
Is anyone that affected by them?

Perhaps not, but it does annoy me when someone decides that instead of telling me why they disagree with me, they'd rather just click a little button. It seems somewhat cowardly - if you disagree, have the cojones to explain why. You never know, people might just see things from a different perspective if you bother to share one with them.

LOL. That was predictable.

Personally, I laugh when I see the thumbs down... At least you know they took the time to read your post right? lol... Either way, Eat and Love people... dont hate on each other lol... Where's the sense of comraderie that comes along with a good meal?

Still on vacation but checking in remotely... The purpose of the thumbs down is to keep this site democratically exclusive.

Unlike any for-profit venture, our aim is not growth. Our aim is to share the most useful foodie information with a maximum signal to noise ratio. It's difficult to define "signal" and "noise" on a community site like this, but the more thumbs down your posts receive the more likely it is that they are considered noise.

Returning to Ottawa later this week... Have had a blast in Barcelona, Lisbon, and the Algarve. :-)

I just gave you a thumbs down out of insane malevolent jealousy.
SO THERE!

:)

Nice FF. Been a while since I have been there but all great cities.