r/chefknives NEEDS to return

[Southpaw]

So I think the vast majority of us KKF members didn’t frequent r/chefknives too often, but occasionally visited to set a potential Yaxell or Dalstrong buyer on the right path or see someone’s crazy upvoted collection of 2 Masakage gyutos, a Y Kato and 2 Kurosaki gyutos and laugh to yourself that their entire collection is the same 5 overground knives with just slightly different patterns slapped on… but I feel r/chefknives is CRUCIAL to our community.

I started my serious collection years ago, but as a chef I owned a loved knives for about 16 years. My Shun Classic that I got myself at my first head chef job was a huge step, but I was years away from knowing what carbon steel was.

I got all of my foundation of my knowledge from Reddit and probably based my knife purchases for about 18 months before I found out what KKF was. If I didn’t have that Reddit base of knowledge I reckon it wouldve been too intimidating to really join in.

I sent so many people here from r/chefknives, and I myself came from Reddit too. I’d say that over half of the big collectors move on to other hobbies but are replaced with new collectors piped in from Reddit. Without it this community will slowly begin to plateau its growth to then being in decline.

If you’re saying to yourself “why should I care? It’s going to mean less people trying to add that Shig I missed into their cart at the same time!” Well first off the less demand for these knives will absolutely plummet the value of your current collection, but it also will effect the satisfaction you get from your collection.

There’s tons of psychological studies on how social media effects the mind. While it’s more significant with younger generations, the fact is- “likes” release dopamine. The ability to show off your collection and the feedback and interaction from you fellow hobby followers is what makes it so satisfying.

Ya I went too much on a rant so…
Too Long Don’t Read- I think the overwhelming majority of KKF members have come from Reddit. With r/chefknives no more, our lovely community will slowly die… well, not die, but definitely stop growing and eventually shrink.

Thanks,
Southpaw

 

[jedy617]

KKF has been around for much longer than r/chefknives (at least in its current, popular form) and I think will continue to be just fine even without it. I think this place caters more to enthusiasts (I cringe at saying that).

Regardless I think this place is much more wholesome, there are a good amount of toxic mods and users over there for my taste.

At the end of the day, I think more options are better, even if I don't love that community. I just think everyone will be fine. There are big facebook groups too, discords, etc etc along with just kkf

 

[KasumiJLA]

I like Reddit and I love how I can create my custom feed, to navigate easily in my various passions. I really miss that conviviality and especially r/chefknives and r/sharpening.

But we are slowly adapting to the new reality and I no longer infinite scroll and wasting my time. So suddenly, I have more time to polish

 

[jaydee]

Not to lead this OT but this forum is an offspring from the "in the kitchen" subforum of the old knifeforums.
The majority of members pretty sure came from that source.
But yeah, it is good to have variety and keep any hobby going, spreading wisdom, pushing exchange and fun.

 

[sansho]

i feel that nothing of value was lost and that the online discussion ecosystem would be better off with an exclusive return to independently owned communities without network effects, but i sympathize with those who lost something they value.

 

[labor of love]

Lots of Reddit fresh fish entering the KKF gen pop. Hope everyone grows and gets something out of the experience

 

[user 16756]

The demographics of reddit are very different that this forum, which I think is cool. To a certain extent, I wish folks there would look here more, but w.ever

If we do not work to bring new people into the hobby, be it here or elsewhere, this forum will dwindle. This place is still a great resource but it does feel a lot slower than it did in the past, which is counter to what you'd expect from the pandemic having set many collecting communities on a massive upward trajectory.

What's happening at reddit is a shame. The CEO is just a straight up moron and is getting what he deserved. Unfortunately the users of the site are suffering for it.

 

[chefwp]

I guess I'll miss it a bit, but I won't miss the snarky immaturity that was often part of the deal. I see knives all the time on kkf that truly don't appeal to me, but I'll never try to tear someone down because of my own subjective tastes, I felt like that happened there a lot and I don't see it here. I will say that every knife I've sold online has been through reddit, as I've never gotten any traction here (r/chefknifeswap).

 

[chefwp]

If Yaxell are your thing, good for you. Some passed through my hands, they were part of my education and I didn't think they were terrible. I even still have a 130mm petty from those days that I grab all the time for quick jobs

 

[OkayMode]

see someone’s crazy upvoted collection of 2 Masakage gyutos, a Y Kato and 2 Kurosaki gyutos and laugh to yourself that their entire collection is the same 5 overground knives with just slightly different patterns slapped on…

Why did you have to do me dirty like this…

The subreddit was fine, but it was a big echo chamber, which is not as much of an issue here imo.

There were also way more dicks on the subreddit - ‘your collection is bad and samey’, ‘your new entry level knife that you’re excited to post here sucks and you should be ashamed’ etc.

I more than once had users message me to say my knife skills sucked… Mate, I literally used to work in a kitchen, stop seething because J Kenji Lopez Alt said I don’t need to do two horizontal slices in the onion

I’m pretty sure the gatekeepey stuff like that made users less willing to put themselves out there, resulting in very samey content.

 

[bahamaroot]

r/chefknives NEEDS to return

No....it doesn't.

 

[jedy617]

Why did you have to do me dirty like this…

The subreddit was fine, but it was a big echo chamber, which is not as much of an issue here imo.

There were also way more dicks on the subreddit - ‘your collection is bad and samey’, ‘your new entry level knife that you’re excited to post here sucks and you should be ashamed’ etc.

I more than once had users message me to say my knife skills sucked… Mate, I literally used to work in a kitchen, stop seething because J Kenji Lopez Alt said I don’t need to do two horizontal slices in the onion

I’m pretty sure the gatekeepey stuff like that made users less willing to put themselves out there, resulting in very samey content.

I got a homebutcher mystery box. Showed it off, everyone shi**ed on, made me feel bad about it, then listed it for the same day on chefknifeswap, and then got banned for "flipping"...like what? And they wouldn't unban me unless I wrote an apology letter. I didn't wanna say it but the place is cancer.

 

[M1k3]

I got a homebutcher mystery box. Showed it off, everyone shi**ed on, made me feel bad about it, then listed it for the same day on chefknifeswap, and then got banned for "flipping"...like what? And they wouldn't unban me unless I wrote an apology letter. I didn't wanna say it but the place is cancer.

Did you list it as "Gyuto" or "Chef Knife"?

 

[jedy617]

Tactical cooking instrument actually

 

[Moooza]

Reddit had some really great guides and directories for the questions that get asked over and over again. It would be a shame to lose those.

 

[Mariner]

I got a homebutcher mystery box. Showed it off, everyone shi**ed on, made me feel bad about it, then listed it for the same day on chefknifeswap, and then got banned for "flipping"...like what? And they wouldn't unban me unless I wrote an apology letter. I didn't wanna say it but the place is cancer.

You were banned for refusing to back down when a moderator explained that selling a knife for more than the original cost was considered flipping.

Happy to share the other side of that conversation, though as you wrote on KKF before, you were not proud of the person you were back then.

 

[sansho]

Reddit had some really great guides and directories for the questions that get asked over and over again. It would be a shame to lose those.

i highly doubt those are lost. i bet they're cached somewhere, and you can find them if you're determined.

 

[myguidingmoonlight]

I sure don't miss the frequent "is this rust?" and the same tkv knife posts being upvoted to high heaven there.

 

[superworrier]

Rules are rules and I think you’re alluding to an unpleasant interaction, but I think reselling a mystery box is not flipping.

A mystery box is a gamble. Sometimes you win, sometimes you get something that would be on clearance either. The retailer knows this, and the chance of a good find is what makes people get into it. Saying you can’t “flip” a mystery box is like saying you can’t resell a knife from a paid raffle for more than the ticket price.

Separately, echo chamber is just the nature of Reddit. I think the upvote/downvote system is good for content, bad for comments. It makes everything competitive and thus less civil. It just shows how bad people can be when you pit them against each other.

 

[sansho]

i don't know what the rules were there, and i don't know what their definition of flipping was.

but i agree, it doesn't sound like flipping to me.

 

[user 16756]

Litigating if the situation was flipping seems to be missing the point a bit no?

Besides, that's their rule. There's a lot worth discussing but that sort of thing aint it, in the same way that our no F&F rule isn't a very interesting convo for them.

More interesting is asking where will the folks who were going to that subreddit go? I doubt it will be here in any real great number TBH. This place is a monoculture and if you fit into it great if not it can be unpleasant

 

[superworrier]

Litigating if the situation was flipping seems to be missing the point a bit no?

Besides, that's their rule. There's a lot worth discussing but that sort of thing aint it, in the same way that our no F&F rule isn't a very interesting convo for them.

More interesting is asking where will the folks who were going to that subreddit go? I doubt it will be here in any real great number TBH. This place is a monoculture and if you fit into it great if not it can be unpleasant

You're totally right. I was just commenting on that as an aside. Like it or not, rules are rules, and if you don't follow them, you will get banned. Especially if you are unpleasant about it.


That being said, it's their rule, but I think it's bad and not sure why "it aint it" to discuss it. The reality is is such a rule is not gonna keep prices down, people will just sell their Shigs/Katos elsewhere. I think the "reference price" rule is fair, as it eliminates obvious scams.

 

[user 16756]

You're totally right. I was just commenting on that as an aside. Like it or not, rules are rules, and if you don't follow them, you will get banned. Especially if you are unpleasant about it.


That being said, it's their rule, but I think it's bad and not sure why "it aint it" to discuss it. The reality is is such a rule is not gonna keep prices down, people will just sell their Shigs/Katos elsewhere. I think the "reference price" rule is fair, as it eliminates obvious scams.

Well, it aint it because that's other forum drama.

As opposed to the point of this thread, that even though we may not personally go there, we probably benefit from reddit's chef knife discussion ourselves and it's a real loss that it, like the other subreddits, are going down because of CEO brain.

 

[superworrier]

Fair game IMO because this is a thread about those subreddits, for all their good and bad.

I agree it's a big loss. Although I stopped browsing it, it's a good gateway drug.
Eventually, I think Reddit will just replace the mods for these subreddits if they don't reopen. AFAIK, the way mods are selected is usually just from who "claimed" the subreddit first, and then handed down from then on. The current mods don't have a divine right to the subreddit.

 

[user 16756]

Fair game IMO because this is a thread about those subreddits, for all their good and bad.

I agree it's a big loss. Although I stopped browsing it, it's a good gateway drug.
Eventually, I think Reddit will just replace the mods for these subreddits if they don't reopen. AFAIK, the way mods are selected is usually just from who "claimed" the subreddit first, and then handed down from then on. The current mods don't have a divine right to the subreddit.

The CEO spat in the face of his free labor.

Who do you think is going to do that work? Reddit is not KKF. The volume of things posted in the bigger subreddits is multiple orders of magnitude over the number of posts here. All of those mods were volunteers. Reddit wont pay for people to do it, and they just showed that it's not worth being a volunteer on their site. Reddit is trying to squeeze profitability for an IPO whether it's a good idea or not, there is a 0 percent chance they pay for people to do moderation work if they wont let their moderators use an API to do moderation because it allows them to not look at an ad while they do it.

Worth keeping in mind brands wont advertise if their ads are next to hate speech. So you gotta have mods.

But then, as I said before, the CEO looked at another CEO who lost 40% of his advertisers in a single weekend and decided to do what he was doing, and quite literally got what he deserved.

 

[jedy617]

You were banned for refusing to back down when a moderator explained that selling a knife for more than the original cost was considered flipping.

Happy to share the other side of that conversation, though as you wrote on KKF before, you were not proud of the person you were back then.

I listed the knife for less than original MSRP. What kind of a joke of a place wouldn't allow that? Even if I were to list it for 3x the MSRP, it's my knife I'll list it for whatever the hell I feel like.

I'm not proud of my response to getting banned, but I understand why I said it, and if it happened again I would probably be just as angry, I might voice it differently though. Maybe if you didn't blindly hand out bans, stuff like that wouldn't happen. It was a community I loved up until that point, and I just wanted to sell a frickin knife, and I got shoved out of that community for it.

In case you weren't aware, flipping is buying something with the intention to sell. I sold it because your cancerous community made me feel bad about the knife I got. Only power hungry mods would care about reasons someone decides to sell something anyway.

Regardless you can just tell from this thread it's not just a me thing. Classic reddit mods on power trips with nothing better to do. I mean you're even coming into comment just on this thread when you don't actively participate on this community.

 

[superworrier]

The sad truth is there’s no shortage of people who will mod for free in order to power trip. A very small amount of mods actually control the most popular subs. Doing it for free, it seems like they must enjoy it.


I don’t think Twitter is the negative case people make it out to be. While there was a lot of drama initially, we don’t know current metrics. I assume the CEO of Reddit does. Cutting 75% of your costs can do wonders, and the site hasn’t been destroyed as predicted.

BTW I’m no Elon fanboy, and this news is not good news for me given my profession is software engineering, but it’s the reality. The most moral person doesn’t win.

 

[superworrier]

Also, I'm not disputing these platforms are worse to the end users. But the business model for these companies, much like Uber and Lyft, was not financially sustainable and was enabled by low interest rates and speculation. With those gone, they have to turn a profit. With no easy money, the choices that become more likely are cost cutting and price raising.

 

[user 16756]

The sad truth is there’s no shortage of people who will mod for free in order to power trip. A very small amount of mods actually control the most popular subs. Doing it for free, it seems like they must enjoy it.


I don’t think Twitter is the negative case people make it out to be. While there was a lot of drama initially, we don’t know current metrics. I assume the CEO of Reddit does. Cutting 75% of your costs can do wonders, and the site hasn’t been destroyed as predicted.

BTW I’m no Elon fanboy, and this news is not good news for me given my profession is software engineering, but it’s the reality. The most moral person doesn’t win.

I feel like everyone who actually works on anything SWE at scale understands that the main reason Twitter hasn't completely fallen over is because the former engineering team built one of the most resilient on-prems in the history of the world. Lots of stuff on it has been breaking btw. Now they have just decided to not ship new stuff.

The man has driven off most of his advertisers and won't pay his rent. Not the negative case most people make it out to be. Yeah you right, it's worse if you actually know what's going on.

As far as reddit metrics go, I assume theyre bad because every interview gets more unhinged.

 

[enrico]