Friday 12 October 2007

I JUST GOT BANNED FROM A FOOD SITE!!!

Oh my giddy Aunt!!!

I am sitting here, literally PISSING my pants with laughter!!!!

A few weeks ago, I joined Taste.com, a collection of on-line food mags and a forum. I was pretty disappointed at how slow the forums moved, being used to Chowhound but hey.. it was Aussie and the members there were great!!!

So, to my crime... **insert suitably dark and minor keyed muzak**

I answered a post and described how my Asian grocer beamed with joy and greeted me, every time I walked into his establishment...

And subsequently get this email:

Dear Ella,

We have received a complaint in reference to your recent post on the Taste.com.au forum, under the “I love my Asian Grocer” thread, about your description of what your Asian grocer says to you. I have edited this post to tone down the offensive portrayal of the grocer. I did feel you could be a little more culturally sensitive in the way you reported what your grocer says, and not play up to stereotypes. I hope you can understand but we wish to encourage a community that is welcoming to all and that doesn’t make fun of someone language ability or accent.

I have reviewed your other posts, and also found references to “over-wogging” and “couldn’t be fagged”, which are also likely to offend. If I could please ask you be mindful of this type of colourful language use in the future.

Sincerely,

Anthony Peet

Producer



Can you believe it!!! I hope they never link to Furry's blog, hell, the'd have to put out a farking CONTRACT on me, just for being married to him!!!

I sneakily suspected I had stumbled on a bastion of famous aussie Political Correctness Gone Hysterical, when in an early post, I referred to "food porn" and in the body of the post I got "food ****"

Anyhoo.. that was my crime... but my hanging offence was this...

What the idiot admins over at Taste don't realise, is that I run a phpBB board, so I know EXACTLY what goes on behind the scenes, and how a moderator can follow members around.

Bear with me, I'm getting to the hanging offence


Well.. after the email, I decided to no longer be a member of such a ridiculous site, and I logged in and began to remove all 87 of my posts. Stupidly, who ever set the board used the incorrect HTML tags for editing posts, so I had to physically return to all my posts and edit them individually. All I left in place of my previous post was :



"ed".



I nearly busted a phoofer valve laughing, when about 10 mins into my editing, my post count started to drop!!! Some idiot mod/admin was following around behind me, deleting all my ed'd posts!! (Can't let the natives know that nasty things are afoot in the land of pretty flowers and singing birds, where every day is Spring and ladies don't say FUCK!)



I could actually HEAR the scurry of their tiny, ratty feet as they followed me around the cyberavenues of their precious, politically correct little corner of The Web, deleting my insidious and controversial "ed"'s!!!



So I got a bit snippy. I would have been happy with just deleting all my posts (some of which had personal info in them) and leaving then to their happy little place full of magical pixie horses and ladies who drink tea and don't swear, riiiiiiight up until then.



So I popped into my original introduction post, deleted my original post and put the following:



"Those of you with 1/2 a brain and a sense of humour know where to find me"



Well, bugger me backwards with a spoon, if not 2 mins later I was banned!!!



Can you IMAGINE the flurry of smelling salts that was going on in THEIR admin forum... the pm's, the swooning!!!! I swear I am almost aching with the laughing I have been doing. Can you imagine if they saw some of my posts at The Tav?? or at Chowhound!! (where I also described how a Sri Lankan woman used to talk to me, and my post was met with resounding applause!!!)


Pity tho, there were some wonderful women over there.... those with 1/2 a brain and a sense of humour!!!

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

you can add that one to your CV baby!!! i am pissing myself laughing too ..... just love the preciousness of some people!!

xxxxxxxxxxx

sg

grocer said...

i cannot believe this has happened.
i was reading a thread that you started but all your posts had gone. This is ridiculous to say the least...

grocer said...

I am so annoyed that this has happened.
i have posted the following post

I am not sure if this is political correctness gone mad, if somebody complained, or if the net nanny has gone into overdrive, but I do know that many of you enjoyed the writings and posts of a short term member of taste, referred to in the headline.

well today I wondered why some posts had gone missing, so here is what happened... (a few words have been edited to prolong the longevity of this post) and this is the story posted on her blog...

Quote:
I JUST GOT BANNED FROM A FOOD SITE!!!

Oh my giddy Aunt!!!

I am sitting here, literally PI55ING my pants with laughter!!!!

A few weeks ago, I joined Taste.com, a collection of on-line food mags and a forum. I was pretty disappointed at how slow the forums moved, being used to Chowhound but hey.. it was Aussie and the members there were great!!!

So, to my crime... **insert suitably dark and minor keyed muzak**
I answered a post and described how my Asian grocer beamed with joy and greeted me, every time I walked into his establishment...

And subsequently get this email:

Dear [name deleted],
We have received a complaint in reference to your recent post on the Taste.com.au forum, under the “I love my Asian Grocer” thread, about your description of what your Asian grocer says to you. I have edited this post to tone down the offensive portrayal of the grocer. I did feel you could be a little more culturally sensitive in the way you reported what your grocer says, and not play up to stereotypes. I hope you can understand but we wish to encourage a community that is welcoming to all and that doesn’t make fun of someone language ability or accent.
I have reviewed your other posts, and also found references to “over-w0gging” and “couldn’t be fagged”, which are also likely to offend. If I could please ask you be mindful of this type of colourful language use in the future.
Sincerely,
Anthony Peet
Producer
....

I sneakily suspected I had stumbled on a bastion of famous aussie Political Correctness Gone Hysterical, when in an early post, I referred to "food p0rn" and in the body of the post I got "food ****"

Anyhoo.. that was my crime... but my hanging offence was this...
What the idiot admins over at Taste don't realise, is that I run a phpBB board, so I know EXACTLY what goes on behind the scenes, and how a moderator can follow members around.

Bear with me, I'm getting to the hanging offence

Well.. after the email, I decided to no longer be a member of such a ridiculous site, and I logged in and began to remove all 87 of my posts. Stupidly, who ever set the board used the incorrect HTML tags for editing posts, so I had to physically return to all my posts and edit them individually. All I left in place of my previous post was : "ed".

I nearly busted a ... valve laughing, when about 10 mins into my editing, my post count started to drop!!! Some id1ot mod/admin was following around behind me, deleting all my ed'd posts!!...

I could actually HEAR the scurry of their tiny, ratty feet as they followed me around the cyberavenues of their precious, politically correct little corner of The Web, deleting my insidious and controversial "ed"'s!!!

So I got a bit snippy. I would have been happy with just deleting all my posts (some of which had personal info in them) and leaving then to their happy little place full of magical pixie horses and ladies who drink tea and don't swear, riiiiiiight up until then.

So I popped into my original introduction post, deleted my original post and put the following:

"Those of you with 1/2 a brain and a sense of humour know where to find me" Well ... if not 2 mins later I was banned!!!
...
Pity tho, there were some wonderful women over there.... those with 1/2 a brain and a sense of humour!!!


the shame is that i have seen this kind of vilification occur on a number of times since joining taste.com.au and tried to ride the storm.

If however, you were the one that complained, I suggest you rethink what was posted, what context it was posted in (as having read PG on a number of forums i can tell you she is perhaps one of THE MOST CULTURALLY accepting bloggers i have come across) and perhaps do your best to rectify this schoolyard bullying; or at least admit that you are the one that has managed to oust one of the wittier members of this group.

Perhaps the ones should be banned are those that post unqualified questions and requests for recipes, or just blatantly misleading posts about ingredients and equipment. Instead, we have lost a helpful and knowledgable contributor.

CONGRATULATIONS!

as Derryn Hynch would say, "SHAME"


I am so sorry this has happened, and I know that you probably think it's hilarious, but I just think its really sad.

I know when you first joined taste i was getting a good shitkicking and managed to weather the storm.

Gutless, parochial wonders I guess...

grocer said...

you're not alone.

http://www.taste.com.au/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1023

Unknown said...

PG

Don't know whether to laugh or cry at your banning, and the stupidity of both the Admin of Taste and the moron who complained to begin with.

I humbly suggest that you start your own foodie forum so that those of us with a) a sense of humour and b) half a brain can continue to enjoy your wicked humour and foodie knowledge.

Cheers
Lynda alias Tigs

ps I have a feeling that i may be joining you in the land of the banished :)

grocer said...

it gets funnier by the day!
http://www.taste.com.au/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1023

grocer said...

BILL FOR REIMBURSEMENT

apparently i am now your PA for all that want a link to your blog (regardless that i have posted it on the forum now, I still get messaged)

;)

purple goddess said...

Grocer!!

you're a champ!!!

Cant click on the links to, bugger!!!

Thanks for taking up the reins on this. Really, I couldn't believe it!!!!

Here is a draft of my reply email...

Dear Anthony.

Thank you so much for you email. I shall forward it to my Vietnamses grocer immediately!!! I am sure he had no idea that the way he spoke was racist and I am honoured to be the one that can point this out to him.

My goodness, who knew that speaking like that, with an accent, no less, was such a crime!!! I am sure that he will enroll for an immediete course in "How to not offend white, middle class fuckwits by having an accent".

Maybe, as you seem so in-the-know, you could provide information on where he might find such a course??

I long for the day when I can report back to you that he greest me with a clipped "Toodle-pip, my dear, Sally forth and enjoy!!", as I leave his shoppe.

AS for your issues with "over-wogging", I suggest that you read it in context, and given that I am 1/2 spanish, 1/2 greek, I feel that it is culturally appropriate for me to use that term. It's ok tho, I don't have an accent, so I know that I'm not a racist.

The "I can't be fagged" confuses me... although maybe it might be offensive to gay men, who have taken the label "fag" and juxtaposed it into a word of power, just as us "wogs" have...

How many fags do you think come to a slow-as-molasses cooking site seemingly run by political correctness Nazi's and complete dolts???

Ooops.. I used the word Nazi.. sorry if that marginalises any of your members who might be 90+ year old men called Mengler who regularly log in from Brazil.

Best I stop now, while I'm ahead. I shall be forwarding your email to Chhour Ngo Huynh of Kerrie Road Fruit Shop as soon as I can. (A last though, he calls himself "Billy", so I am hopefully of his conversion from racist to fine, upstanding Aussie bloke.)

Yours sincerely,

ella

purple goddess said...

And guys...

I run a phpBB board.. it's not a specific cooking board, but it is a wonderful collection of women from across the world who hang out in cyberspace and laugh and love and support and share recipes and stories and just.. well.. HANG..

Feel free to join

http://www.topfreeforum.com/forum/index.php?mforum=skullandcrossbo&sid=9accde9201fe353ddb04d636d013b925

Copy it into your browser and it will take you to the front page. You need APPROVAL to become a member, as it's a locked forum, so email me with the user name you want to be known as. Otherwise you'll get an email asking who you are and how you got the link!!

Anyhoo.. thanks for all the support, darlings, I thought I might have been the first, but clearly not!!!!

Keep me in the loop about what's going on... and feel free to post any of my comments "here" over "there".. and join the Tavern!!! It's a hoot.. and not a politically correct Nazi to be found!!!

pg

grocer said...

can't you just copy and paste the URL?
or is it that your URL is banned?

would you like me to post the letter?

purple goddess said...

I got it and read it... I had to get in thru the front page NOT thru mu account, which I had set to automatic access... but it's an open site, so by waltzing thru the front door, not thru the members only door, I got in and read.

Thanks, and I am really touched that so many people found my posts "funny and informative".

Wonder if the snake-in-the-grass who complained will ever reveal themselves???

Post the letter, darl... but I haven't actually sent it.. it's a draft... but hell, why not stir the post a bit!!!

grocer said...

do you think you might send it? i don't want to steal your thunder...

the fact that you can get in without being logged in means your URL isn't blocked so you can always come back incognito.

I'm thinking lilacdeity?

Anonymous said...

You know I've been scratching my head since kmh's thread went up. If i post a comment along the lines of - when i was in Holland I saw a beautiful dyke - do you think that would cause offence? Excuse me while i go and cook some wogged up food for my husband's dinner so he can ask me to teach him spanish phrases tonight and laugh gayly while he tries to pronounce them with a spanish accent.
Well I'll be buggered. Too funny for words.
Signing off
The Bog irish Razzledazzle.

purple goddess said...

Thanks razzle... I really appreciate it!!!

Grocer.. Gimme 5 mins and I'll send it... if you want to post it ay Taste after that, feel free..

pg

grocer said...

apparently you've had an apology?

Ed Charles said...

Hilarious. Did you read at Food Blog S'cool how Sam offended a friend by making faggots. Excuse me while I go out for a coffee - I may just bum a fag at the same time too.