I can only say that I spend less time on beehaw because there are communities on both of those instances I want to interact with. This isn't really an argument to refederate because as an end user I can filter the noise and focus on the communities I want, but I know admins don't have that luxury. It's more of an impact statement. I like beehaw, and I don't want to leave, but I do probably spend more time with my other account just because there's more activity I'm interested in there. So I fully support whatever decision gets made and certainly support this community, but I can't be the only user whos spending less time here than I otherwise might.

Look, if I argue with you, I must take up a contrary position!

• Monty Python

There is a type of group-think that can emerge when people look for a safe space. In fact, it almost has to happen because part of being safe is staking out topics that cannot be "both-sided", but the nature of a voting based platform seems to actively amplify the tendency to drown out good faith voices. Discussion is almost based on people having differing views, otherwise there's nothing to say. I don't know who's old enough to remember Metafilter, but it is that type of thing that drove me away from there many years ago.

I don't have an easy answer to it, however.

Chicken. Perhaps it is less the ingredient in this case than the techniques associated.

It's not that I didn't each chicken, but learning to roast a whole chicken was the gateway to real day-to-day cooking for me. I'd roast a chicken on the weekend, make sandwiches or salad with leftovers, make broth with the carcass, make soup or pot pie or gravy with broth and other leftovers, etc. Before cooking was something that seemed like a special occasion but now I had something that sort of begot more food naturally.

If I had to pick a single ingredient, probably cumin or curry spice if I can be allowed to cheat. So many dishes to add that to.

There are a handful of communities I want to interact with that are defederated from here. I scan beehaw, but I don't find myself interacting because I can do my commenting elsewhere, and as already observed, there's a lot of news that I just don't care to discuss. I get it and I don't think an instance should be refederated because of me, but it creates just enough friction for me to impact my daily usage. It's a pity because I love the idea of a co-op style social network governed by users, but that also means it might go in directions I don't like and federation makes it so easy to jump ship that it's a real tightrope to walk for admins.