10 Rules of the Internet

[mtureck]

From http://dashes.com/anil/2013/07/rules-of-internet.html

You can look at all of them, but I thought of this site when I read #7...

7: Most websites treat "I like it" and "This is good" as the same thing, leading to most people on the Internet refusing to distinguish between "I don't like it" and "It's not good".

Now while I don't think this website does that as a whole, I think it's something we're all guilty of in one post or another.

Just becasue I like a restaurant, that doesn't make it good, and just becasue I don't like a restaurant, that doesn't make it bad.

I'd like to go back and re-write a few posts with that in mind.

[Tujague]

Just becasue I like a restaurant, that doesn't make it good, and just becasue I don't like a restaurant, that doesn't make it bad.

I'd like to go back and re-write a few posts with that in mind.

I agree. There are some restaurants that I like that I really can't defend as "good"; it is usually that I've figured out a few items they serve I find satisfying, I get decent service, and pay a fair price. And there are some where I've either failed to get a meal I liked or found the atmosphere or service or value to be lacking, which may actually be the fine establishments that others defend them as.

(The bonus rule, "We hate most in others that which we fail to see in ourselves," does seem to apply to a few members of this site, however...)

[jayandstacey]

Two thoughts:

1. I believe an overall restaurant experience is a mix of both subjective experiences (is this a little too salty?) and objective experiences (it shouldn't take 45 minutes for a drink to be served.) Like pornography - while the line where something becomes objectively good (or bad) is hard to define....when tend to know it when we experience it. I'm a relatively untrained novice relative to most here - so my scope of subjective is much wider...and I therefore look for reviews that mention things, good or bad, that are extreme enough to be objective. I don't know if Tom Seitsema or I have the same tolerance for some salt. But I'd guess if he says "did that dish have more than 1 pound of salt?" he's made a firmly objective declaration.

2. As such, I feel I'm keenly aware of at least my own shortcomings when it comes to evaluating restaurants. Last night I went to Niwano Hana in Rockville and loved it. Loved it! But I walked out and told my wife - I have no idea why. Other than the sushi tasting rotten (which has never happened) - I wouldn't know good sushi from bad. But I do know that I did like it.

But I agree - when I see that someone ELSE says that they loved the place - I assume they spent 20 years studying various cuisines and are the renown expert in the field. That may not always be the case