What is your fave and least fave forum topic?

 KKV I'm with you on the science stuff.. far too techy for my liking!

I enjoy everything else though so I am happy to rehash an old topic if I can add something to the conversation

 

I like the "What are you cooking?" tonight, for the holidays, whenever, threads.  I do enjoy hearing about others' feasts and often I get ideas.  I can commiserate with those who have to feed picky eaters.  I also like to read about pastry and dessert techniques.

I don't like anything that was just discussed.  Often someone will ask "What do you think of [insert food, appliance, TV chef here]?"  And there was just a thread on that 6 days ago.

 

I always skip the "Thinking of Culinary School", "Favorite Celebrity Chefs?", and "What Knife Should I Get" threads consistently. 

Culinary School threads irritate me because of the unrealistic expectations expressed in them. 

Favorite Celebrity Chefs-I've worked with most all of them and found them to be ordinary people with ordinary strengths and weaknesses-Batali's a slob, Flay's a poser, Brown's a science nerd who loves gadgets, etc etc. Sara Moulton's the best-gracious, a terrific cook and down to earth. RL Berenbaum knows all the gossip about everyone! 

Knife threads-boring! As if the knife makes the cook! Bah-humbug. Expensive knives always get damaged or stolen. Fit the knife to the hand and the hand to the task, learn how to keep it sharp and spend as little as possible. It's not a car and doesn't need that much consideration.

The threads I love are the ones about bread baking, food photography, the development of flavor and recipe tweaking, and the cookbook reviews. 

 

I have to agree about the Culinary student threads, they don't say what they are working on, or seem excited about actually being in class. I mainly post in them to give a little dose of reality to people who think they will be the next Top Chef cause they went to an expensive school.

I enjoy perusing the Recipes (though I usually follow them in general rather then to the letter). Love checking out photos and wonder if it actually tastes that good or just a great photo. I actually enjoy the welcome forum and giving a bit of encouragement from time to time to the new people. Otherwise, I like it all a little bit.

 

I haven't been around for that long, but I like quite a lot of the posts.

I like the way people take the time to respond to sometimes silly questions (notably mine, and yes some about knives. @foodnfoto:  I like knives. Cars are for getting from A to B hopefully without breaking down)

I like the science behind cooking, good recipes, ideas about recipes etc etc.

I like threads like this

 

My favorite threads are those that discuss the regional differences of food. After all, it's those differences that make food interesting, and the reason most of us are here. I also enjoy reading what people think of certain culinary tools, equipment, gadgets, and gizmos. I enjoy discussions about wine, although I typically don't have too much to add.

There aren't any topics that I particularly dislike. If I had to choose one, it would be threads that ask something like "What's wrong with my cookies?" or "Why are my steaks dry?" without any more information. However, when the true cause can be identified, those become very interesting threads that can provide a lot of useful information.