EDIT: The consensus on the proposed rule change seems to be to remove the rule, and to re-investigate it if it ever becomes an issue. Let’s see how it goes!
Heyo everyone, hope you’re doing well!
For the past week or so, I’ve been thinking about tweaking the rules slightly. Specifically, the requirement that a suggestion/recommendation must still be in production.
In previous community chats, a consistent complaint about the reddit BIFL was that it was inundated with random vintage items, some of which could be hard to track down.
However, there have been a couple times that I’ve held back recommending an item because its no longer in production, even though it’s fairly commonly available second hand. In addition, buying used is very much in-line with Solarpunk ideals, as it reduces waste, carbon emissions from increased production, and if purchased locally or from an individual, helps keep money out of the hands of corporations.
With that in mind, I think it may be wise to remove that rule, but wanted to get the community’s opinion first. Yay, Nay, or do you have a different idea?
As for the secret project…
Thanks to @[email protected]’s efforts, BIFL now has access to its very own wiki page! (The wiki itself will receive an official announcement at the start of next month with more details, so keep it on the down low 🤫).
Today I’ve been puttering around with it, and put up an experimental wiki-page for the BIFL Community.
So far, my plan with it is to slowly add in all the various things that the community recommends, taken from posts and comments, along with price information and any little tidbits the commenter mentions about the item (You can see how I’m formatting that in the Rain Gear catagory). But I’m open to any other suggestions you may have on how else we can utilize this new wiki! :D
Lastly, if you have any other general recommendations, ideas, or thoughts for the community, don’t hesitate to throw 'em down in the comments!
My main objection to old and rare items is that the ones people rave about are very likely just objectifications of the survivorship bias. For example, people rave about how great old refrigerators are, but most of them (the old refrigerators) died a long time ago. In any population there will be statistical outliers but that doesn’t say anything about the whole population. If anything, if an old item is rare, then it’s probably not BIFL because most of the item’s population has disappeared.
Refrigerator posts are the worst. Some vintage electrical items, like Kitchen Aids, which are still manufactured and appear to be unchanged in design but actually use different quality components between versions, are definitely worth a discussion and, sure, perhaps the 1950s motors are way better than modern ones.
But refrigerators, microwaves, old stoves, etc. are rarely comparable to a modern energy efficient (and safe) appliance that people are actually looking to buy.