it sounds like from op’s drawing here that it was a discussion which was working. if the threaded Reddit style paradigm isn’t the right format for this type of discussion, I don’t know what is
The issue is not the thread format, but the community they asked in and the generality and phrasing of the question. If you were to ask about a specific region and try to ask in a space where people who live there are willing to answer it would be much easier to moderate.
My issue with this is that barter and haggling is a very diverse practice that is seen differently across the world. All cultures do it in certain forms and in certain contexts, but both those concepts and how haggling is performed/perceived differ wildly. This in my opinion is a very solid question for general anthropology. Before the thread got removed, I was getting answers about all kinds of places, not just the Middle East.
One really good comment in that thread that is now removed mentioned that, when they went to Thailand, the merchants had a system where they would hand you a calculator with the price punched in and you would change that price and hand it back. They said that they entered in decimals that don’t exist in Thai currency as a joke, and that the merchant seemed entertained. I don’t think that I can get these kinds of answers from mass-posting on subs of a bunch of different countries–I wasn’t even thinking of Thailand when I wrote the original post.
Not my point. I just presented an argument for closing the thread. There is a valid conversation to be had, but having it is difficult.
it sounds like from op’s drawing here that it was a discussion which was working. if the threaded Reddit style paradigm isn’t the right format for this type of discussion, I don’t know what is
The issue is not the thread format, but the community they asked in and the generality and phrasing of the question. If you were to ask about a specific region and try to ask in a space where people who live there are willing to answer it would be much easier to moderate.
My issue with this is that barter and haggling is a very diverse practice that is seen differently across the world. All cultures do it in certain forms and in certain contexts, but both those concepts and how haggling is performed/perceived differ wildly. This in my opinion is a very solid question for general anthropology. Before the thread got removed, I was getting answers about all kinds of places, not just the Middle East.
One really good comment in that thread that is now removed mentioned that, when they went to Thailand, the merchants had a system where they would hand you a calculator with the price punched in and you would change that price and hand it back. They said that they entered in decimals that don’t exist in Thai currency as a joke, and that the merchant seemed entertained. I don’t think that I can get these kinds of answers from mass-posting on subs of a bunch of different countries–I wasn’t even thinking of Thailand when I wrote the original post.