[loki49152]

"I think you're kind of overreacting"

There is no such thing as "overreacting" with foraged mushrooms. The bar for "competent" identification is far too high, and the downside of being not-quite-competent-enough includes spending 72 hours knowing that you and your friends are going to die with no hope of a cure.

[alecst]

I know strong opinions tend to be popular online, but I hope comments like this don't discourage people from learning and going out there. The books and internet are more than enough to stay safe.

[throwaway984393]

This is one of the times people need to be discouraged. They should know they're risking their lives if they get into foraging, specifically because they can be easily fooled into thinking it's safe.

As a random aside, a crap-ton of flowers are toxic. Flowers. If somebody hadn't told me that, I'd be eating random ones I find on hikes, because I heard of edible flowers and for some dumb reason I thought they all were.

[alecst]

It's true. It wasn't mushrooms that almost killed me, but what I thought was a carrot. It was poison hemlock. You really can die out there.

It depends on the intentions of the site. If the author is advertising it as a complete guide, then I agree with you: it's incomplete as a guide. If he's advertising it as a starting point -- start with these mushrooms which have a very low risk of harm -- then it's fine in my view.

[accumulator]

fwiw the intention of my criticism of the article wasn't to discourage people from learning about and appreciating fungi. My issue with this article is that it simplifies things too much to the point of harm.