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Eat Your Books » Support & Feedback » Give us your feedback » Social Networking Features

Social Networking Features

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Fiona

#1 Posted : Saturday, February 12, 2011 9:51:18 PM(UTC)

Jane and I love reading your posts and it's great to see members interacting with each other. Although our main focus for EYB was to create a great search engine for your cookbooks, also important to us was to create a community of cookbook lovers. We are aware that the Forum could do with some major improvements - particularly a Search feature.

We are looking at other ways for members to interact and learn from each others experiences with recipes and cookbooks. We have lots of ideas, but we love to get feedback from you - it's been invaluable in helping us create EYB. If you have any thoughts on other ways you'd like to interact with other EYB members do let us know.

alicebrody

#2 Posted : Sunday, February 13, 2011 6:29:32 AM(UTC)

How about a list of links to some fo the really terrific food blogs now on the web: eg: The Runaway Spoon, The A+M Blog, Smitten Kitchen , Global Table Advice, Ideas in Food.

Alice

schambers

#3 Posted : Sunday, February 13, 2011 6:33:31 AM(UTC)

One thing I was just thinking about as a fun feature would be a way to tell the most recently rated recipes or the most recently commented recipes. Maybe as part of the Sort function?

Another thing I was thinking about is an elaboration of the commenting function. I think I have seen that you plan to allow users to choose whether a comment is either public or private, and perhaps as part of that, you could create a place to post reviews that is distinct from where we put generic comments.

Breadcrumbs

#4 Posted : Sunday, February 13, 2011 7:07:19 AM(UTC)

Great question Fiona and thanks so much to you and Jane for continuously soliciting member feedback and, most importantly, for giving it all such thoughtful consideration when making site enhancements. Hats off to both of you for fostering collaboration and a true community environment.

I'll likely be back as I give this more thought but here are some initial ideas:

"My Reviews" - I'd very much like to be able to search my bookshelf for recipes I've reviewed. That would likely be my top priority request for a wish list. I'd also like to be able to point others to "My Reviews" and, search for reviews of other EYB Members by Member Name. I think this would be useful in meal planning and would allow us to post questions to other members. A "New Reviews" feature would be great as well. Something to alert us to newly reviewed recipes.

Forum Format - Aside from a search feature, I think it would be helpful to be able to post responses to forum questions and comments "directly beneath" the item you're responding to. (Chowhound format is a good example).

I'd like to see the return of the ability to view bookshelves of other EYB members w similar tastes, users w most books in common. I used to use this to see what other books I might like to add to my library. Also, if we had the option of being alerted if a member mentions our name in the Forum it would help us ask and answer questions in a timely manner. For example, at Christmas I saw a book that I was interested in purchasing for a friend and only one person had it on their bookshelf. It would have been great to post a question for that user in the forum and have them alerted to the fact that someone was seeking their expertise.

Standing Forum Topics - I think it would be great to have a few Forum Topics that were ongoing and somehow isolated from the others, ones where we could drop by on a regular basis, if not daily and add our feedback. Things like "Which Book(s) Did You Use Today" "New Books on Your Shelf" "Best Recipes" (many of us have multiple recipes for the same dish in our numerous books, I'd love to know when someone tries a recipe and feels its the best for that dish they've found so far), of course, a "What's Cooking Today" would also be great, we could share daily experiences on how we're putting our books to use.

Photos - I would love to be able to post photos of recipes I've tried and, look at photos of other members. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words and in my experience, photos tend to promote further dialogue. When you love cooking and see something that looks yummy you always want to let folks know and, usually have a question or further comment to add. I think pictures would be a great way to encourage dialogue.

Ok, that's it for now. Can't wait to hear everyone else's ideas!!

wester

#6 Posted : Sunday, February 13, 2011 7:48:54 AM(UTC)

I would like to be able to PM other members.
I would also like to be able to comment on notes, in such a way that the original poster of the note will notice. Just making another note below is not enough - I would like to be able to say things like: "Are you sure it's a Scandinavian recipe? I was sure it was French" or "Have you tried turning the oven up a notch? It worked for me".

Laura

#5 Posted : Sunday, February 13, 2011 10:52:28 AM(UTC)

I second ALL of the suggestions that have been made above!

SueMmm wrote:

"My Reviews" - I'd very much like to be able to search my bookshelf for recipes I've reviewed. That would likely be my top priority request for a wish list.

Sue, I also would REALLY like to see this feature and I've asked Jane about it in the past. My interim solution is that I've created several different Bookmarks for recipes I've reviewed. My bookmarks are:

Favorites: Of course, this was provided by EYB. It's where I store the recipes I absolutely love -- the ones I give 4 or 5 stars to.

Reviews: I bookmark every recipe I review that while, not quite a favorite, I'd make it again.

Avoid: Here I bookmark every recipe I've reviewed that I NEVER want to make again! This is a really good reminder for me when that recipe comes up in a search, I can automatically see that it's in my Avoid section and I don't have to bother with it.

With this system, I have a record of every review I've written, in one of 3 categories. So far, it's working well for me.

Breadcrumbs

#7 Posted : Tuesday, February 15, 2011 9:05:11 AM(UTC)

Laura I love the idea of setting up a "Reviews" bookmark. Like you I too have a "favourites" and in my case a "Don't Repeat" category however I didn't think of setting up a "Reviews" tab. I'll do that from now on though!! Thanks so much & happy cooking, let's hope you have a week of "Favourites"! : - )

Laura

#8 Posted : Tuesday, February 15, 2011 11:04:58 AM(UTC)

SueMmm wrote:

Sue, I'm so glad this was helpful to you! So far, my Favorites (26) and Reviews (65) are running ahead of my Avoids (17), always a good thing! My next project is to do an analysis of which cookbooks have too many recipes in the Avoid section, relative to their number in my Favorites and Reviews. I think any book with a lot in the Avoid section may have to go, to make room for more books on my shelves! :)

Laura

#9 Posted : Tuesday, February 15, 2011 11:08:54 PM(UTC)

Another feature that would be fun is a Cookbook Exchange. We could list books we no longer want and a wish list of books we'd like to have. No one would be allowed to sell their book, just give it away to a good home. Ideally, it would be in exchange for a book that the recipient no longer wants, although not necessarily.

Breadcrumbs

#10 Posted : Friday, February 25, 2011 4:12:10 AM(UTC)

I've been giving this question some more thought and considering the question in the context of other websites where social networking is active.

I think one of the primary reasons folks participate in forums or, post reviews, comments etc is that they are confident that someone else will read it and, hope that they provide feedback.

I know this seems like very basic stuff but if I think about the implications here on EYB, the recipe and cookbook review features immediately came to mind. I'm imagining that more folks would invest the time in writing something about their books or recipes they've tried (or are considering) if they were fairly sure someone else might see it.

One way to achieve this would be for us to post something in the Forum saying "hey everyone, I've just reviewed this recipe. . . book, etc" however that translates into an additional investment of time.

This made me wonder whether it would be possible for EYB to post a "live" real time update on "Recipes reviewed today" and "Cookbooks Reviewed Today" on the Community or Home page. At a minimum this would assure everyone that once they've taken the time to review something, others will know about it and, beyond that, it might provoke Forum discussion.

Just a thought....wondering what others think of this idea.

Sue

Jane

#11 Posted : Friday, February 25, 2011 5:38:48 AM(UTC)

Thanks SueMmm for your thoughtful insights. Asd we have mentioned, we are currently working on the specification for improved social networking and this feature will be part of it. The reviews you post for recipes and books will appear on your profile page and the latest reviews will appear on the Community page.

LaPomme

#12 Posted : Thursday, March 17, 2011 9:10:18 AM(UTC)

Here are two features that I think would be a great addition to the site:

- Ability to view other users' favorite books and recipes

- Ability to add other users as friends and then be notified when they comment upon a book or recipe

Basically, I'm in favor of any features that allow users to check-in with one another and swap experiences and recommendations.

robinorig

#13 Posted : Friday, January 18, 2013 11:57:22 PM(UTC)

A blogger who has a great forum that you might look at to get ideas is chocolateandzucchini.

It's very well organized and pretty active and is separate from the main site's comments & postings.

Eat Your Books » Support & Feedback » Give us your feedback » Social Networking Features

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