Forum

You can find highly rated recipes if you sort your recipe search by 'buzz', so that recipes that have a lot of feedback (star ratings and/or comments) will appear at the top of your search results.  Of course there could be a lot of comments that the recipe isn't very good, but the overall star rating for the recipe would make that obvious.

Thanks Wende for the suggestions - we always welcome feedback from members. I'm not sure about an alpha sort for Notes - I think most members prefer to see the latest Notes at the top (other opinions?). In any case with 135,000+ Notes in the Library I'm not sure how helpful that would be. As FJT suggests, it's easier to search your Bookshelf by the recipe you want, using the word search and filters, then sort the results by Buzz. You now have the recipes with most Notes and ratings at the top.

Originally Posted by: Jane

I think most members prefer to see the latest Notes at the top (other opinions?).

Agreed - I like seeing the notes in chronological order with the most recent at the top.  Often suggestions are made by the first few people making the recipe and it's good to see if others have taken those ideas on board and how it turned out.  I'm not sure what benefit alphabetical sorting of comments provides.

Originally Posted by: Jane

I think most members prefer to see the latest Notes at the top (other opinions?).

I also like the Notes in chronological order.

Not sure I understand how adding 5 stars would work in Notes but then, I don't pay much attention to the star-ratings as I'd much rather read what people have to say. When someone says, "this recipe was inedible, the lemon was overpowering," that's my cue to take a good look at trying it 🤣

Oh how I wish that the forum software part of the site would automatically show new posts. The Discourse system (available at https://www.discourse.org/) has this features and many many more modern capabilities. It is traction with various other communities including the development teams for the python and ruby programming languages, the Firefox web browser support people with hundreds of other professional, niche interest groups, and corpoations using it. Sorry but in comparison to Discourse the forum software here is antiquated and lacking essential features.

Originally Posted by: ThePatheticBaker

Oh how I wish that the forum software part of the site would automatically show new posts. The Discourse system (available at https://www.discourse.org/) has this features and many many more modern capabilities. It is traction with various other communities including the development teams for the python and ruby programming languages, the Firefox web browser support people with hundreds of other professional, niche interest groups, and corpoations using it. Sorry but in comparison to Discourse the forum software here is antiquated and lacking essential features.

OK. So how hard can this be? When I go onto EYB (having been a member for well over a decade), it opens onto to my own home page. The first thing I do is go to "Forum", where there is a list of current topics. One of the options on the right hand side following each comment on a continuing subject is a little box colored red. If one clicks on that box, one will be taken to the recent text which one has not yet read because the Forum software remembers which I have read and which I have not. Read it, then go to your "back" button, and you will again be at the forum page with little red boxes. Continue doing this operation until you get to the top of the list. It may or may not be python or ruby languages. Who cares? It lets me read the newest forum entries. It is a requirement of the software, however, that the reader remember which of the 4 or 6 new topics listed (assuming the reader checks EYB at least every couple of days) has been accessed by the reader and thus no longer needing to be reminded by the software that "this is a new comment on the subject you clicked on." As I said earlier, how hard can this be?

Originally Posted by: rivergait

OK. So how hard can this be? When I go onto EYB (having been a member for well over a decade), it opens onto to my own home page. The first thing I do is go to "Forum", …

There is the major difference in our "workflow". Because EYB has proven itself such a valubale adjunct to my baking and cooking I have three browser tabs permanently open, viz My Bookshelf, Cookbooks (aka the Library), and Forum. I am always "here".

Likewise, in a separate browser window I have all my Discourse-based forums (20+ and rising) permanently open in tabs. Any updates to one of those, be they new threads or comments to existing ones, are automatically indicated immediately on switching to the tab; some of the Discourse forums go for days without anyone posting whereas most are highly active and indicate the existence of new stuff almost by the minute. If I were to "go" there, by which I presume you mean opening a new tab or window and either typing in the URL or using a browser bookmark, these occasional forums would drop off my metaphorical radar. EYB is somewhere in the middle with occasional days when nothing is posted and others when there are a flurry of message but we don't know that without deliberately refreshing the page or in your case implicitly refreshing the page.

I always like reading what other members have to say on these threads but I agree with FJT re: the importance of INDEXING.  I'm not against innovation/new features but not at the expense of what I believe is their main goal (and why i joined in the 1st place).  Just to note, I use 3 different devices for access, at times have very sketch internet (rural!) and am on here every day (sometimes several times!) and really don't have any concerns :) 

Originally Posted by: rivergait

… go to "Forum", where there is a list of current topics. One of the options on the right hand side following each comment on a continuing subject is a little box colored red. If one clicks on that box, one will be taken to the recent text which one has not yet read because the Forum software remembers which I have read and which I have not. Read it, then go to your "back" button, and you will again be at the forum page with little red boxes. Continue doing this operation until you get to the top of the list. …

It is easier to go through the list of new topics or new replies using keyboard shortcuts taking one to the next unread item.Discourse also records which topics and replies one has seen. It has no need to go Back and click another link. Here on EYB the Next Topic button is limited to the specific sub-forum.

Another useful feature of Discourse is being able bookmark a topic or reply for later with the possibility of adding a reminder. Together with the other short cuts it makes for ease of use.

I am equally frustrated by all the Korean spam posts. I have to remove them individually - more than 200 each morning currently. I'm hoping they will give up soon since their posts are being deleted. Our developers are currently looking into solutions.

In terms of looking at a completely new Forum, it is on our list. But in order to manage expectations, please be aware that EYB is a very small company so new developments take longer than for large operations. We also have two big development projects ongoing - one of which will go live tomorrow.

Any way to limit forum posting for new people without books?  All the spams are there because anyone can post in the forums.  Not sure what the objectives of these spams are. Looks Korean, but I don't think it is coming from South Korea.  Are you able to trace their ISP to any one country?  I am thinking either one or two counties who deslike western ideology.

The members who post them are either from South Korea or Vietnam (or at least their ISP shows as there). Yes, restrictions on who can post are one of the options our developers are looking into. But we may have to change the Forum completely which is a bigger project than we can take on right now.

Originally Posted by: Jane

We also have two big development projects ongoing - one of which will go live tomorrow.

Checks watch....... ooooh its tomorrow! 

Originally Posted by: Jane

We also have two big development projects ongoing - one of which will go live tomorrow.

Explains the momentary "Service unavailable" messages I received when reloading the pages here. 😜