Site improvements & suggestions
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My idea was that any 0 star rating wouldn't count as a rating/review, which means that only a rating of 1 and higher would be used for calculating the overall rating of that recipe.
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Hmm. Let me look into it. I'd rather have something which seems logical than trying to use the review numbers in a way they are not meant to be used. The 0 rating would work and I could program it to ignore 0s, but it seems an inelegant solution. Maybe tags need to be connected to the recipe itself.
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Oh, it was just an idea I thought I'd mention. Enjoy your vacation!
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The most under-appreciated part of cookbooker is the ingredient tab. Even I balked at listing the ingredients....
But along with the healthy cooking challenge, I've also been trying to watch my calorie intake. There are websites for calorie counting that allow one to enter ingredients for food you prepare, but they are generally cumbersome.
Probably not easy, but it could give a lot of added value for the ingredient addition effort.
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Sorry for posting an incomplete thought. I should know to not work when I'm tired!
What I was wondering - is there a way to use the ingredient list to display nutrition information, including calories? If so, that might entice some of us to start contributing to that part of this great web site. -
Hmm. Possibly, but I have a feeling it may not be simple. I'll see if there are any free programming tools or APIs which enable this.
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My Fitness Pal offers the ability to enter a recipe, and it calculates calories - but either its clunky or I'm not very good at using it (or both!).
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Thanks for reminding me about the ingredients tab. I must remember to start doing that. It's especially helpful in recreating recipes from books that I borrow from the library.
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I've recently tried to click two of the advertisements (making a cookbook - that is actually on my list - using old recipes from my family) - but they do not go through to the advertisers web site. Might be my old operating system, but thought I'd mention it.
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I had a quick look online, but there's nothing easy (or free) that can be easily bolted onto Cookbooker, alas for the calories/nutrition. I will keep my eyes open, though, as I know it would be super-useful. There are some online tools, but they vary in quality, as @Queezle noted.
As for the advertisments, @Queezle, they're served up automatically by Google, so I don't have any control over them (other than asking them not to put some of the more annoying categories of ads on the site). -
Someone just added a book that sounded interesting to me, so I clicked through to have a better look. There's no link on the cookbook page to take me to Amazon or other book seller. Wouldn't this be a nice idea? Especially if you're set up as an Amazon Associate to get that little bit of money from a purchase. :-)
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There should be @kaye16 - on the left menu on every book listing, there should be 3 Amazon links - Canada / US / UK.
Let me know if there's a page where this is not apparent. Maybe they should be bigger? -
Ah. I know why. Certain titles don't show up as being available on Amazon. Especially if they have been added manually. In these cases a link is not generated.
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Cooking as a Mediation isn't available in stores yet and my not be ever. A member of a couple cookbook collectors groups I belong to wrote and had the book published with intent to have them available for sale. She was ill and just after the book was published she passed away before her and her husband could put them on the market. She passed away in April of this year and just this month her husband decided to sell some copies to members of the new cookbook group we belong to and members of the former group that was disbanded. He hasn't decided if he'll hold on to the other copies or sell them elsewhere. The book does have an ISBN but I had to add it manually since it's not offered at Amazon. I wanted to start cooking from the book soon as a memorial to her so I added it to my bookshelf. Sorry of the confusion.
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I typed the title wrong when adding the book and did it again in the above post. I tried to go and delete the book and then add it back with the correct spelling but when I added it back even though I spelled it right that time it still shows up as the incorrect spelling. Was wondering if there is a way to change it. The correct spelling is Cooking as a Meditation (don't know why I keep leaving out that extra t). Also in one recipe review I did I accidentally switched the title and website of the recipe in those fields. Is there a way to correct that?
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@southerncooker - I've fixed it. Right now, we don't let people edit books because once there are recipes attached there's the chance of someone deleting a book and 'stranding' all the recipes.
As for the recipe review, which one is it? You should be able to edit recipes after making a review, but possibly the website field is not available? -
Andrew, a little problem has arisen regarding the multiple editions of the book Jerusalem. When I went to connect mine to the 2 editions already listed, I saw that the book was also connected to the book “Ottolenghi”. I disconnected my edition of Jerusalem from it but of course that meant I disconnected everyone. Clearly, another member wants that connection, so I do apologize for having done that, but, personally, I don’t want the recipe reviews for Ottolenghi, an entirely different book, mixed in with the reviews for Jerusalem when I view the review page for all editions. I’m not certain how to reconcile this.
Also, though Ottolenghi is no longer associated with Jerusalem, the review page for all editions of Jerusalem shows the Ottolenghi book title at the top of the page.
Thanks for your help.
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I tried to link my US version of Jerusalem to the European one and wasn't able to--I hope I didn't inadvertently mis-link Ottolenghi. (Don't you love his books/food?)
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Thanks Andrew. The recipe is Pumpkin Pancakes with Cinnamon Syrup and I inadvertently switched the link and the name of the recipe.
http://tastesbetterfromscratch.blogspot.com/2010/11/pumpkin-pancakes-with-cinnamon-syrup.html -
kateq, I also had difficulty with the link but was able to do it from the UK version to mine.
And, yes, I do love his books and this new one is no exception! -
Okay, @southerncooker, fixed it. You could have fixed it, actually - every recipe has a small edit link in the row of little icons under the recipe title (beside the picture) and it's possible to change the URL and title yourself.
And @zosia, the whole connection thing is designed to enable anyone to make connections (and break erroneous ones), so if you were fixing an error that's just fine. I looked at Jerusalem and it looks like the first person to connect this connected Ottolenghi to Jerusalem first, giving the entire group the name 'Ottolenghi'. I removed all titles from the group and then started again, connecting all three Jerusalem editions together. So everything looks good now. -
Thank you, Andrew!
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Thanks Andrew. I thought there was a way I could do it but when I went to edit it wouldn't let me. I realize now there are two edit buttons.
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Thanks very much Andrew.
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Andrew, when I try to sort my web sites by date, the list doesn't change. I think that button isn't working correctly. No urgency at all.
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Surely this has come up before, but I'd really like to be able to chat/discuss, not only on a recipe, but on a cookbook.
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On the cookbook itself. And maybe everyone that owns it could get a notification if they want??? I'd like to be able to ask a question. E.g., I once bought a used book that was ex-library and turned out to have a page missing. By the time I discovered this it was too late to return it. I could have asked if someone who had the book could make a copy of the missing page for me. Or, I'm reading a cookbook now and observed something I'd like to share or ask about.
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I agree that it would be fun to chat about the book reviews.
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Could we have more characters per review? For some, especially if I've prepared it several times and go back to comment on my previous review, 2000 characters just isn't enough!
Kaye16, what about a thread on the cookbook here in the forum, with a link in the link section of the cookbook? I know that it's not what you mean, but it would make it a lot easier for others who don't own the book to follow and join the discussion! -
Try it now, @friederike - you should be able to do 5000 characters. I didn't expect people would be so enthusiastic! Great to see.
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Thank you @andrew!
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Does anyone feel for being able to give two ratings per recipe? I noticed that often I'd like to make a distinction between the instructions as such and the eventual outcome. Mostly, it's when I feel that the dish is nice, but the instructions contained too many mistakes; but it can also be vice-versa, the recipe is a breeze and very easy, but the result just doesn't live up to it. Would it actually be possible to implement this?
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Second that idea, @friederike
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It is difficult to convey the reasons with the stars, and I suppose that is why we have the verbal part. But I do like the idea of the duel rating.
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Epicurious has two ratings: stars, and 'would you make this again'. I would hesitate to have two separate star rankings as that would be confusing. But maybe something like Epicurious?
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I thought that you could have one overall rating per review, and split that up into different sub-ratings for things like instructions and flavour/result; but of course you could also express that verbally, just that you wouldn't be able to see in one glance. I can see that it might be confusing and difficult to realize.
Other topic: A while ago I noticed that I cataloged a wrong book. There are two distinct cookbooks called "Die echte Jeden-Tag-Küche", both published by the same publisher (heaven knows why they did that) but by different authors. The one I really own is the one by Sabine Sälzer, but before I noticed, I already erroneously reviewed a few in the edition of Cornelia Schirnharl. I don't know if there is any manner to transfer the reviews from the wrong edition to the right one without losing additional information such as the original posting date. Is that something you could do, Andrew? -
Maybe it would be possible to do a review without any stars? So that we might comment for example on the relationship of one recipe to another -- different from commenting on a member's review.
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Uhm... can we have some more characters? I think the current limit is 2500 characters. 5000 would be great. I'm nearly afraid to say that I need that much to review a recipe for soft boiled eggs :)
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Could we Like comments? I hate writing me-too comments, but would like to be able to express my approval/solidarity. ;-)
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While I'm here, could Cookbooker keep us logged in for hours or days or weeks? It seems that every time I go to it, I have to log in again. Very annoying. I'm really not too worried about someone looking at one of my computers around the house and stealing a recipe. :-)
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Sorry @friederike - I set this up, but forgot one vital change. It's working now - 5000 characters! I'm looking forward to this essay on eggs!
I'll look into the comments liking. Should be doable, using a similar system as the regular likes.
And @kaye16 - you know, I've been planning that too. It was originally set for 2 weeks when people click the 'remember me' button. Is this not working for you? I've just changed it to 6 months. You'll have to log out and in again to set this. If you don't click the button it's only a few hours. This is there in case you're signing in from a public location - I know a few people who've been upset to find an account hijacked when they've made this mistake.
If this doesn't work at all check to see if your browser is set to reject 'cookies', as this is how it works. -
kateq said:
Maybe it would be possible to do a review without any stars? So that we might comment for example on the relationship of one recipe to another -- different from commenting on a member's review.
@kateq: I don't want the reviews to get messed up with non-starred items; it would cause problems with the display of averages, etc. We have put a tab in each recipe, once it's added to the site, called 'chatter', which shows if anyone has comments about the recipe separate from reviews. That should work for your purposes. You can just 'index' a recipe if it's not there, and then put comments in the 'chatter' section.
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@andrew, I've clicked Remember Me before, but have just logged out and in again so I can be 100% sure about it. Typically every time I go to Cookbooker, whether hours or days, I have to log in again.
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Let me know what happens this time. Hopefully my change will have done the trick, though if it's related to your computer it's harder to say. Is this the only site you've had issues with?
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It will be great to remain logged in. Odd things happen when your log-in expires mid-review :-S
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@andrew, it's staying logged in -- hooray!
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