This blog is now closed.

Now that the Through the oven door forum is up and running, I will no longer be updating this blog. Please go to:

www.throughtheovendoor.com

or contact us via

themacone@throughtheovendoor.com

or

bakingbunny@throughtheovendoor.com

See you over at the new forum.

BB

Technical issues

If you find that you can't log into throughtheovendoor.com, you are not the only one.

The site is currently down and I have logged the issue with my hosting provider.

Sadly, we're playing the waiting game now to get it resolved as soon as possible.

Please be patient. I'll post updates here as soon as I know about them.

Thanks,

Mac.

Through the oven door is open!

We are now live with our brand spanking new forum!

Just a heads up - some people may experience registration issues.

If anyone doesn't get a registration email within an hour of registering, can you please reply here with your registered user name.

We can then tend to your registration promptly.

Mac. (TheMacOne)

Good news everyone!

Every ending has a beginning, and in our case it was the end of the Nigella.com forum that propelled us into a new beginning. Change is often seen as a negative, but often great things come from change. The community spirit of the forum members continued as we discovered ways to stay in touch, via Facebook and a temporary blog. Banding together, we decided to start our own forum. We ran a poll to choose a name for our new forum from a short list of 6 names contributed by members of our online community, and we were on the way to establishing Through the oven door. We have become really proud of our name and it has come to mean more to us than merely just Through the oven door. Our hope is that over time it will come to mean something to you too.

It’s hard to believe how much work we have all accomplished in such a short amount of time. So much work has been going on behind the scenes and we thank you all for being so patient. It has taken a bit longer to build the site than we first anticipated, but that has enabled us to make sure that the site is a place everyone can enjoy.

We thank you all for your wonderful suggestions and ideas.  They all have merit and we have taken them all into consideration. We have concentrated on developing a site that is more user friendly and functional to use.  A lot of thought has gone into making this site and while we appreciate all of your suggestions, unfortunately some of them have not made it on to the site due to technical capabilities, time constraints, logistical and financial limitations.  We have kept track of all your ideas though and over time may be able to find a home for them on the new forum. 

We chose a forum design that we thought would be user-friendly, rather than becoming obsessed with finding the perfect background colour. We hope you all agree that being able to maneuver around the site with ease is paramount and that the “cosmetics” of the site can be changed over time.

As we are now broadening the topics available for discussion, the forum has been designated into sections but we have kept the number of sections to a minimum. There are also some enhanced features that should make your time on the new forum more efficient and enjoyable. You will be able to add photographs to posts, bookmark favourite topics, subscribe to posts in your favourite topics and manage such features on your own user control panel. Yes, it may take you a little exploration and discovery to learn how to use it the best way for you, but there’s no rush. Jump in, have a look around, and take a look at the forum feature videos that TheMacOne has produced to help you learn many of the features available on the new forum. We have all put a lot of work into this site to make your experience as enjoyable as possible and to make sure that the site is you-friendly!

This new forum was the work of many, and they all deserve our gratitude. We had TheMacOne heading up the technical side of the enterprise and he has exceeded all our expectations to design us a customised forum. Baking Bunny co-ordinating forum members suggestions and working with all the volunteer contributors. Chocolate Cookie working very hard behind the scenes and providing wonderful support. We had Cappuccino design graphics for the forum and we were very impressed with their suitability - they enhance the forum so much. Then there are the contributors of the written words; introductions to forum sections and specific topics. Thank you Teaboy, JonMc, Charlie, manic-mummy, Coby, JeanJean, CookALot and bakemeacake. 

Our aim from day one has been to provide a family friendly site where everyone from all age groups and all walks of life can come and feel safe in the knowledge that they are part of a friendly, nurturing and safe community.  We want parents to feel comfortable in allowing their young children time on our site. To ensure this, it is a community effort.  While we have an amazing team of moderators to keep an eye on things, we are a global forum and therefore we need to rely on everyone to govern themselves. We ask you to put a little thought in to your posts and replies and ask yourself – Would I allow my daughter, son, niece, nephew, grandson, grandaughter to read what I have just posted?  We hope that your answer is – Yes!!

A good site needs moderators who will keep the users best interests at heart. We have a team of volunteer moderators on board and we are grateful to them for offering their time and accepting this task. The forum could not run without them. They are a vital part of this forum, and will be known as Team Mandarin. The admin team of TheMacOne and Baking Bunny will be known as Team Alfalfa. The form of moderation we chose, was based on the poll on the temporary blog which clearly suggested that the majority wanted some form of moderation, but without the heavy-handed approach of the old forum. As such, new users will be subjected to full moderation for their first five posts, so we are able to weed out time wasters and spammers. Once you have passed this milestone, your posts will automatically load onto the forum. We trust you all to behave and abide by the Terms of Use on the new forum. There will be ‘report’ capabilities, and moderators will be able to place members back on moderation if they post items that do not meet the Terms of Use. In extreme cases of continuing bad behaviour, membership may be cancelled.

Please do let us know if you have any suggestions for us to consider for the forum. There is even a section for this under Website Information in the forum sections. 

And now for the news you have all been waiting for! We are just about ready to open the forum for everyone to register and use. The opening time will be UK time 1am Wednesday 15th September, which is 10am Australian EST. At the designated opening time, you may register on the site at:

http://www.throughtheovendoor.com/

Please be aware that we expect an influx of registrations and new posts and our moderation team will be working very hard to get through each user’s 5 initial posts as quickly as possible. Please bear with us during this busy time, as we expect everything to run much more efficiently and smoothly once the initial very busy moderation period passes. 

Again thank you to everyone who assisted in making this forum into a reality, and to everyone for their support and encouragement. We look forward to seeing you all on the new forum on opening day!

We are so close I can smell it....

.. or is that the Caramel Croissant pudding CC made tonight?
Not sure but it smells goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood!!

Things are moving along VERY nicely at the moment.

The forum is ALMOST up, bar a few how to videos on some of the features of the forum including:
- Bookmarking topics
- Subscribing to topics
- Text size adjustment
- How to report a post
to name a few.

I again apologize for the inconvenience and understand the withdrawals that people are having.

Before I go, I want to thank the volunteer Moderators for their time they are about to put into making this forum a safe place. Thank you all!

Hang in there and bake your favourite cake/food/snack item - the forum is on its way.

-----------------------------------

NOTE FOR Moderators: You have already been contacted by BB to register. If you haven't registered by now, please do so. There are Moderator videos up (thanks to youtube) to get used to the main Moderation tools for the forum. The videos are clear and (hopefully) easy to understand.
NOW is the time to review them and get accustomed to them - and also the time to ask as many questions as necessary before the big day.
Your permissions will (by the time this post is submitted) be upgraded to Moderator so you can play with said tools in the test section.
Any Moderators having issues with registering, please post here so we can get you up and going.
And THANKS again!

Regards to all,

Mac (TheMacOne).

A few things about the new forum ...

Just to answer some questions and make sure everyone is on the same page, I just want to mention how Moderation will work on the new forum.

While it isn't true that there will be NO Moderation, it won't be as locked down as N.com was.
Having said this, the aim is to present a forum of like minded people with the same love (cooking) together that is family friendly.

To start with, we will get people who register to have their first 5 posts Moderated to get into the swing of Moderation. After the 5th approved post, people will be able to post freely without post approval but still have Moderators cast an eye for any indiscretions.
This measure is to make sure no spammers can get on and spam the forum without someone noticing before the damage is done.

There will be a list of things that will not be tolerated on the new forum once we go live. It is mainly common sense topics like religion, politics, slander, etc so I don't see much issue with the group of people we have now. Grammar and spelling are NOT topics for denying a post from being displayed.

Sadly, we have to put these measures in place as, there WILL be someone wanting to "test the water" to see how much they can get away with.

The whole Moderation process may be a bit slow to start with as Team Mandarin (our Moderation team) sort through approximately 500 posts in the first few days to a week. We aim to make the process as seamless as possible for all concerned.

At this stage, I would like to again thank everyone for their patience and consideration while we get our new site up and running.

Feel free to post any questions or concerns about the new forum that anyone may have and they will be addressed before we go live.

Regards,

TheMacOne (Mac).

Just a little update on the new forum

Hi everyone,

I have heard a bit of confusion about the new forum and just wanted to clear it up for you.

This blog here is temporary until the new forum is opened.

On the new forum you will set up a user name and password, and log on and then be able to start threads, post comments and attach photographs.

We are very far along with the new forum set up and will let you know as soon as it is available for use.

Not long now....stay tuned for further news.

What's cooking in your kitchen?

We all love to talk about what's cooking in our kitchens, so thought I would start this post to keep us occupied until the new forum is revealed.

Today, I am making braised lamb shanks (kind of asian style) in my new Dutch Oven, which was a real bargain at only $AUD79, instead of the usual $200. It is a Raco, so not a lovely Le Creuset but still comes with a lifetime guarantee!

We have a winner!

It was a close race, almost a photo finish, but here are the results. Through the oven door has just pipped Nigella Friends at the post.

Through the oven door: 47 votes

Nigella Friends: 46 votes

Voting is now closed.

Stay tuned for further news.

Keep in touch here

We are very close to having the new forum ready to go. It's a close race for the naming of the forum in the poll, so if you haven't voted in it please do so as every vote is really counting.

In the meantime, I just started this post for you all to chat away to each other, so just add your comments and have a bit of a chat while we keep working on the new forum for you.

Stay posted for more news about our new forum name tomorrow!

Vote for your preferred new forum name

Thank you to everyone who has suggested possible new forum names. We have made a shortlist of favourites that have available domain names - this means we can use them! So I am adding a poll to the right side of this page. Please vote for your favourite.

Here is the list as well, and you can add comments if you would like to say why a particular name is your favourite. If it comes down to a dead heat, we will refer to comments as well.

Once we have the forum name, we are very close to opening up the forum for use. Very exciting!

The finalists are:

our mixing bowl (sorry had to change the to our as the mixing bowl was not available)

through the oven door

whisks and wishes

our chopping board (again had to change the to our)

mash chop grate

kitchen coven

Nigella friends


I would like to thank everyone for their suggestions, and will credit the above suggestions with the forummers name as soon as I have a chance.

Please note that the poll will be closing on Sunday 5th September (UK time 11pm) - for aussies that will be 8am EST Monday 6th Sept (hope I calculated the time difference right). 

Slight re-design to this blog

I hope the design and colour change on this blog has not confused you too much. I had a request to tone it down a bit as it was a bit too much for some participants. No big deal to me. This blog is a place for us to discuss our future as forummers. Please continue to use it exactly as before.

Upwards and onwards - the future is bright!

Good news everyone. At this stage, we seem to be in a good position to start our own forum at no cost and with the help of our own 'Webmaster' - hope he doesn't mind me using that term, and just laughs at my over exuberance! His name here will be TheMacOne.

Chocolate Cookie is about to come on board as a contributor here. She has been working behind the scenes to make this happen, and I cannot thank her and her partner enough for their commitment and assistance.

Coby is also coming on board the blog as a contributor so you may see some posts from her as well.

We expect to be able to have our own forum up and running very soon, so at this stage I am just adding a few contributors to the blog to help us get the new forum going.

We need a new forum name so any suggestions much appreciated.

Please put your hand up now too if you are able to be a volunteer moderator, so we can make sure this aspect will be covered. To start with, we will have to just jump on as and when we can to moderate. I trust that the ex-N.com forummers will behave themselves and our moderating will mostly be targeted on any new members, so this means we all need to look after the forum and report any concerns so the moderators can take appropriate action.

We need to consider the terms and conditions we want on our forum.

Keep any comments and suggestions coming please. Your input is the driving force here.

New N.com site not crediting our recipes - discuss here

I copied Amy's comment across from another post, so everyone can discuss this issue. It is also being discussed on the FB Nigella Friends site. 

amy said...

BB Thank you so much for doing this! I am not a 'facebooker'. This is such a great start!

I say option 2 sounds good since we all 'know' one another!

So, on another note...if the new site does not duly credit recipes to those who submitted them (they were so strict about it before)...I think I will ask to have my deleted. What do you guys think?

Great to be here. XOXO tart13

September 1, 2010 4:56 PM 

How would you like our forum to be set up?

Please let us know what you would like to see in our new forum.

Do you want different topics. For example, recipe swap, kitchen help, travel, gardening, cookalong, cookbook book club, general chit chat.

Or do you just want the one section like was on N.com.

I am a fan of sections so it is easier to find the thread you are looking for, plus will have to see if we can add a search option as well.

We are able to set up our own forum, and at the moment the 'partial moderation' style of forum is the popular choice in the poll on this blog. This is much easier to handle with volunteer moderators (that's you guys - whoever is willing to put up their hand to help out), we would need to do some sort of roster I think so the forum is covered 24/7 due to us being all over the world.

After seeing the changes to N.com and realising our forum has had an untimely and sudden demise (I was hoping for a miracle!), we need to find an alternative way of communication. I am not a fan of the Nigella FB page - too many silly people on there for me, and could you imagine if the Nigella-body-lovers got involved in our threads. There is the Nigella Friends page which us FB users are finding great to keep in contact with each other but the discussions thread is not really like a forum or as user friendly as I imagine many of us would like. And of course there are the non-FB users to consider, which is my main reason for starting this blog in the first place.

Anyway I need your input. Let me know your thoughts.

What will the future hold?

Well it is nearly my bedtime in the land down under, so please excuse my silence for the next 10 hours or so. I will check in while eating breakfast but have a busy day tomorrow so will pop in and out as I can.

I am hoping that when I awake, this will all have been a bad dream...but I know it isn't. Hopefully, though, some action will have been taken by the Nigella team and we will know where we stand with Nigella.com and Facebook, so we can then decide how and if we want to proceed with a forum and a blog if needed.

Good night from Australia.

The future of this blog

It appears there is interest in getting an independent forum up and running, so as long as there is enough interest and we can decide on it's moderation format plus have some volunteers to be moderators we should be able to proceed (if the Nigella.com forum really is closing and it is not some awful practical joke).

My next question at this stage is whether we would want this blog to continue alongside a new forum. I think they would work well together as we would need a place we could post recipes, pictures, tips etc that would be searchable and indexed. We need to consider how, when and who we give access to the blog. I personally feel that any current Nigella.com forummers have already earned their stripes and could request access from the start via the email contact.

Please share your thoughts with us, any suggestions, foreseeable problems. We may also need to consider future growth and how we would adapt to that.

Do we want to start our own forum?

Yes we can! Well, if you would like to. I have had a very generous offer from another forummer to assist in starting up our own forum. I like the idea as it means people that do not want to be on Facebook, can still be involved in our old Nigella.com community of forummers.

There are of course concerns about how we would moderate our own forum. There are a few options.

1. Fully moderated: like the Nigella.com site did. This would need a group of forummers that would be willing to be moderators and to devote time to such a task on a regular basis. I do not see any need for posts to be changed though. They would only not be posted if they were unsuitable under the terms and conditions we set up. 
2. Initially moderated: first say 20 posts are fully moderated and then the forummer becomes an approved member and no moderation is required. However, if they make an unsuitable post (against the terms and conditions of the forum) the post would be removed and they would become unapproved and subject to moderation for say 20 posts again. (There would need to be a report ability so the moderators can be made aware of a transgression).
3. Partially moderated: a report mechanism so forummers can report an unsuitable post, and it would be removed if it was deemed to not meet the terms and conditions of the forum.

Please note: current Nigella.com forummers moving over would already be considered 'approved members' if we went with Option 2. Also any option chosen would be fully disclosed in the conditions of using the forum. 

Please let me know your thoughts on how these scenarios could work and any concerns you have. Also, of course I need to know if you would like our own forum. Plus please vote on the poll down the right side of this page.

An alternative forum to use

Seona from the Nigella forums gave me this link to an alternative Nigella forum.

http://nigella.proboards.com/index.cgi

I have just registered as BakingBunny but am waiting for it to be approved so I can't yet give you my thoughts on this alternative forum but I hope it is good.

Cookbook book club - Aug/Sept 2010 Selection

Thanks jeanjean for nominating me and thinking of me surrounded by my just unpacked cookbooks and my pile of cookbooks from the library. I must admit seeing that it was my turn to select a cookbook sent me into a mild frenzy of panic. How was I ever going to narrow it down to one cookbook? I decided my selection needed to have some interesting reading in it, lovely pictures, recipes that would appeal to all of us...and slowly I became calmer and narrowed it down to just two. Drum roll please... I have selected, for all of our enjoyment, Holiday by Bill Granger. 

This cookbook is one of my recent purchases, and so far I have only tried a couple of recipes but they have been wonderful so I want to delve into this book much more and what better way then for us all to jump into it together. There’s a good mix of recipes in this cookbook that will stretch from the current summer in the UK to the depths of winter here in Australia. I love Bill’s opening line to this book: “For me, a holiday doesn’t need to be about going away somewhere; it’s very much a state of mind, a special feeling, a stolen moment, a happy accident.” I feel the same, and food can transport me to a special place without a need to leave the house.

Welcome Nigella friends!

Hello to fellow Nigella forummers looking for a new cyber-home. I thought we could all do with a little comfort food. So here is the caramel croissant pudding for us all to share.

Please do give me your comments on how you would like this site to look, what you would like it to do, if you would like to be a contributor or just a commentator. I have also added a poll on this site to find out if people would like an independent forum for us to all continue our discussions without including Facebook.

Looking forward to your comments.