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.