I would like your input on how to improve this discussion forum and make it more useful.
One idea I had is to create additional forums under the “Home Cheesemaking” category. Today, there is only one forum, also called “Home Cheesemaking” and we have been using that single forum for all of our dialogs. I wonder if it would be helpful to have additional forums to help with the organization of posts. For example, I could add a “Beginners” forum where people new to cheesemaking could introduce themselves and ask “newby” questions. We could have a forum dedicated to cheesemaking “tools”, for example. Another for “recipes”. Perhaps an “off topic” category for posts related to beer making, wine making, bread making and the other “home made” topics that occasionally come up?
Of course there will always be some overlap and ambiguity between these sub-categories, but I wonder if it would help make information more easy to find?
Or, we could just keep it the way it is!
Let me know what you think. And, if you like the idea, what are some of the categories you’d like to see?
Hmm, beeing a small group I find its worked out very well so far, however a section related to “home made’ stuff like food would be nice.
Having health problems and sensitive to chemicals i make all that i can myself (some have notice lol) breads etc.. def be a good excuse to experiment more with that sour dough’s are very interesting
Dont drink anymore but used to be a wine and bear maker for 15 years, the early teen years even made moon cough shine
As was mentioned before, it has been hard to find the wikipedia section.
The wiki is here. I know it is not obvious how to use it, but if you read the “Wiki Help” topic, that helps some. I’ll try to work on the “ease of use” when I get time.
I’ll add an “Other Home Made” forum to the Cheese Making Forum.
Do you use the whey from your cheeses in your home made breads?
Rick, you’re always thinking. I like the “Other Home Made” idea, as most of us are probably into doing things ourselves. Also, My other main interest is gardening - would that be too off the target?
I have mixed feelings about a separate beginners page. I actually still think of myself as a beginner. First, while a separate page may make it less “intimidating” for newbies to post their questions; it seems like it would only work if you more experienced folks would log in and give answers from your experience. I’m thinking there may be a tendency to stick to your own preferred page and not visit the others. So, unless the pages have totally different topics, I think it would be better to keep all the cheesy stuff in one place.
I also am unsure about a “beginners” forum topic. Not so much that the more experienced would not read and comment, but that some people may not want to be categorized as a beginner or are unsure if their topic is a beginner topic or not…So, having a beginner topic might make it more intimidating to post, not less
I think I’ll create a “sources” topic, though. There, people can post info on sources for raw milk, cultures, presses, moulds, molds, and other tools and ingredients. Maybe another place for “recipes” both for cheese and using cheese. That would break out some of the reference content from the discussion and make it easier to find.
I would keep the cheeses in one folder, keeps it freindly, can easily get lost with sub folders and more areas to search. A separate folder for recipes could work
I hope you don’t take offence to my sugestion but take a look at cheeseforum.org the set up there is great and easy to find what you are looking for.
i use both forums and find i have found a lot of help from both.
as i said i hope this will not offend.
yorkie42
It looks like there may be an issue with trying to post replies on the “Other Home Made Goodies” side of the forum. I don’t see anything to click on to post a reply.
Hmmm, I see both “Post Reply” and “Fast Reply” there, so I don’t understand why you don’t… Any way to send me a screen capture so I can see what it looks like?
Figured it out. For some reason the permissions were set such that even members could not reply. I could since I am an administrator… should be fixed now. Sorry for the inconvenience.
