What do you plan to do with Rate the Recipes?

[Natasha]

Hi,
Not a tech support question but it is a website question. How do you plan to use that cool new Rate the Recipes feature? Will it come up with ratings that will be included for recipes that are in the Recipe Finder? Or will you use it in cookbooks etc.? Or is it simply to get an idea of what people tend to like, so you can deliver more of it? Just wondering...whichever one it is, I think it s a fantastic idea!

[lisad]

Hey, Natasha--

There are a couple of things going on here. Actually, we will soon be revamping our Recipe Finder completely to include lots of new features--one of which is a ratings system. We'll be announcing this soon, just need to figure out some technical issues before we pin a date on the switch.

The Rate the Recipes feature is separate. There, we want your help in figuring out which of the recipes in each issue were most popular. We're really excited about this because this is the first time we've been able to get readers'/users' feedback on recipes and try to quantify it. The numbers we get will help us in many ways:

* They'll help us fine-tune the balance of recipes in the issue. From what you've chosen as your favorites, we could extrapolate the types of recipes you're looking for (more entrees, quick and easy, ethnic, etc.).

* They'll help us with cookbooks and our "Back to the Best" feature. We're excited to be able to use readers' opinions to help us create new collections of our best recipes.

* The feature will increase the level of interaction between readers and the magazine. We know (from the BBds and our email and snail-mail correspondence) that our readers have strong opinions and great ideas. This is just one way of putting your enthusiasm to work. I'm not sure how it will be executed--or where--but the magazine editors would like to report back to readers/users on the most popular dishes in each issue. As you know, that can be a great service to other readers. You guys exchange info on the boards about recipes that help other readers figure out what to make from the issue ... with over 70 recipes per issue, it's tough to make them all, and your feedback may help other readers narrow down the list.

I apologize for the long reply, and I hope this helps. I'm going to look at the Recipe Ratings main page to see if I can add some info on these points to clarify the purpose of this feature for folks.

Thanks!
Lisa D
CookingLight.com Editor

[Natasha]

Thanks, Lisa, to you and your colleagues! I m looking forward to these developments and am sure I m not the only one.

Natasha

[Shirley Panek]

Natasha -

Thanks for the asking the question I was going to ask.

And Lisa D. thanks for the answers I wanted to hear. I love Cooking Light, and have especially come to love the BB (and website). It is most definitely an integral part of the whole CL experience for me. As I'm sure you know, the people on the BB are probably the nicest on the 'net (definitely the nicest as far as other BBs are concerned). And you CLers who answer are questions are top-notch.

Keep up all the great work!

http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif
Shirley

[Michael Smith]

Natasha, excellent question. Take a look at Epicurious.com for this feature. Not every recipe is rated, but it's a great metric for those that are. I hope this site either mimics their procedure or else comes up with something even better!

[Grace]

Boy, just when you think they couldn't make it any better..... http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[Natasha]

Originally posted by Michael Smith:
Natasha, excellent question. Take a look at Epicurious.com for this feature. Not every recipe is rated, but it's a great metric for those that are. I hope this site either mimics their procedure or else comes up with something even better!

Thanks, Michael. I do really like the percentage ratings and the short reader reviews on Epicurious; they're so helpful! Like you, I hope we can look forward to seeing something similar here in the future! Happy cooking.