Heard from Zen

[LauraVA]

Daschhundlady's FB group is very active...I am on FB, so of course get all notifications of postings, but I also check both this site, and Zen's on a daily basis...just don't have time, or the energy lately, to contribute. I enjoy all the shared info, regardless of the source. Perhaps everyone has the 'summer doldrums'...it's been waaaay too hot here, in VA, to do much of anything in the way of either cooking, or baking.

[Mike Nolan]

I need to start using Facebook, but I think someone already has a FB page entitled 'My Nebraska Kitchen'.

I think the heat wave may have broken here, we've had several days in the past week where it was in the 70's, which after several weeks of mid-90's feels wonderful.

But between the weather, work issues (many issues to resolve before I retire) and my wife's 20 carb a day diet, I haven't done much baking at all and not much interesting cooking.

But I've started doing some research on ways to jazz up low-carb meals, there's a limit on how many times we can eat fish poached in butter and lemon or steak and mushrooms. If I could convince her to like Hollandaise and related sauces, that would be a lot easier. Time to open my copy of James Peterson's 'Sauces' book and get creative.

[luvpyrpom]

I do look at Zen's website, here, and on FB on a daily website. I just don't contribute much as I'm limited in my knowledge of cooking and baking.

[chocomouse]

I retired on July 1, and thought I'd have more time to read and post on the "new" sites replacing the KAF Community. But I've been so busy still... I think the conversations will increase when the summer weather changes and baking season starts up for the holidays. I do find the postings interesting!

[Mike Nolan]

Congratulations on your retirement, I'm at 15 weeks and counting until mine.

[CindyLeigh]

BakerAunt wrote:

Does anyone know if Dachshundlady’s Facebook site is having similar traffic issues? I don’t do Facebook, so I cannot check. I, too, worry that we have lost the core of the BC people, and that has surprised and saddened me. It’s not that there were too many places set up–Randy’s blog, Zen’s site, Dachshundlady’s Facebook site, and Nebraska kitchen. Randy closed his blog due to lack of activity, and Zen’s site seems to be going the same way. There just does not seem to be the will or the interest in staying together to discuss baking and cooking.

Mike: Is there anything that we regulars can do to encourage traffic?

The FB page that DL started doesn't have any issues with connectivity or access. There's not a ton of people there but most check in every day or so. I'm thinking there's a dozen or two?

[Mike Nolan]

According to Google Analytics, traffic is building, slowly.

After my retirement and the holidays I'll have more time to spend on blog posts and feature enhancements, and I might spend some time/money on search engine optimization.

We've got over 2300 recipes on file here, that makes us larger than quite a few cooking sites.

I need to work on ways to sort/categorize recipes, which probably means setting up recipe categories and classifying everything.

[chocomouse]

I'm here, but very intermittently. I've had two major surgeries, including this past Monday, and one more to go in mid-late December. And my husband had his second knee replacement last week. I'm now thinking that retirement means you don't go to work -- because you need to have the time to go to the hospital. By January, I'll have more time to bake and post.

DachshundLady's site is active, but it is a very limited number of regular posters, I would guess less than 10. I could not get into Zen's site for the past 2 months, and had no response to my request for help with a new password. I think we probably have lost some of the core members of the OBC, unfortunately. I wonder if any of us still have contact with any of those core folks, and if we contacted them personally to remind them of the website address, and share some current news about former members, something to make them want to join us -- would that help?

[Mike Nolan]

I think Sarah Wirth has the most complete list of the BC members and email addresses.

There are a number of people who have registered for My Nebraska Kitchen but don't appear to be logging in or posting. I'm working to see if I can send out some kind of 'holiday message' email to everyone as a reminder that we're here.
--
Mike Nolan

[S_Wirth]

Every once in awhile, jej will email me for some help and I have sent her a link to all of her almost 100 recipes I get moved here. Back in May, I sent her the links to all of the sites after the BC closed. She keeps very busy with her local activities so I don't know if she has been here or not. Her email was not on my list.

Chocomouse it is always so nice to hear from you. Hoping you'll soon have all the pain and aggravation of the surgeries behind you.

Jozy asked me a few days ago for the list of links to our sites for a friend of hers. I know this was a person that never got my list. This friend of Jozy came here and read as she mentioned the Cindy's lemons threads to Jozy.

[navlys]

The fact that you have so many old BC member's recipes should encourage people to check in. (I mean" former" members.

[BakerAunt]

I have faithfully posted the "What Did You Bake" and "What Did You Cook" threads on Zen's site. Other than Luvpyrpom, skeptic7, and occasionally Mike, no one else has posted there for quite a while, and people at Nebraska kitchen have commented that they cannot get in to post on Zen's site. Clearly people do look at Zen's site, since there were 8 views for the week before this one. I've been trying to post there with the Nebraska Kitchen site to encourage those viewers who cannot post on that site to come over here. I do not know if that is working.

Should I give up on Zen's site or keep posting?

[Mike Nolan]

I've used the 'password reset' feature on Zen's site at least once, but not recently.

I've had some people let me know they had difficulty getting in to MNK, but given that I've had a few spammers succeed at posting here and several dozen fail at it, I'm not planning to lessen the security I'm using, though I may change it at some point (use some other 'captcha' tool, possibly) just in case the spammer toolkits have added us to their list.

[chocomouse]

I've now given up completely on Zen's site -- I cannot get in. Anyone who visits here can see, if they check out the side bar, that we have listed recipes with acknowledgement to the "former" or "old" (hahaha) BC member, and the forums are also categorized, making them easy to navigate. I don't know what else to try other than what has been mentioned. I do appreciate everything people post here.

[Italiancook]

BakerAunt, I can't tell you whether or not to continue posting on Zen's site as I was never a member of the BC. I just wonder if Zen is alright. Seems to me I read on this site that Zen was involved in a move, but that was some time ago. The move may be over. If you have e-mail for Zen, maybe you could ask her about the site and if everything is okay.

I've also been wondering about Wonky. I can't recall a post for a while. I found Wonky's posts about all her bread-baking to be inspirational. Of course, I'm inspired by all you bakers and cooks, too.

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Italiancook.
• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Italiancook.

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