Merry Christmas to all, CFO is now 3 years old. I originally set it up while on holiday with my family on Oregon USA's coast near Depoe Bay, (where Jack Nicholsen piloted the boat with all the asylum tenants out to sea in the 1975 movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", coincidence?).
I originally hard coded the CFO website's webpages using Microsoft's Expression Web, excellent software but hard coding webpages is a cumbersome system, steep learning curve, time consuming, and only I can edit which I have done steadily over the last 3 years into many many webpages. In January 2008 I installed this forum's software which has been very popular but is by it's nature chaotic in that threads can be (in my mind) in the wrong board and evolve into different and often more interesting subjects. While this forum is a treasure trove of information, even with me renaming threads to more appropriate names and moving to more obvious boards, it is still hard to locate key information, thus requiring considerable time to mine the treasure of information. Also Forum software is not very good for formal Articles which over the years a few members have said they would like to submit.
To address
a recent discussion, the
old website's and this forum's shortcomings I have spent the last month replacing and upgrading the old website to a new member submitted or edited
Articles based system. One unfortunate aspects of this new system is that it has it's own database of User ID's, password and profiles from this Forum, to post or edit Articles or replies you will have to register again, although you can use the same User ID, Password, and Avatar as you have for this forum. Soon I will delete the old website.
I have already moved over 100 of my old hard coded webpages to new Articles, some
authored by me and using my User ID. Most I've used a User ID called "Cheese Wiki" and named those posts starting with Wiki, such as
Wiki: Oiling Rinds, or
Wiki: Turning Cheeses. These currently 94 and growing Wiki Articles are generic on general cheese making Methods, Equipment, Ingredients, Recipes, and Defects that I have built over the last 3 years and can now be edited by anyone, just like Wikipedia. It is hoped that these Wiki Articles will 1) be jointly edited, 2) through many minds become more useful to new and current cheese makers, and 3) be easier for forum members to redirect new forum member questions to rather than please Search or "see the three different posts here here and here". You can find those Wiki Articles via the new website's
Category menu system or by Searching on key words or there
is a listing here.
The new Articles/Wiki Articles based website is now mature and open for business! You can find out how to
submit any Articles you want on your cheese making or raising dairy animals or on other artisan crafts or how to co-edit the Wiki Articles here, I look forward to your contributions and any feedback on the new CFO website.
Merry Christmas to all.
PS: The new website will evolve, for example I still have to set up Author information/bio type webpages etc.