Who will help me bake this site?

May 21, 2008 11:49 AM

Where can I find beta testers for a niche-ish recipe site?

So, I'm making a recipe site (again), and to prevent Ultimate Disappointment I need to find some beta testers to volunteer to run around on it. The magic part about the site is that it's multilingual and does some neat things with translation; the optimal tester would not only be into cooking, but also know a language beyond English (or be dictionary-capable). Places to find 'em:

Mefi Jobs?: Posted.
Forums?: Swooping in and dropping a "HI COME VISIT MY SITE" is never appreciated on forums, and if I'm going to invest some time in a few before I ask I need to know where to go. This post has some good ideas for cooking forums, but groups of people interested in translation or linguistics are also good targets. Site-specific advice on how to stop in is also welcome.
Bloggers?: I think inviting bloggers is more of a marketing beta thing than a technical beta thing. If they're going to chat the site up, I'd like to have their first impression be good! Horribly misinformed idea?

And if it helps, I'll totally call it beta tasting.

posted by soma lkzx to computers & internet (9 comments total)

Maybe have a sign-up page, and see if you can just get some relevant food bloggers to link to that? You don't necessarily want the bloggers so much as their readers...
posted by rivenwanderer at 12:12 PM on May 21, 2008

whoah, that's not the snacksby of old. are you responsible for the entire revolution health site, or just the cooking section?

i'll sign up. this is my field, and i already have strong opinions :)
posted by mumkin at 12:13 PM on May 21, 2008

mumkin: yeaaaah, snacksby was closed down a few months ago. revolution bought it back in late 2006 or so and it seems they decided to put it out of its misery. bright purple turnips don't mesh with well We Are Your Healthcare Future, I guess.
posted by soma lkzx at 12:25 PM on May 21, 2008

Sweet Jeebus, I just emoted there. Sorry.

Didn't complete my thought. From a cursory glance, it appears that your audience has shifted dramatically. Where snacksby was, as I recall, "what can I make with this stuff?" this new incarnation is seriously tied to health and wellness, so much so that I don't think you're even a cooking forum anymore. You're now cooking as part of a wellness-oriented lifestyle, which is a very different thing. Yes, your audience is people who cook, but a very particular subset. Its editorial outlook is going to be nutrition and health related (emphasis, I assume, on cholesterol, fat content, gluten, fiber, glycemic index, etc.) rather than tricks with bacon, five fabulous fois gras feasts, baking the perfect pie, and other health-be-damned topics that aren't off-limits for general-purpose food sites. In short, are you sure you're thinking about yourself in the right terms? Because in your question you just say "multilingual" and "cooking," which I don't think begins to address your segment.
posted by mumkin at 12:25 PM on May 21, 2008

I'm interested! Let us know how to sign up?
posted by ecsh at 12:27 PM on May 21, 2008

Mumkin, soma.lkzx doesn't need testers (tasters?) for the Revolution site, which is indeed health-oriented, but for a new recipe site that focuses on multilingual recipes.
posted by zoomorphic at 12:34 PM on May 21, 2008

zoomorphic: oh? crap, I read soma.lkzx's question (due to the link) to mean that he was working on adding multilingual features to the revolution health site, which used to be snacksby.
posted by mumkin at 12:40 PM on May 21, 2008

Oh, mumkin, Revolution Health is totally unaffiliated with me these days. I only worked for them for a few months after they took over Snacksby. The site I'm talking about isn't out in the wild yet, but I promise it is both multilingual and about cooking - nutrition and health be damned!

If anyone wants to sign up, my email's in my profile - drop me a message and I'll let you know when I open up testing (should start next week)
posted by soma lkzx at 12:40 PM on May 21, 2008

You could try posting at Tastespotting.com. It's where all the foodies gather and they're prone to participating in cooking memes, so there's some established community there.
posted by drea at 6:41 PM on May 21, 2008