Ottawa Foodies

Ottawa Foodies FAQ

1. Why this site?
2. How can I be a good OttawaFoodies citizen?
3. What are those numbers in square brackets next to an item?
4. How does the voting system work?
5. Where can I find a restaurant's address?
6. How do I add a new food or restaurant?
7. I'm looking for food "X." Can you help?
8. I don't understand when I can edit or delete stuff. What gives?
9. What fancy stuff can I do in my comments?
10. What's the whole friends/fans thing? I don't want friends!
11. What is the Newbie/Bronze/Silver/Gold under a user's icon?
12. Some guy keeps bugging me. What can I do?
13. I heard foodies are snobs. Why should I be one?
14. Why say "vendor?" What's wrong with "restaurant?"
15. This site is ugly!
16. How can I ask questions or give feedback?

1. Why this site?
   Here are some of the things I was looking for in a food site:
   
   • Connections - tell me where to get the foods I like
   • Scoring system - find out which foods/restaurants are most popular
   • Photos - nothing beats food porn!
   • Lists - favourites (foods, vendors, foodies) and wishlists (foods, vendors)
   • Search - powerful, fast and easy search capability
   • Web links - THE most comprehensive source of links to Ottawa restaurant/vendor websites
   • Smarts - informative, intuitive, simple on top, complex underneath
   • Accuracy - no duplicate entries and constant sanity checking
   • Fun - a playground for people who love food
   
   
   Hopefully you'll notice other little niceties along the way. The Wikipedia lookup link to help you learn more about a particular food. The "See also" recommendations for a restaurant's other locations or a food's peers.
   
   
2. How can I be a good OttawaFoodies citizen?
   Here's how you can contribute:
   • Vote for all your favourite vendors, foods, and vendor-food connections.
   • Add vendors that are not listed, especially if you like them.
   • When you are impressed by the food at a particular vendor, create a new connection so others know where to get that food. Give the connection a thumbs up and post a review if you like.
   • Take pictures of the great food you eat and post them along with a review.
   • Report any errors or omissions. There's a feedback form on every food/vendor page.
   • Check back often to read new comments and contribute your thoughts.
   
   
   
3. What are those numbers in square brackets next to an item?
   Those are the ratings. Right now they are simply the total number of positive votes minus the total number of negative votes. There are lots of ways to go with this in the future, like giving more weight to votes from people who have a lot of fans.
   
   
4. How does the voting system work?
   Each user can give a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" to any vendor, or food/vendor connection. This lets you recommend French Fries at McDonald's but not McDonald's in general. If you don't feel strongly one way or another just don't vote. You can also add a vendor or food to your Favourites list, thus increasing its popularity.
   
   
5. Where can I find a restaurant's address?
   Just below the name you'll see a link called "Location". Clicking this link will do a Google Maps lookup for you. Google does a far better job of keeping the info up to date than we ever could. For those few places where Google doesn't know the address, I've entered info manually in the description.
   
   
6. How do I add a new food or restaurant?
   There are two ways to do this. You can type the name into the search bar and if nothing is found you are given the opportunity to create it. The second way is to type the name into the "Add food" or "Add vendor" form in an existing Vendor or Food entry.
   
   
7. I'm looking for food "X." Can you help?
   Sure! Just add the food (see previous question). Any food that isn't connected to a vendor will show up in the "Desperately Seeking" list on the main page. Someone who knows where to get it will add a vendor to it or add a comment to it.
   
   
8. I don't understand when I can edit or delete stuff. What gives?
   The short answer: Don't worry about it. Long answer: You can edit a food/vendor that you have just added until it has been approved. Subsequently it is locked and can only be changed by an administrator. There's a feedback form on every food/vendor page where you can request changes. You can delete any comment you've made as long as nobody has posted a follow-up comment. You can delete any public comment on your profile at any time. You can delete sent private messages (from your profile page) if they haven't yet been read by the recipient.
   
   
9. What fancy stuff can I do in my comments?
   Comment text can use the following decorators:
   
   Make **bold** text. --> Make bold text.
   Make //italics// text. --> Make italics text.
   [[u123]] --> Create a link to user 123
   [[f123]] --> Create a link to food 123
   [[v123]] --> Create a link to vendor 123
   
   
   
10. What's the whole foodies/fans thing? I don't want friends!
    When viewing a person's profile you have the option to "Add favourite." This typically means that you have similar tastes to that person and are interested in reading their comments and seeing their favourite foods and vendors. They will show up under "Fellow foodies" on your profile and you will show up under "Fans" on their profile.
    
    
11. What is the Newbie/Bronze/Silver/Gold under a user's icon?
    This indicates how trusted the user's opinions are. It is based on how many "Fans" a user has (see previous question). Actually, it's more complicated than that, being based on how many fans a user's fans have. This is a quick and fairly accurate way to determine how much weight a user's opinions should carry, based on their popularity in the Ottawa Foodies community. It isn't perfect but it helps flag the single-post-flamers that are inevitable on restaurant review sites.
    
    
12. Some guy keeps bugging me. What can I do?
    If you really aren't interested in his offers of foodie paradise then just block him. Click on his user icon to get to his profile then press the "Block this user" button. Now he can no longer send you messages or comment on your profile. If only real life were as sweet as this!
    
    
13. I heard foodies are snobs. Why should I be one?
    No, no, no... you're thinking of gourmets. They are cold and miserable people who don't actually enjoy eating most of the time. They also fall asleep during sex. Foodies are happy fun-loving people who savour every meal and spread joy wherever they go. :) As usual, Wikipedia says it best:
    "A foodie might easily get caught up in a taco hunt--a search for the best taco stands and trucks in an area. But this would not be an adventure for a gourmet..."
    
    That said, we're all a bit snobby about something, even if it's Burger King vs. McDonald's.
    
    
14. Why say "vendor?" What's wrong with "restaurant?"
    Because we aim to track all food sources, including those which are not actually restaurants: farms, grocery stores, bakeries, sausage vendors, chip wagons, etc.
    
    
15. This site is ugly!
    Yeah. Sorry about that. I'm a programmer not a graphic designer. Anyway, if you think it's ugly now, you should have seen it before wifey gave me her input!
    
    
16. How can I ask questions or give feedback?
    The preferred approach is to log in and click on the "See something wrong? Want to add Info? Click here." link. If that isn't possible then you can send email to info@ottawafoodies.com