Hi everyone -- thanks again for your patience this past week.

A little background: Foodpickle was initially conceived by A&M not to be a members-only service -- they wanted the added mobility of being able to tweet or text for help from anywhere, without tying those services to a food52 account. But ideally, the conversation will also draw in at least some new folks to become members and participate on foodpickle and elsewhere. As we've seen over the past week, this accessibility has presented some challenges, but we're working hard to adapt and keep Foodpickle an innovative, helpful service.

We've implemented a number of changes over the past week that seem to have whipped Foodpickle back into shape -- hope you agree. As always, feel free to share any feedback with [email protected] as well.

I can't speak for anyone else, but the smaller the percentage of questions being asked by actual members of the site, the less likely I am to participate with foodpickle. Before the tweet surge, I was a daily browser, weighing in on questions wherever I felt I could and participating in a discussion about food and cooking. The more interaction with Twitter the site has, the less of a discussion it becomes.

Trolls, trolls, go away. Come again, some other day (not !)

How do I boil water?

Hopefully the *children* will get bored soon.....

I couldn't understand why all the questions were so simple. I kept reading them and thinking REALLY!? You're a member here and you want people to know you through these questions. Now I get it and I can't understand why, that throughout this site we have to log in to make a contribution and here in foodpickle you don't have to. It makes no sense to me.
~Mary

I like seeing the tweets of the questions. It pushes me to the site, otherwise, weeks would probably go by before I remembered to go. I think, if the tweet overload continues, the answer is probably not to allow tweets to @food52 directly, but to have the site throw out the questions to the tweet world, as it does now, from those who have logged in and asked a question. food52 could always set up another twitter account for tweeted admin questions, etc.

I'm not sure that connecting Foodpickle with Twitter is a good idea. The best part of Foodpickle is that it allows for real discussion between Food52 members, and something as quick and character-limited as Twitter works against that dimension of the site. I'd think that most of my Foodpickle answers wouldn't fit in 140 characters.

Tweeting is much more effective for quickly asking questions than it is for giving real, in-depth answers that go beyond simply linking to a recipe.

Really, it's a question of what you want the site to be. I'd personally prefer to exclude tweets altogether, but I understand the desire to make Foodpickle more "dynamic" or "accessible." To me, this detracts from its appeal, but I understand it.

Anyway you could restrict the incoming tweets to registered users? One of the things I really like about this place is the community feeling it has. All these drive-by twits are really not adding much to the place. if they really want their question answered, they can sign up. its free, quick and easy, but bet it would cut the traffic down significantly!

I know you beta tested pre full release of the food52 site, but changes that may impact negatively should also be tested. I appreciate how hard this is--I was in charge of a world-wide site for online, graded homework/study for college students (both the building of & maintaining). I understand the pressure!!! Good luck!!

Hi everyone -- we did have an extended beta testing period before officially launching foodpickle and, until now, everything has been running pretty smoothly.

We are making some changes to the code to decrease the number of tweets going out and will make any other updates necessary to keep foodpickle working as well as it has for the past couple months. We appreciate your patience and all the kind responses you've been offering in the interim.

Thanks for bearing with us and for all your great suggestions.

I just think it's funny that so many of the questions have to do with what I think of as stereotypical British food--goat curry, Scotch Eggs, what to do with Devon cream...

Lot's of simple recipe requests. The wonder of Food Pickle to me has been that it is not just a recipe search engine. Wonder how to differentiate to folks without alienating. Also noticed several in the first surge that appeared to be spam. Perhaps a spam flag?

As a director of Media Technology, might I suggest that you 'test' new features/connections out, perhaps to some beta testers, before releasing to your loyal users.

Will the surge end soon? The twitter traffic is getting out of hand.

twitter is evil...maybe I'm a luddite, but seems to me that applying the power of social media to foodpickle is a bit like trying to make a souffle in the microwave...

A little insomnia and a touch of OCD is helping....

Indeed it does. I hope it ends soon.

Looks like, because of the time difference between here and the lawless tribal areas of UK, that the surge continues.