Hey Cookshack -- Forum Anniversary fast approaching

Thanks guys.. you are really doing a wonderful job of helping us find the straight and narrow..

WOW! I sure am glad we've got this "current" forum. That old geezer sure is a pain in the ol' smoked butt to navigate My, my, what a change from five years ago. Good job Smokin!!! Thanks a million Cook Shack!

I sometimes get lost over in the archives and spend hours reading.

Lots of good stuff in there.

Yeah, I like to go all the way back as far as I can and read foward...You see guys go from asking a lot of questions (like me) to answering questions. As Tom said lot of good stuff in here.

quote:

Originally posted by SmokinOkie:
[qb]
Guess we could have a contest, using search to find specific forums and relive on memories. NO Smoke Rings and Foil may not be included. LOL

Contest, prizes, sure, if someone can come up with a good idea to generate some posts and interests I KNOW I can get prizes.

Any ideas?
[/qb]

Guess everyone missed this part of the post. Guess no one wants to win anything.

I like prizes !! How about how folk's got started in comp. cooking ie: talking to different cooks, what they would have done different,the same,do's and dont's and what they've learned, different rule's, the expense and dedication. And let's not forget to mention ALL the great people you meet. How's that ?? I have a friend who, I gave him my smokette, is interested in comp. so I thought this was a good way to find alittle info. I know that you can't use a smokette in comp., most place's, 'cuz it's elec.

Well, by "contest" I was thinking of something we can do via the forum. Best Photo, Best new Recipe, Something involving the Search function.

I'll be quiet..

no, no, no, don't be quiet. You just haven't been around the forum in the past when we had "contests" here to generate a little traffic.

Don't go away....

Why dont we have a new recipe contest Smokin'? You could have different catagories like I have read in the past when going through CS recipes. Every once in a while it will tell you that that particular recipe was "so & so's" and that they won a new Smokette for it?
What all catagories have you offered in the past?
Do you separate the pros from the ams?

Smokin... How about the person that writes the best "Search 101".

bob

I make the best Salsa ever! Nothing in the stores compares.

See, I knew you guys could come up with some ideas...

...keep them coming

I think you should do an internet iron chef competition. Post a date and time that you will reveal the secret ingredient and start the clock ticking. Then let your forum members come up with interesting recipes and cooking methods. I would give people a day or two to post their entries so that people like me who work weird hours can still participate. Have a panel of judges rate the entries and then give different awards for different categories i.e. best recipe, most interesting recipe, recipe voted most likely to send someone to the hospital, etc.

If you really wanted to take it to the extreme, you could pick a number of the best entries and set up a real "mystery cook-off" (I suppose Iron Chef is copyrighted)in conjunction with one of your classes. Offer 15 minutes of fame, a smoker and a party thrown in their honor and they will come.

Guess I watch too much TV.

Just a thought.

How about a best "meal" contest, maybe from the archives? and get some poor unsuspecting soul at Cookshck to judge?

Hey, we are getting some great ideas here. Give me some more reasons to give some stuff away!

Donna

Smokin - Donna - I think we should have a meeting of CS owners (which would eliminate me cause I bought SmokinTex before I knew of CS - but I'd still come and hang out ) in OKC or Norman, maybe Ponca City, some place close to the headquarters. A weekend BBQ. Have ya'll ever done that before? Some good Q and meeting the folks that make this forum enjoyable would be great! Any possibility?

Mullet competition!

So, my anniversay passed and no one notice...

Oh well, 3995+ posts later, it's still as much fun as the first day. Gosh, in four years, that's 1000 posts a year, almost an average of 3 a day...and I do this for fun and for free

Thanks to everyone for making this a fun and friendly forum, it's really grown into quite a great group.

Smokin,

I'm so sorry; I've been so busy at work it just slipped my mind. I'll make it up to you next year, I really will. I love you.

BG

Smokin - Happy (belated) Anniversary

What happened to the contest idea? Speaking of contests, what happened to the recipes from prior contest winners? Just noticed that they are no longer on the site or they have been moved and I can't find them.

I'm going to see Donna later today, I'm waiting for her to decide how to "celebrate" the Anniversary

You know, the more I think about it, the success of the forum is pretty impressive. I went into my sometimes anal analysis and research mode and came to the conclusion that 4,500+ posts on a 4 year old forum pretty much dedicated to a single topic - BBQ - is substantial. It's even more impressive since it's not a general BBQ forum but one sponsored by a single manufacturer - Cookshack.

Notching it up a little further, though I've only been around a little over a year, the administration of the forum seems to fall on the back of a single individual - SmokinOkie. Of course, there has been a lot of further support from a number of frequent posters such as Tom, i2BBQ, tjr and others.

I had some time to kill this morning before leaving to catch a plane at O'Hare so I did a little quick research. First, the forum that seems to be most comparable in my mind is the one sponsored by Weber for the WSM bullet - 1,891 members. A few others that are more general:

Steven Raichlen's BarbequeBible.com - 1,392
BarbequeNews.com - 841
HomeBBQ.com - 4,261

Finally, as with all internet searches, I went to Google to pull up the info above. I typed in "BBQ Forums". The top listing is shown as ""SmokinOkie's BBQ Forum Introduction" Now. that is impressive. I know people (I'll include myself) that would pay a hell of a lot of money to be top listed on Google.

Great job Smokin - Congratulations.

Hey DLS, thanks for the analysis, really nice to see the perspective.

It really wouldn't be as impressive without everyone jumping in. A lot of people have been jumping in and taking care of the new owners and they ALL SHOULD BE proud of the part they played in making it grow.

Besides the few post that I've made, click on this link to see the others who've helped. The link is the same as "directory" that you see just near the top of the page. Select the "number of post" option:

Forum Directory

In order

1. SmokinOkie
   
2. Tom 3372 posts
   
3. I2BBQ 950 (and he doesn't even OWN one
   
4. tjr 912
   
5. prisonchef 656
   
6. woodburner 600
   
7. Donna 598
   
8. 2greyhounds 539
   
9. GLH 424
   
10. topchef 401
    
11. Ricky 378
    
12. Stuart 348
    

Thanks again for the comment!

WOW! I'm #9! How groovy is that?