What’s it all about?

The forum has been created to provide a place for lovers of fine food and drink to share their experiences and knowledge in a community of like minded individuals. You can ask food and drink related questions, share recipes and submit reports on restaurants, wine reviews etc.

There are a million food and drink websites, what makes this one special?

This one can earn you cash! When you contribute to the forum you are awarded points and badges as a measure of your reputation; as your reputation grows you become entitled to refunds on orders placed with Southern Traditional Foods. Visit the STF Web Site for more details.

How do I increase my reputation?

By being an active member of the community. Asking questions, posting recipes and providing answers and feedback to other people’s posts earns you reputation points. Click on the Badges link above for more details on how to earn the Bronze, Silver and Gold badges that will save you money with Southern Traditional Foods.

Using the voting buttons in questions and comments helps other members of the community increase their reputation.

How do I submit a recipe, restaurant review or tasting notes?

Simply type it into the question box. Underneath the typing area you will see a preview of how it will look. To create a nicely formatted entry, remember to leave 2 spaces at the end of a line before pressing the Enter key.

I tried the recipe and have some suggestions for different options, wine pairings etc. what do I do?

Use the comments or replies options to leave your suggestions; if they are good maybe the owner of the recipe and other community members will vote up your comments.

I got the answer I needed, now what?

You can mark the answer as being accepted by using the tick mark. The question and answer stay on the forum so that other members of the community can benefit from them and hopefully vote that it was a good question and the right answer.

I found a really good recipe on the forum that I want to be able to come back to, how can I do that?

Click on the Star under the rating and the question/recipe will be added to your favorites. Your list of favorites can be seen in your profile.

How do I see my profile?

If you are logged in your name will appear at the top of the page along with your reputation score and the number of badges you have earned. Click on your name to see the profile. You can edit your personal details from here as well as viewing your favorites, statistics and seeing how your reputation is growing.

I really, really want to earn my first badge, what is the easiest way?

Complete your profile to earn the Autobiographer badge. Let the rest of the community know who you are and what your likes and dislikes are; you can even link to your own blog or web site.

Do I have to log in or create an account?

No. You can answer and ask questions to your heart's content as an anonymous user, much like Wikipedia. However, there are some things you won't be able to do on the site without registering. But it's easy to register if you want to.

What is reputation?

Reputation is completely optional. Normal use of KitchenAndCellar — that is, asking and answering questions — does not require any reputation whatsoever.

Remember, KitchenAndCellar is run by you! If you want to help us run the site, you'll need reputation first. Reputation is a (very) rough measurement of how much the KitchenAndCellar community trusts you. Reputation is never given, it is earned by convincing other users that you know what you're talking about.

Here's how it works: if you post a good question or helpful answer, it will be voted up by your peers: you gain 10 reputation points. If you post something that's off topic or incorrect, it will be voted down: you lose 2 reputation points. You can earn up to 200 reputation per day, but no more. (Note that votes for any posts marked "community wiki" do not generate reputation.)

Amass enough reputation points and KitchenAndCellar will allow you to go beyond simply asking and answering questions:

15	Vote up
15	Flag offensive
50	Leave comments
100	Vote down (costs 1 rep), edit community wiki posts
200	Reduced advertising
250	Vote to close or reopen your questions, create new tags
500	Retag questions
2000	Edit other people's posts
3000	Vote to close or reopen any questions
10000	Delete closed questions, access to moderation tools

At the high end of this reputation spectrum there is little difference between users with high reputation and moderators. That is very much intentional. We don't run KitchenAndCellar. The community does.

What if I don't get a good answer?

In order to get good answers, you have to put some effort into the question. Edit your question to provide status and progress updates. Document your own continued efforts to answer your question. This will naturally bump your question and get more people interested in it.

If, after two days, you still don't have an answer you like, you can offer a bounty. Slice off a bit of your own hard-earned reputation -- anywhere from 50 to 500 -- and attach it to the question as a bounty. We'll even throw in 50 reputation to sweeten the deal. The bountied question will appear with a special icon in all question lists, and it will also be visible on the home page Featured tab.

Once initiated, the bounty period lasts seven days. If you mark an accepted answer, your bounty is awarded to the answerer (do note that accepted bounty answers are permanent and cannot be changed). If you do not accept an answer in seven days, the top voted answer will automatically become the accepted answer, and half your bounty will be awarded to that answer. You will always give up the amount of reputation specified in the bounty, so if you start a bounty, be sure to follow up and accept the best answer!

Of course, bounty awards, like all accepted answers, are immune to the daily reputation cap and community wiki mode.

Other people can edit my stuff?!

Like Wikipedia, this site is collaboratively edited. If you are not comfortable with the idea of your questions and answers being edited by other trusted users, this may not be the site for you.