I was surprised to come here and find a new design today! How exciting! I've gone around it a little bit, still with plenty to explore. I do already have a couple things I would like to say about it.

First of all, beautiful layout! From the backgrounds to the choice of font, I think you guys did a great job adding some personality. It's a big improvement.

However, I am disappointed that you guys decided to get rid of the star-rating system in favor of the bland (but popular) "Like" system. I know it's "in" to try to be like a social networking site nowadays, but a "Like" system is way too simplistic for a site about recipes. There are some dishes I like, but other dishes I LOVE. How can I communicate the difference? I can go ahead and "Like" every dish that I decide I will make again because, perhaps, it was easy to make (but not particularly exciting.) But then, when I find a recipe that's not only easy, but SUPER delicious, what am I supposed to do? "Like" it also? That's not enough accolades sometimes. Must I comment? Does everyone read the comments? Or do some people just see the number of "Likes" and judge a dish off that? Also, what if the dish was awful? I cannot dislike it, "thumbs-down", or give it one star. Such a mechanism makes sense on say, Facebook, where someone might pour their heart out in their personal status and it would be rude to say "dislike". But if someone decides to put a bad recipe online, I want to be able to call it what it is. If the chef felt their recipe was good enough to put out in public and to tell others that they should spend their time, money, and effort to make what they suggest, but it turns out to be an awful idea, then they should be able to tolerate the criticism of a one-star vote or a thumbs-down. This system eliminates that option.

I fear two possible side effects with this system: 1) The integrity of the recipes goes down. In other words, a mediocre dish might end up getting more "Likes" and thus appear "better" than another dish (that might well ACTUALLY be better), simply because it is seen by more people. Remember, now we can't differentiate between a "good" dish and an "amazing" dish. So as long as it's good enough to warrant a "Like", it can give the false impression of being better than it really is... those that stumble upon the recipe later will be unable to give negative votes to balance it out. 2) After enough time passes, newer recipes may end up falling by the wayside. It's already enough of a gamble to try a new recipe that hasn't even been rated yet (for fear that it might not be as good as it says), but what if all the recipes that have been around before it already have 100, 500, or even over 1000 "Likes"? That dish may have stood the test of time, yes, but a new, similar recipe may be even better... but only have 5 "Likes". The low/high number of "Likes" can easily become a perpetual loop, where people trust a recipe with more "Likes", thus trying it, and then "Liking" it again, while ignoring those with a lower amount. It just isn't fair. The great thing about the 1-5 star system is that it has an easy way of balancing that out- One recipe may have 3 stars, but how many people rated it? If only 2 people rated it, that makes a huge difference from if 200 people rated it. If I saw that only two people rated a dish, I'm more likely to give it a shot- Maybe one person didn't like one ingredient, cooked it wrong, or just decided to be a jerk, while the other person LOVED it. On the other hand, maybe it was genuinely a bland recipe. I don't know for sure which is the reason (unless comments reveal more), but I know those are all possibilities, so I'm more likely to give the recipe a try and give it an honest vote when I'm done. If a recipe with 200 votes averages a 3, however, I know I'm probably better off trying something different- 200's a pretty good sample size in this case, so I can trust that overall score. Compare that to a "Like" system. One person likes one dish, verses 150 people liking another dish... which one sounds better? I would have no idea that the latter dish was actually as bland as it is. I'd also be less likely to give the former dish a try.

If you guys really feel attached to the "Like" system, there's really no reason you can't bring back the 1-5 star system and keep them alongside each other. It may be awkward, but I really think a site like this would be better off with an actual vote system. Remember, there's no need to fix something that isn't broken. Also, just because something works for someone else, that doesn't mean it will work for you, especially when your goals are vastly different. The community pages are good for having "Likes", but when it comes to trusting someone's recipe, there are just way too many factors involved to give it such a simple system. People are actually putting real-life investments into somebody else's recipe- If the ingredients cost me $20 and it turns out the dish was not good enough to be worth $20, I want to be able to not only express my discontent (as I already can via comments), but to also give a sort of rating or downvote so that others aren't misled by seeing a sufficient number of "Likes."

I really hope you guys consider my comments. This is my favorite site for recipes and I'm always recommending it to others (whether they be vegan, veg, or omni.) It would be a shame if quality recipes became harder to find, simply because an overly-simplistic "Like" system took over.

I completely agree with needing the star system back. I was browsing recipies today and I felt I was blind. I personally don't care about likes, I care about stars. Some times I want a recipe in my Box just to try something new, I have no idea if I like it yet or not. The stars... Canis did a great job explains that!!! Thanks!!

I agree as well on needing the star system back!!!
While the new layout looks awesome, I have to say I'm pretty bummed about having lost all of my recipes that I had saved!.. :( The only one that is in there now was one I added today by clicking 'like'... I also miss the option to save the recipe under special labels...

Sorry to sound so negative, I don't mean to! It's just that those points above are really missing now IMHO!
I'd hope you guys tweak it back to how it was! (At least with the star rating and recipe label/categorize option)

Thank you! :)

So... What are we supposed to do for the next few weeks without our recipe boxes? This is very annoying!

Yeah in the "recipes I like" section, it seems to only show the recipes that I have posted pictures to. So glad to know you're bringing back my recipe box, sorry for the outburst :) <3 i do like the new site since i know ill be getting my box back!! Thank you Laura!

Yet another vote to get the star system back again. As a recipe site it really does need it.

I also hope we'll be able to edit posts and that just isn't available yet. I don't think review threads work anymore without post editing. Or recipe challenges or things like that that we normally do. Even normal things where if I find something that helps me explain a point or realize I forgot something and don't want to clog up the board with posts.

Another thing are the options for fonts and images and things of the sort. I know theres crazy html ways to do things but I have no idea how that works.

And it takes us back to the first page after posting a reply and I think that's a little weird.

And I used to only view the forums through the unread posts since last visit link or the new replies to posts link.

I also hope we will be able to search in the forums because it is impossible to find anything I want to find without sifting through the tons of pages right now.

And Shell needs purple font. That is clearly the most important issue at hand.

OH and I miss having recipe photos that users took as the main pictures. I mean I know users could have taken the photos that there are on the main pages but I feel that it gives the site a generic look and kind of takes away one of the little things that make this feel like a community.

Thanks for all of your hard work--this site is an incredible resource. I've been using it regularly for about 5 years, and had to register now because the two things I liked most about it are now missing (or so it appears).

As others have said PLEASE bring back the star system. "Like" is pretty useless. For me, the greatest asset of this site lies in the years of people taking the time to give thoughtful, specific ratings (and comments). It would be a real shame to see that degrade into "like" mush.

Also, 9 times out of 10, I would go to browsing by "ALL recipes" and sort by view count, star ratings, or number of reviews because I would want to be surprised by something unexpected and plan my meal around that. Now I can only filter within the sub-categories, and this is very limiting (again, for me, since I generally don't know what the sub-category is).

The site is lovely and thanks again for all of the hard work, but I don't see myself coming back as often if both of those features disappear.