FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions

RecipeCircus Site Map
About the Recipe Circus About the Recipe Circus Member Logon to the RecipeCircus Member Logon to the RecipeCircus Getting Started How to Enter Recipes Member Registration Page Member Registration Page Member Registration Page Contact The RecipeCircus Ringmaster Hints and Tips Posting Guidelines Creating Your Own Printable Cookbook FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions Press Release 4/17/2000 Privacy Policy Recipe Circus - Index What Recipes Am I Allowed to Post?

Question: I already have a home page on the Internet.  Why do I need the RecipeCircus?

Answer:  The RecipeCircus is not intended to replace your homepage or give people home pages.   There are many sites with huge resources like GeoCities and Tripod that do a good job with that already.  Our goal is to provide people an easy way of storing and displaying their online recipe collection and be able to use it for themselves or share them with others.  If you already have a home page, great!  Set up an account on the RecipeCircus and put a link to it on your own home page.   We just make it easy to enter and organize your recipe collection.

Question: Do I need to buy or download any software?

Answer:  No.  All the software resides on our server.  All you need is a device that will browse the Internet.  This could be a PC, a hand held, WebTV or one of the new Internet Appliances.
 

Question: When first I registered for the RecipeCircus I was emailed a password.  It is hard to remember.  How do I change it?

Answer:  The program generates a random nonsense password for you and emails it to you.  This is a security feature.  When you first sign on to the RecipeCircus you will see a button that will allow you to change your password to something which is more easily remembered.
 

Question: I registered for the RecipeCircus.  How come my password doesn't seem to work?

Answer:  The best way to enter the program-generated password is to cut and paste it into place, which avoids any possibility of mistyping it.  Also, it should be noted that the Usernames and Passwords are case sensitive.  If you first changed your password to something else, you must enter it exactly that way when you sign on, using the same upper and lower case characters.  A common problem is not realizing that you have your CAPS LOCK on.
 

Question: I have forgotten my password.  What should I do?

Answer:  When you registered for the RecipeCircus, your password was emailed to you. Go to the RecipeCircus home page at http://RecipeCircus.com/ and you will see a place to enter your email address, and it will be emailed to you.
 

Question: I am already a member of Mimi's Recipe Exchange Board. Why doesn't my password work on the RecipeCircus?

Answer:  Though Mimi's Recipe Exchange Board is a sister site to the RecipeCircus they use separate user databases.  You must register again for the RecipeCircus.  Feel free to use the same Username if it is available.
 

Question: I registered using my real e-mail address but I would like to use a different one on my site.  How do I do that?

Answer: You have a choice of what email address appears on your page. When you first registered, the email address you registered with is your official one for administration purposes and is used for your password and other site business. We did this for security reasons, to make sure we didn't have phony users that we couldn't track . But if you want a different email address to appear on your archive page it is very simple:

• Logon either from the RecipeCircus home page http://RecipeCircus.com/, or if you are already on the site, by clicking "member logon" at the top of any screen.

• On the User Menu that comes up next, select "Edit Home Page and Design   Preferences."

• In the field that says "Your Email," the email address you registered with is automatically entered.  Feel free to enter a different email address here. After click "Save Changes," the program will remember it.

• If you don't have an alternate email address, you may sign up for one on           MimiMail at http://mimimail.cyber-kitchen.com. It's free, too!

Question: I entered my "Home Page and Design Preferences" and my pages are hard to read.  What should I do?

Answer:  Try different combinations of backgrounds and text colors to obtain maximum contrast.  Remember, dark backgrounds should use white text colors.
 

Question: Is there a way to add original graphics or animated gifs to the site? I was thinking of an upload utility or do you have FTP? I  like your graphics but wonder about personalizing our site.

Answer:  Unfortunately we currently have a limited amount of disk space for the RecipeCircus.  At some point in the future, we will certainly add this feature.
 

Question: I chose a background that has a border on the left similar to the one that is on this page.  When I look at my pages the text appears right over the border.  Is there a  way to make the text more readable?

Answer:  After completing your "Home Page and Design Preferences" you will notice buttons on the screen that allow you to increase or decrease the indentation of the text.  This will let you judge how far over to move the text.  Please note that any changes you make to your "Home Page and Design Preferences" will apply to every page on your site.
 

Question:  When I enter my recipes, I have a choice between "formatted" and "free form."  What's the difference?

Answer:  The "free form" option is the easiest to enter, especially if your recipe is already typed elsewhere.  You need only cut-and-paste it into the space provided and you're done.  When you select the "formatted" option, the RecipeCircus provides a template with all of the fields delineated.  You may still be able to use "cut-and-paste" to enter your recipe, but may only do so one field at a time.  Each ingredient and each instruction must be added separately.  While this takes a bit more time, most people seem to prefer this method because of the clarity of the finished recipe in their archive.  Sometime in the future, we will be adding a Shopping List feature. This will allow you to create a shopping list based on the items included in a "formatted" recipe.  Unfortunately, this will not work with recipes entered in "free form" because that option cannot distinguish one item from another since it's all pure text.
 

Question:  On each of my pages there is a drop down list with all my recipe categories but it is always in alphabetical order.  Is there any way to make the current category come up at the top of the list?

Answer:  That's a great idea that we hope can be implemented in the next release of the software.
 

Question:  The RecipeCircus is free now, but what about in the future?

Answer:  The RecipeCircus will always be free.  That's a promise!

Question:  I noticed on my recipe page there are two categories for breads.  One is with a capital "B" the other one isn't.  There should only be one with the capital "B".  If I switch all the recipes over to the capital category would you be able to do away with the lower case category?

Answer:  This is a three part question:

1. As is true for most things on the RecipeCircus, upper and lower case are different.  This is the issue for Usernames,  recipe and category names.  As a matter of fact, the most common error when people have trouble logging on to the RecipeCircus is that their Username or Password contain an upper case letter.
2. The way the system works is that if you empty all the recipes from a category, the category is deleted
3. Moving a recipe is a little tricky.  Just go in to the original category and edit the recipe.  On the edit screen you can select a different category.  Just replace the recipe and it will be copied to the new category.  However, the original recipe is still in the original category.  So, go through the category you want to empty and move all the recipes.  Then go back to the original category and delete all the recipes.  Once you have removed all the recipes from that category then POOF! the category disappears