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Why?
Is it really money saving or just spite?
Have we not paid for these with the license fee
Apparently...
Rupert Murdoch has a new recipe website and app about to launch.....
I'm kind of puzzled as to how keeping the pages there costs them that much money. They're basically static pages and hosting them really can't be that expensive. Storage costs would be peanuts relatively. Maintenance would be low if they're just kept as archive. Only thing is they're thinking the traffic on them is huge and that's costing them a lot, so get rid.
It seems like the digital equivalent of book burning to me. It's part of the national record and I see no point in destroying it.
There will be a cost of holding it, but it's small and surely worth it.
I think your last statement is perhaps the real reason unfortunately.
I've got to admit that I was a bit mystified by this. How much does it cost to have a website with some recipes on it?
Mind you... I reckon that like most houses in the UK we've got a whole bookshelf heaving under the weight of various cookery books, that have never, ever, ever been used, apart from 2 which are dog-eared and covered in ingredients, because you consult them all the time 😀
It is a shame as it is a brilliant resource.
Raymond Blanc’s Chocolate Mousse
Serves 2
100g chocolate
4 egg whites
20g caster sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. Do not allow the bowl to touch the water.
Whisk the egg whites and lemon juice until you get peaks.
Add the sugar and whisk again until stiff (the eggs, not you).
Whisk 1/3 of the eggs into the melted chocolate. This has to be done in the warm chocolate bowl otherwise lumps will form.
Fold in the rest of the eggs.
Put into ramekins, martini glasses, whatever.
Chill in the fridge for 2 hours.
Amaze the missus with your genius.
Retire to the bedroom with a wooden spoon and beat until stiff.
Just spite
It's a real shame as there are some brilliant recipes on there. Can't see a reasonable reason why they're going bar opening space for commercial operations to do the same.
That'll be another one of those valuable BBC resources that are conveniently ignored by people who say [i]"But I don't watch the BBC why should I pay a license fee?"[/i]
Like most things, we'll only really appreciate it when it is gone.
It's a real shame as there are some brilliant recipes on there.
This 🙁
Fortunately I have printed out many of my favourites and have them at home in a folder but it is one of my 'go to' resources when I want inspiration.
Because it's in 'competition' with other recipe providers 🙄
Have we not paid for these with the license fee
Aye, we are paying for all these services from the BBC through our license fees and the BBC's commercial arms, I'd quite like to continue receiving these services and the govt to jog on now.
C4, ITV et al are paid for by commercials and their websites have adverts on them to fund them.
Just seems petty and spiteful and I can't understand the motives - unless it's a distraction from something else.
EDIT: Though I did read last night that Good Food won't be affected - well, that's because it's run as part of Beeb worldwide. I think it's even mentioned on the site that the site doesn't use license fee money - I suppose in case some right wing nut job gets tumescent at the thought of something not making a profit.
In the meantime, another online public resource is anonymously put to sleep. Hang on a minute...just need to sort out my Sky subscription...
I imagine armed insurrection is being planned on Mumsnet.
"You can take our libraries, our schools and our NHS but you remove our recipes for a quick family meal at your peril!"
It does seem utterly counter productive.
Every other news story is about how people can't cook, don't know how to cook, and are getting fat on ready meals. You'd think that maybe leaving cooking that upto commercial entities is part of the problem and the BBC should be there to push the alternative (i.e. home cooked meals which make no money for the big corporations paying for the adverts).
What next, cancel sewing bee because it's in completion with Philip Green's sweatshops?
Probably a shrewd move, pisses off a lot of people which will raise awareness of the impact of cuts on the BBC by the Tories.
The idea being that opinion changes to be anti Tory cuts rather than anti-BBC licence fee...
I agree, the reasons they are giving seem a bit pathetic, something about content having to be high quality and distinctive?
Petition!!!!!!
Pietition!
Good take on it here, apparently George Osbourne singled it out as being unacceptable (to have recipes).
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/17/cuts-bbc-recipe-website-final-straw
There already is a petition on Change.org at 25k so far....
It's a real shame, it's one of my go to resources when looking for a recipe. Bloody hate tories 👿
The Mash has it spot on as usual:
Culture secretary John Whittingdale said: "I knew it was close to impossible; just one man, the entire press and a wealth of regulatory powers against the might of a subsection of a website. ""But somehow, against the odds, we triumphed and ensured an extraordinary victory for free market forces. Best of all, this will save the licence payer £120 a year."
"Not individually. In total."
I imagine armed insurrection is being planned on Mumsnet.
They best pick their targets well:
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/arts-entertainment/if-you-touch-cbeebies-we-will-destroy-you-parents-warn-government-20160512108802
the internet is a big place, why not just go to another recipe site and just forget about the BBC recipes, is it really that unique?
the internet is a big place, why not just go to another recipe site and just forget about the BBC recipes, is it really that special?
SiB - Member
the internet is a big place,
that just got a wee bit smaller
can we make a parallel with, y'know....
[img] 
[/img]
[i]is it really that special? [/i]
Maybe there's less repeats?
😉
I think 30 days is a bit short, should really be leaving them on the website for the entire run of a series and 6 months thereafter.
I kind of agree with them on removing older recipes though, do we really need 4,000 recipes for quiche, you kind of get lost in the vast amount of it all. Better to focus on either the current ones, i.e. align with current programming, which is kind of the purpose of the BBC, and maybe a few special ones.
All about allowing competition as private publishers weren't happy. TBF I kind of see their point, the BBC isn't there to publish recipes it needs a hard look at itself and focus on core activities, there are plenty of other food resources out there.
there are plenty of other food resources out there.
There are plenty other childrens' tv channels.
There are plenty other news channels.
There are plenty other documentary channels.
There are plenty other Saturday night talent competitions.
It's a downer for sure but I really like this site now https://www.reddit.com/r/GifRecipes
TBF I kind of see their point, the BBC isn't there to publish recipes
Isn't it? So they shouldn't have cooking shows then?
Teaching the population to cook sounds like a pretty useful thing for a Public Service Broadcaster to be doing.
The six Public Purposes defined in [url= http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/about/how_we_govern/charter.pdf ]the BBC Charter[/url] are:
(a) sustaining citizenship and civil society;
(b) promoting education and learning;
(c) stimulating creativity and cultural excellence;
(d) representing the UK, its nations, regions and communities;
(e) bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK;
(f) in promoting its other purposes, helping to deliver to the public the benefit of emerging communications technologies and services and, in addition, taking a leading role in the switchover to digital television.
I'd say cooking, particularly regional cooking, matches a, b, c, d, and e of those. And having the recipes online matches f.
do we really need 4,000 recipes for quiche
Just checked. There are 37. Oh the waste. The horror. A commercial website would never have such dross.
Food.com: 1631 recipes for quiche
allrecipes.com: 215 recipes for quiche
thekitchn.com: 848 recipes for quiche
foodnetwork.com: 251 recipes for quiche
It's great, so much choice on the commercial websites, not just a choice of 30 odd like on that commie BBC. 🙂
Of course it is Osborne's fault or is it?
BBCs 'give us more money or we shoot the puppy' strategy is getting very old.
They won't be deleted just not optimized for google - no doubt someone clever will come up with a "portal" so that they can still be found.
deadlydarcy - MemberThere are plenty other childrens' tv channels.
There are plenty other news channels.
There are plenty other documentary channels.
There are plenty other Saturday night talent competitions.
Maybe the BBC could branch out and start publishing train timetables to go alongside Portillo's train programme, or start listing all the tailors he uses to make those jackets. Or perhaps they could create a database of artists and sculptors and auction prices to let people judge their own stuff compared to what they see on antiques roadshow and the likes?
Maybe the BBC could branch out and start... blah blah.. hyperbole.. blah..
The entire point of most cookery programmes is to teach you recipes.
Having those recipes available for reference isn't much of a stretch - the rest of what you suggest is.
Maybe the BBC could branch out and start yada, yada, yada, reductio ab absurdum
How much of the BBC's output is Portillo's train programme? how much is food or cookery based? Is there a demand for timetables other than those found on the National Rail enquiries website to look up train times, which while not completely independent, is reasonable enough. Although, if you're getting that absurd on page 1...
The entire point of most cookery programmes is to teach you recipes.
Which they give you in the programme, and now for 30 days. Do you really need them for 4 years after, given you cant then see the programme that inspired them?
now for 30 days. Do you really need them for 4 years after
Err.. yes? Do you generally only try new recipes for 30 days and then stop?
Has anyone blamed Thatcher yet?
They will still be on the net according to Metro and not delted
[url= http://metro.co.uk/2016/05/17/bbc-is-removing-11000-online-recipes-and-people-cant-cope-5886733/ ]Don’t panic! BBC ISN’T removing 11,000 recipes after all[/url]
Lot of fuss over nothing 🙄
Of course it is Osborne's fault or is it?
Well, given this:
Last year, the beleaguered chancellor, George Osborne, slammed the BBC for having “features and cooking recipes”, arguing it was evidence of the corporation’s “imperial ambitions” and meant it was becoming “the national newspaper as well as the national broadcaster”.
I'd say yes....
It's all a Rupert Murdoch conspiracy!
https://tompride.wordpress.com/2016/05/17/who-benefits-from-the-tory-decision-to-axe-bbc-recipes/
They will still be on the net according to Metro and not deltedDon’t panic! BBC ISN’T removing 11,000 recipes after all
Lot of fuss over nothing
But... you can only access them if you know the URL!? WTF.
Hopefully someone will build a site linking to them all.
[quote=CaptainFlashheart said]Has anyone blamed Thatcher yet?
I was waiting for the Thatch, Gove, Boris, Dave, Gideon pentangle of blame to be constructed.
The entire point of most cookery programmes is to [s]teach you recipes[/s] sell a pile of celebrity chef cookbooks at Christmas
Fixed.
Pentangle?
LIZARD OVERLORDS!
I blame the Queen. She's the one who hands out the royal charters.
Maybe there's less repeats?
Depends on what you've been eating.
The thing that annoys me, as a licence fee payer, is that these recipes that we have paid for via my licence fee (It's amazing value BTW) are being given away for free on a website that anyone, including non licence fee payers, can access.
WTF? We are paying for something that they give away anyway!
Keep them online but behind a paywall that we can pass through with a login based on our TV licence. Then they are only available to those who've paid for them. No conflict with other commercial competitors who have to fund their own recipe services with ads or subscriptions.
They've identified, recognised and are planning to close the iPlayer loophole, which boils down to the same principle - if you don't pay for the licence fee you shouldn't be able to watch TV for free on iPlayer. Same with web content. If you are not a licence fee payer you should not have access to it since it's the licence payers who have funded that content in the first place.
It's kind of like us charging subscribers to read the mag but opening up the mag archive to everyone anyway. You'd be a bit annoyed at that if you were a paying subscriber and you would quite rightly question why you are paying for something when the publisher is handing it out for free anyway.
All BBC content should be accessible by all licence payers.
Just login to their websites like we are all going to have to do with iPlayer and like we do with all the other subscriber services we pay for. We are all subscribers of BBC content as long as we pay the licence.
Mark that works until you throw Radio in the mix and it all falls apart, as that is free to anyone.
Do you generally only try new recipes for 30 days and then stop?
You can print or save them you know 😉
We are paying for something that they give away anyway!
It's called the common good etc..
What a silly decision to get rid of the BBC recipe website!
It would be better to get rid of Chris Evans than the recipe website.
At least we get the chance to try out the recipe rather than looking at Chris Evans.
@ Mark,
The BBC site outside the UK has adverts, it's still accessable. (except iplayer). All the login needs to do is turn off the ads. A bit like another site I know, I wonder if the BBC will also log you off randomly....
😈
[quote=footflaps said]
It's called the common good etc..
Indeed.
Mark must have his evil, capitalist, bike magazine boss head on today 😉
Just login to their websites like we are all going to have to do with iPlayer and like we do with all the other subscriber services we pay for.
You can't go to prison for not paying your Sky subscription, though.
I'm all in favour of the BBC becoming a normal subscription service - get rid of the license fee, stop pestering people about a TV license, get rid of the ridiculous situation where owning the equipment means you have to pay for the service, etc.
If the BBC want special protected status for their funding (and I do understand the arguments in favour of the license fee) then they should also have to go above and beyond what a normal subscription service does and do something for the common good.
The trouble with locking everything the BBC produces behind paywalls is that it then fails those Public Principles that I listed earlier.
Especially when it comes to a bit of "soft diplomacy" with the BBC representing some sense of Britishness to the rest of the world.
You can print or save them you know
All 11,000? Yeah that makes sense.
then they should also have to go above and beyond what a normal subscription service does and do something for the common good.
Like provide a large library of recipes for free?
Especially when it comes to a bit of "soft diplomacy" with the BBC representing some sense of Britishness to the rest of the world.
Murdoch has probably complained to George that Sky should be the official 'soft diplomacy' partner to the Home Office...
Do you really need them for 4 years after, given you cant then see the programme that inspired them?
Given the number of repeats on the BBC, you probably can.
It's kind of like us charging subscribers to read the mag but opening up the mag archive to everyone anyway.
Well, the BBC are only opening up the recipes to everyone, not the entire output of the BBC.
Similar a paid-for-magazine opening up some of their content... like trail guides for example? 🙂
http://singletrackmag.com/trailguide/
Given that the URL's will still exist, you just won't be able to search, can some clever person catalog them now and create a new website which searches for us and links to the BBC url?
Which is exactly why;There are plenty other childrens' tv channels.
There are plenty other news channels.
There are plenty other documentary channels.
There are plenty other Saturday night talent competitions.
Only if you want hyper product placement American cartoons and have a subscription tv service.
BBC local news coverage particularly is being massively reduced.
There aren't really, and what alternatives there are largely show BBC made programmes anyway.
The Voice has moved from BBC to a commercial channel for the next series.
For once I find myself agreeing with chewkw
The thing that annoys me, as a licence fee payer, is that these recipes that we have paid for via my licence fee (It's amazing value BTW) are being given away for free on a website that anyone, including non licence fee payers, can access.
I don't pay a licence fee, and I use the recipes all the time!!! Bwahahaha!!!
deadlydarcy - Member
Just seems petty and spiteful and I can't understand the motives - unless it's a distraction from something else.
EDIT: Though I did read last night that Good Food won't be affected - well, that's because it's run as part of Beeb worldwide. I think it's even mentioned on the site that the site doesn't use license fee money
I'm quite hopeful that a bright spark in the BBC will seize the opportunity and migrate everything over to Good Food.
slowoldman - Member
For once I find myself agreeing with chewkw
I am a nice person you know... 
This is an excerpt from an email we received from James Harding (Director BBC News and Current Affairs) this morning:
We will stop doing some things where we’re duplicating our work, for example on food. (We have two food websites in the top five in the UK; we’re now going to have one. And all BBC recipes that are currently available on the BBC online will still be available.) And we’ll scale back some services, such as travel, where there are better-resourced services elsewhere in the market.
I'm sure the content will remain fully accessible, just as part of an archived site with no capacity to add new content. Mystifies me how axing a recipe uploading site, and some regional online teams can save £15m a year though.
The thing that annoys me most is the BBC's money grabbing approach to its television back catalogue which should be freely available via iplayer to anyone with a licence (as C4 does).
If I want to watch Edge of Darkness, Our Friends in the North, Day of the Triffids etc I have to pay separately for something i've already helped fund.. They never seem to repeat their best output - I can watch re-runs of Bargain Hunt or Homes under the Hammer any time I want though, so that's alright.
Given that the URL's will still exist, you just won't be able to search, can some clever person catalog them now and create a new website which searches for us and links to the BBC url?
He's ahead of you... http://www.auntiesrecipes.co.uk/
The thing that annoys me most is the BBC's money grabbing approach to its television back catalogue which should be freely available via iplayer to anyone with a licence (as C4 does).If I want to watch Edge of Darkness, Our Friends in the North, Day of the Triffids etc I have to pay separately for something i've already helped fund.. They never seem to repeat their best output - I can watch re-runs of Bargain Hunt or Homes under the Hammer any time I want though, so that's alright.
All depends who owns the actual copyright. A lot of stuff is made by a 3rd party for the BBC and they have retained some rights over it.
Google has just helped me realise that they repeated EOD on BBC4 two years ago....dammit!
It's a crying shame that they can't sort it out. Stuff of that calibre is very rarely made any more.
I was searching for a Banana & Date Malt loaf recipe (I did wonder where the results for BBC Good Food had gone) and I went to the BBC website, but imagine my horror when the list of ingredients for said recipe was:
Banana
Dates
[b]Malt Loaf[/b]
Honey.
Not a recipe.
Yours,
Discustard of Croyden.
If you want to watch old BBC repeats there is always the likes of Gold, Dave, Yesterday, Drama etc.
£15m a year saving, supposedly.
I don't see why they wouldn't be on a site with advertising, bbc site has ads when viewed from outside the UK. I'll be collecting some of my favourites although to be honest most are printed out and in a file in the kitchen anyway.
80,000 signatures already!
https://www.change.org/p/bbc-save-the-bbc-s-recipe-archive
If the petition gets serious someone will claim it's full of misogynistic abuse and take it down.
I'm going to start a petition demanding that the government don't blow up the moon.
If the petition gets serious someone will claim it's full of misogynistic abuse and take it down.
Surely it's just a typical Blairite based Anti-Semitic slur aimed at discrediting JC and nothing to do with actual recipes. I'm surprised no one has mentioned Hitler yet...
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Hitler yet...
If anyone does I feel sure it will be in a perfectly reasonable historical context.
image on first pageI'm surprised no one has mentioned Hitler yet...
image on first page
Oh sorry, thought that was the Labour Party Conference (as photographed by Jamabalalalala)
This is really about the BBC being told they are not allowed to compete with other commercial operations that are outside their core business. That is fair enough but no reason why this information cannot be provided free to another source to publish on the web. They can then have advertising to make money and to keep the resource alive.
This is nothing to do with cost saving.
As I understand it they aren't actually removing it from the web, they are just no longer linking to it from their own site so that recipes slowly fall of off the first few search pagesThat is fair enough but no reason why this information cannot be provided free to another source to publish on the web