1 June 2008

Canberra Cafe Discussion Forum - testers needed :-)

| Demosthenes
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I have created a *very* basic forum at www.canberracafe.com/forum specifically to review cafes and coffee in Canberra, but to also include general discussion about the coffee and cafe lifestyle in Canberra. It was whipped up fairly quickly and will take a few months of spare-time effort to get up to a good state, however the forum is now working and testers are welcome to provide feedback, or to just jump in and start airing your grievances and / or good experiences!

Only the forum is working so far, there is no website yet. All ideas welcome.

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canberracafe.com7:22 am 16 Jun 08

They call it ‘European Coffee’ or something. Percolated coffee actually has a lot more caffeine than espresso.

BTW – there are threads for this in the Canberra Cafe forum or can be started up if required, including a polling feature.

Membership is free 🙂 I don’t get anything out of it (I pay for the hosting myself) so I am happy to just see it being used for discussions like this.

ulyssesSB said :

The only way to judge a cafe’s capability is to order either an espresso or a flat white. If a place can nail those two it will nail anything.

Spot on and so right.

But don’t try and order a Flat White in the US. Or a Long Black (or Short Black). I guarantee they will look at you in alarm and horror.

And then go off and carefully burn your watery espresso, made with massively over-roasted beans that have gone stale.

The only way to judge a cafe’s capability is to order either an espresso or a flat white. If a place can nail those two it will nail anything. From my experience Tonic is probably the best coffee in Canberra, followed by Kona (now Ona… wtf?) in Manuka. A long black is not a coffee connoisseurs coffee and to be honest will never taste good. It is SUPPOSED to be watery. You want a full bodied coffee that tastes perfect when done right? Espresso or even a doppio ristretto.

Demosthenes said :

The intention is that each cafe will receive it’s own topic, at least that is what I hope people will do. A FAQ outlining this and other good suggestions like yours is needed.

Canberra Cafe now has 15 members, so I encourage all the ‘guests’ who have been checking it out to sign up and return frequently and consider posting something themselves.

Already did – and started posting. lets see where it goes…

The intention is that each cafe will receive it’s own topic, at least that is what I hope people will do. A FAQ outlining this and other good suggestions like yours is needed.

Canberra Cafe now has 15 members, so I encourage all the ‘guests’ who have been checking it out to sign up and return frequently and consider posting something themselves.

I think it’ll work well if each cafe gets its own topic… if the reviewer starts a new topic with the name of the cafe being reviewed as the title. Then people can join in and comment, which adds value to the review. It’ll help stop stacking, too. If a crappy cafe comes and reviews itself, the drinking public can come in and set things straight pretty quick.

I guess traffic and critical mass (ha ha geddit) are the issues now.

User #9…

Looks like a great idea…

Yes I do like my coffee, or more particularly miss consistently good coffee that every other capital city seems to enjoy. Just because unemployment is at record lows is no excuse for poor service, and the ones that do well deserve recognition! Think about it – two cups a day can cost $400 – $500 a year, yet we will seek reviews for devices of that price, so why not something else that we use ‘every day’?

The forum can be whatever we want it to be as well, the domain name just happens to be ‘Canberra Coffee’ so any other topics can be included in there as well. Restauraunts or other entertainment venues perhaps? Whatever.. When we consider how much can be spent on entertainment over a year, it’s quite resonable to desire good value, and restauraunt reviews have been around for a *long* time, yet we probably spend more on cafes these days (it’s not just the coffee 🙂 )

Do you have any suggestions?

Spelling corrected for Gungahlin, thanks!

And as for undeclared advertisers – well as with any forum such as this one or Whirlpool, it requires active monitoring and trust to provide unbiassed reviews.

Don’t take this the wrong way, is there really that much of a “market” to talk soley about coffee and cafe’s ??
You must really like your coffee.

Best of luck with your venture.

Ghunghalin – spelt incorrectly – just a friendly heads up

How are you going to avoid commercial trolls pushing cafes that use Douwe Egberts scrapings labelled Piazzo Doro Gold? People are such suckers for an Italianate label!

Is now 🙂 Keep the feedback rolling in – it went live at 1am this morning – so far there has been only a few hours of development work in it. Thanks for your help!

Demosthenes your site looks okay but no area for Gungahlin Cafe Reviews?

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