Okay, it’s been over a month now (maybe two) that Foodgawker.com has been in various states of inaccessibility. A lot us us have come to rely on Foodgawker for recipe inspiration, as well as the traffic it sends to our blogs. I decided to finally try and find out what happened to Foodgawker – here’s my story.
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What Is Foodgawker?
Foodgawker is (was?) perhaps the best known recipe aggregator site for food bloggers – period!
It presented thousands of recipes from food bloggers throughout the world in a constantly updating carousel of beautiful food photos.
There are other, bigger sites, such as Allrecipes.com but – in my opinion – Foodgawker was the most blogger-friendly recipes site.
Even a small food blog like SeasonalCookbook.com where I post seasonally inspired recipes, was able to submit my latest recipes and have them accepted.
But even the occasional rejection – usually due to something ‘off’ with the food photo – came with valuable insights about why my submission had been rejected.
This was great for a newer food blogger like myself who doesn’t have the photography skills or insight yet about what makes a great food photo.
But I think I’m getting better!
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How Does Foodgawker Work?
Food bloggers submit their latest recipes, including a nice overhead food photo, a short overview of the recipe and a link back to that exact recipe on our blog.
Foodgawker’s review team then analyzes our photo and description, and accepts or rejects our submission.
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Of course, anytime one of my recipes was accepted it felt like I had ‘made it’ as a food blogger – LOL!
But even the rejections would come with a reason – usually something about the photo that didn’t quite meet their guidelines – and I could update my food photo and resubmit.
Foodgawker.com Benefits
It was great to have some of my recipes on such a well-known site.
I know all of us food bloggers are thankful for any type of exposure we can get!
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I also received occasional traffic from Foodgawker when a recipe resonated with the community – and a link back from a trusted and well-respected site never hurts!
How Long Has Foodgawker Been Down? Outage Timeline
Much of what follows is from my own memory/experience so please let me know if you have had a different experience in the COMMENTS SECTION BELOW.
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***UPDATE June 6,2024: FOODGAWKER IS FOR SALE!
You read that right! Looks like Foodgawker.com is now officially for sale. You can read more on: foodgawker.com, and even make an offer if you so choose! I have some theories on who might purchase foodgawker and so do some other food bloggers you might know! Get the inside scoop by Joining Food Blogger Pro Now!
***UPDATE March 26, 2024: It’s been awhile since my last update and there have been positive and negative developments since July of 2023. The good news is that Foodgawker.com seems to be back up and functioning – but only as a site where you can view recipes. The SUBMIT LINK (to submit recipes) is no longer available as of this update – even after logging in. It remains to be seen how useful Foodgawker.com will continue to be for food bloggers.
***UPDATE July 23, 2023: At this point I am going to go out on a limb and speculate that Foodgawker may be gone, permanently (I sincerely hope I am wrong).
Here’s my analysis: Initially I thought that seeing the WordPress login one day, the ‘Lights Out’ Page notification another day, and the site appearing to function, periodically, were all good signs – signs that someone was working to fix the website.
I no longer think this is the case.
Here’s my reasoning…
There are many smart Web Developers out there who can fix a WordPress site in less than 2 or 3 months. If one of these development teams was on the case, Foodgawker would be back up and running by now.
I think the different ‘views’ we are all experiencing are simply due to Foodgawker’s caching plugin (again, I am not a developer just purely speculating). But the fact that it’s now 3 months does not seem to be a good sign.
Again, I do NOT have any inside knowledge and have not been able to contact anyone at Foodgawker.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Towards the end of this post, I mention several alternatives to Foodgawker.com, but none of which I think can adequately replace the site we have all come to know and love.
What I would recommend for anyone who is wondering if anyone is building a suitable replacement to Foodgawker, is to Join the FoodBloggerPro Community where there are ongoing discussions about everything that is happening in the world of food blogging, including that status of Foodgawker.com
***UPDATE July 17,2023: Foodgawker continues to be up and down sporadically. Each time I think they have resolved their issues, I am no sooner met with the WordPress login screen the next time I check the site. I hope they issue a statement soon, but their social media hasn’t been updated since 2019.
***UPDATE: July 11, 2023: Getting the WordPress login again, so I am unclear how long – or even if – this situation will be resolved. I will mention that the few times FoodGawker appeared to be up and running over the past month, each was short-lived.
I also still have 2 Pending submissions from about 4-6 weeks ago, so there are clearly still some issues with their website.
***UPDATE: July 10, 2023: After almost one week of Foodgawker being down (again), it seems to be back up and the home page is accessible – for the moment at least. HOWEVER, I am now unable to log in, so this tells me there are continued database and/or security issues with the site.
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There have been several instances where I believed the site was back up over the past month, only to be met with the WordPress login screen again or some other technical issue.
I have not been unable to reach anyone from Foodgawker to provide a comment and I still do not see any public statements on their website.
***UPDATE: July 3, 2023: As of 9AM EST Foodgawker.com appears to be back up and the home page is viewable, but there have been a few times in the last couple days where foodgawker seemed to be functioning again, only to be presented with the WordPress login screen upon subsequent attempts to access the site.
***UPDATE: June 29th, 2023 – July 2, 2023: Foodgawker has been up and down periodically during this time frame. At points the site appeared to be functioning normally, and then would become inaccessible again. Repeated attempts to contact foodgawker have been unsuccessful.
Below is the timeline of Foodgawker’s outage as I experienced it.
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May 18, 2023: I had just posted my latest recipe to this blog – Sun Dried Tomato Orzo – that you see in the photo above.
May 24th, 2023: Headed over to Foodgawker to submit that recipe and noticed that there was a small notification saying something like, ‘The Lights Are Out – Be Back Soon’.
I just assumed it was the usual technical issues we all experience from time-to-time: Hosting Migration, Server Outage, Incompatible WordPress Update, etc.
Since Foodgawker is such a valuable site with such a large presence, I figured just give it a day and try to log in and submit my recipe again, tomorrow.
May 24th, 2023: Visited Foodgawker.com again and was greeted with the WordPress Login page (white page) requesting the WordPress login credentials.
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I thought this was odd, but then thought to myself, ‘…probably just some incompatible WordPress update…‘ and assumed Foodgawker would be back online in another day or so.
May 25th, 2023: Visited the site again and was still presented with the ‘Please Enter Your WordPress Login Credentials’ white page and now I was becoming more concerned.
I finally did a Google search on ‘Is Foodgawker Down?‘ and found this reddit thread where people were discussing this very issue
I had a few things going on at home over Memorial Day weekend so I didn’t check the website for several days.
June 3, 2023: Headed back to Foodgawker and noticed the message from earlier ‘The Lights Are Out – Be Back Soon’, which made me think they were making progress on their issue.
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June 5, 2023: Decided to see if I could access Foodgawker another way, so I did a Google search for ‘Foodgawker.com‘ and one of the results that appeared was their ABOUT Page.
I clicked on this page in the Google Search results and – to my surprise – the site was accessible!
I proceeded to log in through the usual log-in menu and submitted the recipe I mentioned above.
I was able to access my submissions area and clicked on the Foodgawker logo and was brought to the home page – everything was fixed – or so I thought!
I logged out.
June 7, 2023: Headed back to Foodgawker to see if my latest recipe submission was accepted and was met with the WordPress login site (white page) again.
Uh-oh!
June 8, 2023: Tried to login to Foodgawker again by going through their ABOUT page in the Google Search results (it worked again).
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Navigated around – checked my latest recipe submission and logged out.
***SOMETHING NEW: Today, I was able to access Foodgawker.com but only when I was logged in to my Foodgawker account.
This was a new development and figured – okay, they are getting closer.
But once I logged out of Foodgawker and tried to access the site, I was again met with the WordPress login page.
June 12, 2023: Could not access Foodgawker.com at all whether logged-in or not.
June 14, 2023: Began researching FoodGawker’s social media accounts to see if there was any communication from the site owners.
Checked Twitter – and saw this:
I noticed the entry from foodgawker above stating, “Our hosting provider is experiencing some issues currently. That’s why the site is down. Hope to (be) back online shortly.”
OK! That was it!
Then I realized the Tweet above came from 2019 and foodgawker has not posted since!
Another dead end.
June 28, 2023 (current day): Today, when I visit Foodgawker, I am being presented with something even more concerning – the WordPress fresh install page (at least that’s what I think this is).
Which leads me to believe that maybe they are re-installing WordPress from scratch, but that’s all I could find out (for now)
What Happened To Foodgawker?
It’s hard to say, but there is obviously some technical issue preventing the website from functioning normally.
My current guess is that maybe Foodgawker changed hands somehow – possibly through a sale – and something happened during the transition to the new owner?
I am planning on reaching out to Foodgawker once this article goes live using some emails that I am really just going to guess at, such as ‘support at foodgawker.com’ and ‘admin at foodgawker dot com’.
****UPDATE (June 29th, 2023): I received an Undeliverable Message after sending the email below to support at foodgawker dot com, so I sent the same email to contact at foodgawker dot com and admin at foodgawker dot com.
****UPDATE (June 28th, 2023): I have reached out to Foodgawker (you can view the email I sent them below)
I will update this post as soon as I hear anything back!
In the meantime, I’ll just keep working on my blog, posting recipes like my Applebee’s Spinach Artichoke Dip Copycat Recipe and articles like What To Serve With Chili and checking Foodgawker daily for any updates.
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Has Foodgawker Made Any Public Statements?
Not to my knowledge but if you know anything at all, PLEASE ADD IT IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!
Did Foodgawker Shut Down Permanently?
I have to admit – I don’t know at this point.
It seems odd that a technical issue would persist for this long, doesn’t it?
I assumed a website as large as Foodgawker would be able to hire the best technical experts to get it back up and running quickly.
*****Tired of shopping for ingredients? Get everything you need for making healthy meals delivered directly to your door from EveryPlate!*****
Will Foodgawker Return?
I – as well as the rest of the independent food blogging community – certainly hopes so!
Has Anyone Else Been Able To Contact Foodgawker?
Please let me know in the comments section below if you have an active email or know something that some of us may not.
Best Foodgawker Alternatives
While we await the expected (hopeful?) return of a beloved site in the food blogging community, it seems that there are fewer and fewer alternatives to Foodgawker.com.
I think the biggest sites I can think of are:
In my opinion, Yummly.com is probably the site I have turned to the most during this incredible, extended Foodgawker outage.
Remember, I am looking at this from the perspective of a food blogger – someone who not only wants to find recipes for inspiration, but also wants to share my own recipes for traffic and blog growth.
*****Tired of shopping for ingredients? Get everything you need for making healthy meals delivered directly to your door from EveryPlate!*****
What Sites Have You Turned To While Foodgawker Is Down?
Please let me know in the COMMENTS section below!
Conclusion
I think it is still a wait-and-see game at this point.
I certainly hope that Foodgawker returns – and returns soon. I truly miss that site!
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****Please note I purposely DID NOT link to Foodgawker.com in this post since they are having continued technical issues. Additionally, if their outage is due to some type of attack, I didn’t want to lead my readers to a compromised site.
Yes, I’ve been experiencing something similar and hope this isn’t the beginning of the end as I would miss Foodgawker!
Agreed! Foodgawker has been up and down over the last few days (around the 4th of July holiday) so I feel that they are making progress. I have had no luck contacting anyone at Foodgawker.com, but they are probably very busy. I’ll keep monitoring the situation and posting updates here.
Thanks for the comment!
Really great investigation and updates. I am a webdev and while not typically one who works with WordPress have attempted to connect with their team on a few occasions since 2020 and have never heard back from them. Even when offering to do work or consulting for free; Within reason of course. I just want the site to work again. Hell I’ve even met with a few other dev friends who are willing to join me on making a new site if it does go down. There’s many alternatives out there as you pointed out but none have really satisfied what I am looking for.
It’s not looking good 🙁 or they just do not like responding between my friends, you, myself, and I am sure many others.
Hi Chris,
Thank you for the kind words! It’s really unfortunate that nobody from Foodgawker is able to respond. Periodically, it appears that it may be ‘back up’ but – as you’ve probably noticed – if you try to enter certain areas, such as the recipe submission area you will get the ‘Lights Are Out’ message.
Some days I can log in and some days I cannot, but I haven’t been able to even log in for over a week (I think). I even still have some submitted recipes from June during the time at which this whole saga began.
As always, I appreciate the comment and I am in agreement with you – I just want Foodgawker to work again!
Bill
Good to see someone else besides me wondering what’s up with WP and FoodGawker. It sure looks like the WordPress platform is being targeted by hackers, and has been for years. I’ve had three WP sites hacked since 2012. The authors should move all of the Gawker sites off the WP platform and onto another, more secure web hosting platform. Unless the WP individual site authors diligently keep up with updating the backend security plugins and databases, and know which databases of their site are most vulnerable to hacking, the hackers sweep right in and destroy it as they crack each new plugin fix. It appears that hackers got into the WP main database in 2021 and trashed the entire WordPress member login database, rendering our WP-Premium logins invalid. After almost a year, that got fixed for WordPress users and seemed to be magically fixed, but I lost my main site in this cyber maelstrom. So I stay away from WordPress, except for Foodgawker, which I sorely miss.
Wow Laurie!
That’s horrible that you lost a WordPress site to hackers. I am not sure what happened with Foodgawker – I can’t even access it for the last few days (weeks?). I try to keep up with all the latest WP updates and patches.
It’s tough to avoid WordPress in this day and age since it’s such a staple of online content creation and development for non-techies like myself.
Stay strong and thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience here.
Bill