Blog Policies - Revisit

I try not to write too many of these kinds of posts—my blog is about restaurant reviews and that is what I love to do. However, every once in awhile it seems like a good idea to reiterate my policies, both the ones that apply to me, and the ones that apply to comments I post (or don’t post).

My review policy is pretty simple. I go to a restaurant and I write a review. Because no one pays for my meals but me, I usually only go to a place once before writing a review. I don’t do reviews for free food or anything else. I am totally open to being asked to review a restaurant either by people in the restaurant industry or by my readers. I always take these suggestions seriously and I almost always add them to my list to try. However, I never announce my visits in any way and I try to be as anonymous as possible.

One of the best things about my blog, in my opinion, is the interaction I have with people from Indy about restaurants and food (and even with people from out of town who often email me and ask for suggestions). I love hearing from you all, whether you agree or disagree with me. In fact, this great open dialogue is one of the main reasons I continue to do this blog (that and my passion for food and my love of Indianapolis). However, I have to have certain rules for commenting and they are posted, as always, on the home page of my blog. They are:
1. No personal attacks;
2. No advertisements;
3. No offensive language;
4. No legal allegations against anyone (i.e. labor, health regulations, etc.) unless you have a link to back it up (i.e. to a pending suit, health violation, etc.).

The “no personal attack” rule applies to attacks on me or anyone else. So if you want to write a comment or send me an email calling names, feel free. Express yourself. Please just don’t be surprised when I don’t publish it. Also, if you post a comment about something like a restaurant making you sick, or an employee doing some illegal activity, I probably won’t publish that either, except under very special circumstances (see above).

I love hearing from all of you, and I love what this blog has become. I am proud of it, and I hope many of you continue to participate in whatever way feels good to you and that you continue to enjoy reading my very personal take on restaurants around our fine City.

Cheers,
Erin

Light Housekeeping

Hi all you wonderful people,

A couple of little friendly reminders:

1. Regarding comments: I love your comments and I want to post them all, but I can only post your thoughts and opinions on my reviews or the restaurants I discuss. Please don't state things that might be health code violations and/or labor violations because I don't feel like I can post such things responsibly (e.g. "there was a bug in my food" or "this place gave me food poisoning.") unless you can link me to an actual complaint that has been filed. I was a lawyer in a former life and these kinda things make me a little squeamish. Also, please don't personally attack anyone (i.e. name names). I just don't like it. Too personal. My comment policy is posted in the lower right-hand corner of my blog. So if you didn't see your comment published, you can look and see why--feel free to resubmit it (or send me an email and ask me and I will tell you why I didn't post it). I hate it when I can't publish comments!

2. Regarding email subscriptions: I have quite a few of you who have subscribed to receive my posts via email (and several just in the last few weeks). Please note that you are not automatically subscribed just because you put your email address in that little box. You will be sent an email which will contain a link you will have to click on to verify you really want it. Several of you haven't done that second step, and I don't want you to think I am being rude by not sending you the updates!

Thanks for reading!

Erin

Independent vs. Chains

Dear Readers,

In an effort to distinguish whether a restaurant I review is a chain or an independent restaurant (and in response to comments from several readers), I have started designating a label at the end of each post. So, if you want to search just independent restaurant choices, you can look for the label listing "Independent Restaurants" in the right hand column under "Labels" and be taken only to reviews of such restaurants. Unfortunately, it would be impossible to write this blog and not go to a few chains (and frankly, there are a few I really like), but I do try to support the locals as much as possible. Also, there are some times when I am not sure how to classify a restaurant, such as when it has various locations in Indy, but is still locally owned. In those cases, I tend to classify them as independent. I do my best to be correct in all my assertions, but I can make mistakes. If I do, please let me know and I will correct them as soon as possible.

Thanks and keep reading and eating!

My Restaurant Review Policy

When I first started writing this blog, I knew nothing about blogging and blog ethics, but I did know something about food and frustration with restaurants around here and the lack of any reviews that seemed to be honest and trustworthy. Thus, I started this blog for a few purposes: 1) to get some honest (and not always positive) reviews out there and hopefully in my own little way improve our restaurant scene; and 2) to vent. Since then, I am thrilled to see that my blog has a growing reader base of people that appreciate my honesty and who also love food. With all that being said, I realized after being offered a few free meals (hey, I thought it was pretty cool!), and after learning more and more about the blogosphere, that accepting the free meals wasn’t the best way to keep my blog as honest and trustworthy as I want it to be. This is not to say that I have EVER given anything but my honest opinions and insights on any given restaurant, free meal or not. I have always been absolutely and sometimes, brutally honest and will continue to be. And in each example where I was offered some freebie, I have always disclosed it in the review. But in order to maintain my moderately anonymous visits, and to maintain the undeniable appearance of non-bias, I will:

1. No longer accept free meals from restaurants, chefs, or public relations people;
2. Review a restaurant based on one visit only. I do not have the money or time (or babysitting) to be able to go to a restaurant multiple times before writing a review. But since most people experience restaurants this way, I think it makes it that much more real. I do on occasion re-visit places (naturally these are often places I like) and will often write new posts on those re-visits or sometimes just add comments on older posts.
3. Not announce my visit(s) or revisit on demand. Sure, email me to tell me about your restaurant —I always love to try places that are new or that I haven’t been to in awhile.

I want my experiences to be just like anyone else’s who might wander in off the street. I welcome any and all feedback from my readers regarding this policy and anything else that is on your mind. You have no idea how much it brightens my day when you write to me via email or the comments section of one of my posts! Keep it up! (Thank you also to those more experienced bloggers and to those just regular people who helped me work through this issue and figure out what I needed to do!)