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

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!)