Okay, here are the rules:

Please do not attempt to advertise your business through the comments. I understand that some folks have business ventures relating to food and earth-friendly products, which is all good. I also understand the practice of commenting on other people's blogs in the hopes of drumming up readers for one's own. For many bloggers, a goal is to get other blogs to list their blog in their blogroll; therefore, going to other blogs, participating in the conversation is not only part of the fun of blogging, it's part of the "game-plan." I'm down with that. You can do that here. 

However . . . .

Maybe I'm old-school, but I believe in the practice of inquiring if it's okay to post a permanent link to someone's blog first, or at least making a comment before assuming it's okay to link to them. Some exceptions can be made; for instance, when linking to the Food Network, let's say. You don't have to ask permission; in fact, they want you to link to them. But for personal blogs, blogs that are largely visited by friends and family and maybe a small network of related-interest blogs, it's just common courtesy to introduce yourself. In some way -- it doesn't have to be formal, just a quick, "Hey, I like your blog. I started my own at http . . . . Mind if I link to you?". Sometimes, it is clear that the blog is designed for people to subscribe or link to it, and in those cases I might not actually ask permission to link to them. But if it's "Dad Cooks" and all the comments are from his family members, I ask. And let me just say for the record, that if you are a personal food blogger like me, go ahead and link me to your similarly personal food blog. It's okay.

If you are a business and you simply leave a comment intended to direct my readers to your business, without having contacted me about it first, you are offending my sense of good taste.

This is my personal food blog, not a business blog. And it is not your free advertising spot. You'll notice that this site is ad free. The content here is produced by me, a person, in my FREE time. Emphasis on "free."

This morning I had to remove a comment from a business on a movie review that I wrote. The comment didn't mention ANYTHING about the movie, its content or my comments about it. It was purely a sales pitch. Disgusting. Deleted. 

 

If you have/work for a business that you feel is related to the content and values of this blog and wish to have me link to your site in my "Other Sites I Read/Follow/Use" section, feel free to contact me at proy912atgmaildotcom.  If I list you, I may write a review of your site or products for you here at Fiddlehead at no charge. Or, if you'd like to hire me to edit or write copy for you or to write articles for your publication, I am capable and available for that, too, and you should write to me at the email above to inquire about my rates.

Furthermore, all the photography here is mine or is linked back to the source (if you find one that isn't let me know and I'll fix it. Sometimes I screw it up).  The photos are pretty amateur, so I can't imagine anyone stealing them, but stealing bandwidth causes problems for me with Blogger.

Are we cool? Good.