More about the project

Everyone eats. The internet is infinitely spacious. Someone was bound to do this kind of thing. Since in Madison it's evidently going to be us, we're trying our best to be at least one standard deviation better at it than a monkey on a typewriter.

To that end, we'd like to answer some FAQs, clarify some details, and supplement the short "What's all this then?" page that served us well for the first six years.

Content

The posts on Eating in Madison A to Z are the opinions of the authors, Nichole Fromm and JonMichael Rasmus, or our invited guests. They are based on our experiences as we conduct our project based on the rules we established at its inception in May 2004.

We take all the photos we use and write all the text of our posts. When our dining companions' opinions are included, we either cite direct quotes or paraphrase, as style warrants.

We will not delete the content of posts. If we make a mistake, we'll clearly label edits, with the exception of typos and revisions to content not part of our regular restaurant posts. We'll also add links to the specs when news about a restaurant comes out after we post. We welcome correction of the facts in comments or via email: jumbledpile at yahoo dot com.

We've licensed our content here and our photos on Flickr under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license. Reuse or distribution is welcome as long as the terms of this license, or other terms we agree to, are observed. Use of our content by third parties does not necessarily mean we endorse those parties' viewpoints.

Comments

We value reader comments and respect them. We especially like to learn about a menu's hidden gems and hear from unique perspectives, say, on a restaurant's accessibility, allergen awareness, child-friendliness, and vegan/vegetarian offerings.

We hold comments for moderation. We will not publish spam, abusive or off-topic comments, or reviews copied verbatim from other sources. In borderline cases, we may contact the commenter via email before publishing a comment. All comments are the responsibility of the commenter.

Ethics

We don't view ourselves as restaurant critics (they're "posts," not "reviews"), but we value and try to abide by the ethics of the Association of Food Journalists.

We don't announce our schedule or our presence during our visits and maintain our anonymity to the extent we can (though why anyone would care is a mystery).

Neither of us has a day job in the restaurant business. If we have a personal connection with someone involved with a restaurant we visit, we'll disclose it.

We will not blog rumor or hearsay and will rarely venture into the behind-the-scenes territory of the restaurant business. We write from a consumer's perspective, but will occasionally opine about related (or unrelated) topics.

We reserve the right to have irrational, subjective crushes on or aversions to places or foods. And we make a lot of bad puns.

Guests

We enjoy eating with friends and friends we haven't met yet. Guests may choose to comment or not, and might use their real name or a pseudonym in our posts. We'll link to a guest's web presence upon their request.

Sponsorship and advertising activities

We will disclose our material relationships in accordance with the FTC's guidelines:

• Advertising
  • We do not write advertorials or sponsored posts.
  • We have hosted boilerplate Google AdSense text ads on individual post pages since March 2009. The revenue generated is applied to our web hosting costs (we have yet to break even).
  • We have an Amazon Associates account (ditto).
  • We were an ad-free FoodBuzz Featured Publisher in 2008 and 2009. We received a launch bonus check (also applied to our hosting costs) and a PR kit including a tote bag and business cards. When advertising became mandatory in 2010, we didn't renew.
• Bills, paying the
  
  • When we eat with companions, we usually split the check. Sometimes we buy; sometimes our dining companion picks up the tab, for which we give thanks in the specs.
  • Bucky Book once sent us a free coupon book.
  • We have had nothing comped except for two desserts, a cup of ginger juice, a side of cheese curds, soup and oranges, some little nibbly things, some rounds of sodas (#1, #2), and a macchiato, all unsolicited.
• Elsewhere
  • We were paid to write an article for Isthmus' 2005 Dining Guide.
  • We were paid for permission to reprint some of our words in "Post," a paper put out by Madison Newspapers, circa 2007.
  • We guest-posted gratis at Forkful of News.
  • Our photos have appeared, gratis and with permission, on Madison.com, Spectrum Culture, Vegan Madison, in UW print publications and elsewhere.
• Giving
  • We were 2010 & 2011 sponsors of MACSAC's Bike the Barns. In 2010, distinct from our sponsorship of the event, the generosity of our pledgers helped us win a raffle prize, which we accepted.
  • We participated in the 2010 Foodspotting Spotathon to benefit Heifer International.
  • We were 2011 sponsors of Middleton Outreach Ministry's Canstruction.
• Other treats
  • For a time, we accepted free cookbooks from various PR firms in exchange for short book reviews on our own site.
  • EatDrinkMadison.com treated us to breakfast as a getting-to-know you gesture, and requested that we link to their dining guide in the specs.
  • We participated in judging the 2010 World Wide Mustard Competition at the National Mustard Museum (thanks to referral by Kyle Nabilcy).
  • We ate and got 2 tshirts at the Grilled Cheese Academy launch party in 2010 (thanks to referral by MadisonDining.com).
  • Nichole participated in the 2010 Taste of Madison and 2011 Edible Book Festival judging.
  • The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board invited us to 2011's Isthmus Beer & Cheese Fest.
  • The Madison Children's Museum invited us to the 2011 Wonder Ball.
  • We have accompanied professional food writers on their restaurant visits.

Revision history

• 8/4/10 to add "Use of our content by third parties does not necessarily mean we endorse those parties' viewpoints." and a link.
• 9/23/10 to add a side of cheese curds to the comped list.
• 10/7/10 to add 3 sodas to the comped list.
• 12/22/10 to add "comments copied from Yelp or other sources" to the Comments section.
• 12/30/10 to reformat the Sponsorship and Advertising Activities section, and add info about Foodspotting, Forkful of News, World Mustard Championship, and accompaniment of professional reviewers.
• 1/29/11 to add the 2011 Beer & Cheese Fest.
• 3/2/11 to modify the comments policy.
• 3/31/11 to add Canstruction to Giving, and a round of sodas to Bills.
• 4/8/11 to add details to Bike the Barns.
• 4/27/11 to add Edible Book Festival.
• 5/31/11 to edit the comments policy.