Decorum and Topicality Guidelines

[eG Member Relations Team]

eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters

Decorum and Topicality Guidelines

 

In order to encourage an open exchange of culinary information and views, Society members are expected to act with civility and to maintain a focus on issues pertaining to food and drink.

 

Decorum

• We do not permit ad hominem arguments or personal attacks.
• We do not permit comments that we deem abusive or threatening, inappropriately rude or personal, invasive of privacy, or violative of any law.
• Excessive repetition and filibustering are not permitted.
• Register your feedback about objectionable content, suggested merges, or other administrative matters by clicking the "report" button and notifying the moderators, not by posting on eG Forums.

 

Defamation

• The Society prohibits the posting of false or unconfirmed statements of fact that may injure the reputation of another party.
• Society members who post factual statements in the eG Forums represent by so doing that such statements are true and accurate to the best of their knowledge.
• A personal opinion as to the truthfulness of a factual statement (for example, that a visit to a restaurant resulted in "food poisoning" or that a certain restaurant is going out of business) does not constitute reasonable proof as to the truthfulness of that factual statement.
• Each Society member bears full legal and ethical responsibility for all material posted in eG Forums discussions or communicated via Society technologies by such member.

 

Subject Matter

• Discussions in the food and drink forums are restricted to the topics of food and drink. Posts on a given topic must pertain to that topic.
• Business owners and other members of the food and beverage industry are welcome in eG Forums discussions. We do not, however, permit the use of eG Forums discussions for advertising.
• All posts must further culinary discussion. Posting only to point out the existence of your product or business is prohibited.
• Members who participate in discussions about businesses with which they’re affiliated, for example if a member owns a restaurant and participates in discussion of that restaurant, must disclose the relevant business affiliations in their signature lines.
• Classifieds: individual members may post items for sale at the eG Forums, provided they create a new topic for the sale in the appropriate forum, the item for sale is culinary in nature, and they are not representing a vendor or business. Any items offered for transaction must be transferred under conditions legal for the particular item. Complete forums rules regarding these postings may be found here.
• Members may link to their business and/or personal websites from their signature lines.
• All posts should contribute new, topical content to the discussion at hand.
• We permit political or religious discussion to the extent that it substantially focuses on our core subject of food and remains civil; however the scope of eG Forums discussions does not extend to general political or religious topics.

 

Participation for research purposes (including journalism, academic research, and product development)

• Participation in the eG forums for research purposes must be disclosed publicly at the outset, and is permissible only to the extent that it encourages public discussion and does not solicit private replies.
• Those wishing to post requests to interview members should contact the Society public, media and community relations team at pr@eGullet.org with their requests. We will post appropriate requests and forward voluntary member responses along with relevant contact information.
• If you use eG Forums resources in a published work, please cite the member and note that the quotation, recipe or other information came from an eG Forums discussion at www.eGullet.org, the website of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters.
• NOTE TO COPY EDITORS AND FACT CHECKERS: The eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters is a 501c3 not-for-profit organization. The URL for all Society offerings is eGullet.org, not .com.

 

This policy, which is incorporated by reference in the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters member agreement, was last updated on 20 November 2022.