Policy
Advertising does not change the Field Guide
Nothing on this site is sponsored yet. This is written now, while there is nobody to disappoint, because that is the only time it can be written honestly.
What a sponsor can buy
A clearly labeled position beside content their customers are already reading. That is the whole product: proximity to a decision, at the moment somebody is making it.
What a sponsor cannot buy
- Being added to a listing they don't otherwise belong in
- Moving higher in any result, list or map
- A stronger verification label than the facts support
- Removal of an accurate caveat, warning or blank
- Changing a rule, fee, hour or policy as published here
- Being called the best of anything
If a business tells me something on its own listing is wrong, I check it and fix it — whether or not they have ever paid me a penny. That is not a courtesy extended to advertisers. It is the entire point of the site.
Where sponsorship will never appear
Not beside emergency veterinary information, blue-green algae warnings, nesting closures, permit rules or anything else somebody is reading in order not to get hurt or overcharged. Not between a question and its answer.
This one is enforced in the code rather than in my judgement: those routes are on a blocklist, and the build fails if a commercial module reaches one. I would rather it be impossible than remembered.
Things the Field Guide sells itself
Stickers, and eventually printed and downloadable guides, markedFrom the Field Guide. Those are mine, so there is no independence question — but there is a different one, and the answer is the same: a product never decides what gets covered. A place earns a page by being worth writing about. If a page exists only to hang a product on, it should not exist.
The useful information stays free. Products package it or make it portable. They never withhold it.
Affiliate links
There are none yet. If there are, they will be disclosed where they appear, and nothing will be recommended because it pays better. Gear gets recommended because it solves the trip.
Who builds this
The site is designed and built by Werth Design, which is my studio. That is a maker's credit, not advertising, and it buys nothing here either — if a Werth Design client turns up in a listing, they are held to the same standard as everybody else, and being a client is never a reason to be covered.
Related
- Who writes this
- The verification index — every fact, its source and its age
- What changed in Delaware