coupla newbie questions

Hi Karen,
I know you’re an active member of the FC community on Twitter and Facebook, so it’s good to see you here in the forum, too. Welcome! FineCooking.com and forums.finecooking.com (CooksTalk) run on two different platforms, that’s why you have to sign in here on the forum, even though you may have signed in on FineCooking.com to comment, rate a recipe, or look at CooksClub-exclusive content. You have to sign in each place if you want the system to recognize you.

The ability to comment has no relation to whether content is free or a (member subscription) CooksClub-exclusive, per se. On FineCooking.com anyone can comment on anything that happens to be posted in a blog, whether it’s a food science post, a book review, a drinks post, a Test Kitchen tip, or a Best of the Blogs “you must read this” post. Occasionally, we post videos there as well (here’s a recent one), and in those cases, commenting is an option. There are not many PDFs on the site, but it is true that if you do download one, there’s no way to comment. You can’t comment on a recipe the way you can a blog post, but you can rate it if you’ve made it (that’s where those stars next to recipe titles come in).

Here’s a caveat: That’s the way it works right now. Future iterations of FineCooking.com will incorporate more ways for our readers to comment on and respond to content across the board. We’re not there yet, but we’re on our way.

-Robyn