Hello everyone! There’s been a lot of chatter lately about how Facebook has been severely limiting the content readers see on Facebook. The reality is that no matter what you do as a reader, or what we do as writers, very little is showing up on your news feed from the pages you follow. We food bloggers have been chatting behind the scenes, trying to figure out the best way to deal with this. For part two of this series, go here: Woes of Facebook Part 2.

Here’s how it’s playing out for my own Facebook readership.

I have 8,000 followers. Over the past few months my engagement has slowed to less than a trickle – a tiny fraction of what it was at the beginning of the year. Now, when I post to my Facebook page for The Culinary Life, only 100 people see those posts (on average). That is about .01% of my followers. Facebook then tries to charge me $20 so that you can see my content. Given that I don’t make any money from the stories and photos I post – please note there are not any ads on my site – paying hundreds of dollars a month to access you, the fans who willingly liked my page, is just not possible.

To make matter worse, Facebook has been charging page owners to run ads, which is in essence buying followers. That’s not a problem in and of itself, but when they charge to grow a page’s following and then remove access to those very same followers after they’ve accepted money for them, well, I find that incredibly unethical.

And so…

Given all of these sadnesses, I’m going to stop posting on Facebook so much since you are not seeing my posts anyways. If you’re really interested in the delicious things I want to share, I encourage you to please sign up to receive my new posts by email, or to join my monthly mailing list. You can also follow me over at Google+, where the foodie community is brimming with recipes, videos, and general excitement.

A new option is to subscribe to The Culinary Life broadcasts on App.net. It’s a great little tool that allows you to feed your favorite sites into one easy-to-follow stream. If you enjoy App.net, you can receive a real-time update every time I publish a new article or recipe. Highly recommended.

I’d love to keep sharing my culinary content with you, but unfortunately, Facebook is not a place I can do that anymore. And I’m not the only one that feels this way. In fact, Veritasium did a wonderful video on how Facebook may actually be committing fraud.

I’m very sad that Facebook has decided to exclude the blogging community from accessing our loyal friends and fans, you who we love so dearly and are the reason we put so much work into creating recipes, photographing dishes, and publishing post after post. Really, you are the reason we work so hard. It’s terrible that Facebook has decided to hide our work from your eyes after you’ve already expressed interest in seeing it. We are not large brands selling products; the vast majority of food bloggers are moms, dads, husbands, wives, hobbyists, students, writers — everyday folks who just want to invite you into our kitchens.

Until Facebook allows us access to the people who have chosen to make us a part of their lives, I’m afraid Facebook will continually become less of a platform where you will find your favorite foods and recipes. If you disagree with the way Facebook is culling content from readers, I encourage you to contact them and let them know.

For part two of this series, go here: Woes of Facebook Part 2.

This content was originally posted on FearlessFresh.com.