For each recipe you create in Recipe Tamer, you decide who else can see the recipe. This is controlled by the Visibility setting in the recipe editor.

The following options are available:

• Private. Only you and members of your household (see below) can view the recipe. This is the default setting for all new recipes, but you can change the default in your Account Settings.
• Searchable by friends. Your Recipe Tamer friends (see below) can search for and view the recipe.
• Visible to anyone with a link. Anyone who has the Web address of the recipe can view it. Use this option if you want to be able to share your recipe with other people by sending them a link to the recipe. The recipe won't show up in any user's search results (unless they're a member of your household).
• Searchable by friends, and visible to anyone with a link. This is a combination of the previous two options. Your friends (Recipe Tamer friends, that is) will be able to view and search for the recipe, and you can share it with non-friends by sending them a link.

Regardless of the setting, others who view the recipe will not see the Private Notes or History sections, unless they are members of your household.

All recipes are tagged to discourage search engines from indexing recipes on the site, but if you make a recipe visible through a link, ultimately you don't have any control over who views the recipe or what they do with the information.

Friends

Friends are other Recipe Tamer users that you want to share recipes with. We're sure you have lots of friends in the real world, too, but we're not concerned about them here (though by all means go ahead and invite them to try Recipe Tamer).

When you and another user are friends, you can each see any of the other's recipes that are marked as "Searchable by friends." When you search for recipes, you can choose to search through the recipes that friends have shared with you, and can filter recipes from specific friends.

Note that you cannot share recipes only with certain friends: any recipe that's "Searchable by friends" can be seen by anyone who is your Recipe Tamer friend. If you want to share only with certain people, use the "Visible to anyone with a link" setting and send them a link.

To become friends with someone in Recipe Tamer, go to the Friends section of your account, where you can send out friend invitations and manage your friend list.

And if you have a better word than "friend" that we could be using for this concept, we'd really, really love to hear your suggestion. "Fiend" maybe, since I keep mistyping it that way?

Household Members

Household members are special friends. Next-level friends? The idea here is that they're people you live with or frequently cook with, who should have access to all your recipes. Note that last part: if you don't want someone to have access to all your recipes, don't add them to your household. In Recipe Tamer or in real life.

To become a household with another Recipe Tamer user, go to the Friends section of your account and make them your friend first. Once you're friends (and after a decent interval?), either one of you can click the Add to household button to start the process. The other will have to accept the proposal, and then you'll be joined.

Once someone is in your household, the Visibility settings for your recipes don't matter: they can see all your recipes. Co-householdership also conveys these privileges:

• Household members can see private information in the recipe, including Private Notes and recipe history.
• Household members can add new notes to the recipe history.
• Household members can view and update your shopping lists.

Household members cannot edit your recipes.