People come to WhatXup to connect with local businesses. We know that people won’t always agree, but we expect everyone on our website to treat one another and the platform with honesty and respect. We’ve put together these general guidelines to help set the tone for discourse on the site—just in case. Please also read the additional guidelines below for specific types of content that you might contribute to the site.

·       Relevance: Please make sure your contributions are appropriate to the forum. For example, reviews aren’t the place for rants about political ideologies, a business’s employment practices, extraordinary circumstances, or other matters that don’t address the core of the consumer experience.

·       Inappropriate content: Colorful language and imagery are fine, but there’s no place for threats, harassment, lewdness, hate speech, or other displays of bigotry.

·       ·       Privacy: Don’t publicize people’s private information. For instance, please don’t post close-up photos or videos of other patrons without their permission, and don’t post other people’s full names unless you’re referring to someone who is commonly referred to by their full name.

·       Promotional content: Don’t post promotional material unless it’s in connection with a WhatXup advertising product and through a Business Account. Let’s keep the site useful for consumers and not overrun with commercial noise from every user.

·       Post your own content: Don’t swipe content from other sites, users, or businesses. Write your own copy and only share your own photos and videos. This also means you shouldn’t use chatbots or other AI tools to create reviews.

The best reviews are personal, passionate, and reflect your consumer experience. They offer a rich narrative, a wealth of detail, and a helpful tip or two for other consumers. Here are some additional thoughts for conscientious reviewers:

·       Personal experience: We want to hear about your firsthand experience, not what you heard from your partner or co-worker, or what you saw in the news. Tell your own story without resorting to broad generalizations and conclusory allegations.

·       Accuracy: Make sure your review is factually correct. Feel free to air your opinions, but don’t exaggerate or misrepresent your experience. We don’t take sides when it comes to factual disputes, so we expect you to stand behind your review.

·       Demanding payment: Writing a review should be informative and meant to help the broader WhatXup community. You should not threaten to post or offer to remove a negative review as a way to extract payment from a business.

·       Review updates: Review updates should reflect a new experience or interaction with the business. Don’t keep posting about the same old story you’ve already told. If you’d like to add new insight to an old experience, you can edit your review within 20 days of posting it.

Don’t be shy. Use your account profile to let people know who you are and what makes you tick. Your peers want to read reviews from people they know and trust (not those with profiles that are empty or laced with inappropriate content).

·       User Profiles: Since user trust and transparency are important to us, anonymous users who are disruptive to the community will be dealt with more sternly than those who stand behind their words. We encourage users to tell people a little something about themselves, but ask that you keep it relevant and don’t attack competitors, reviewers, or WhatXup team. 

·       Consumer Messaging: WhatXup has a handy messaging feature to keep you connected with your fellow WhatXupers. Please don’t use this feature to harass other users or send other inappropriate content