Hackney Directory exists to support independent businesses and give residents honest, useful local insight. Comments and reviews must help people make informed decisions. They must not damage reputations unfairly or turn into personal attacks.

By posting a comment, you agree to follow the standards below.

1. Write from real experience

Only post reviews based on your genuine, first hand experience with the business.

Do not:
• Post fake reviews
• Post on behalf of someone else
• Post multiple reviews for the same experience
• Pretend to be a customer if you are not

If we believe a review is false, coordinated, or written to manipulate ratings, it will be removed.

2. Be accurate and specific

Stick to facts you can support. Focus on what happened, when it happened, and how the business responded.

Avoid:
• Exaggeration
• Rumours
• Assumptions about intent
• Outdated information presented as current

If your information is old or no longer reflects the business as it operates today, we may remove it to protect fairness.

3. Keep it respectful

You are free to criticise a service. You are not free to attack a person.

We will remove comments that contain:
• Profanity
• Sexually explicit or pornographic material
• Bullying, threats, harassment or intimidation
• Hate speech or discrimination based on age, race, ethnicity, religion, political belief, gender, sexual orientation or disability
• Personal insults aimed at staff, owners or other users

Criticism must focus on the service, not the individual.

4. No defamatory or harmful content

Do not make allegations of criminal activity, fraud, abuse, or misconduct unless you can provide verifiable public evidence.

Statements that could seriously damage a business’s reputation without proof will be removed.

Hackney Directory will not host content that exposes us or local businesses to legal risk.

5. No illegal or unethical promotion

We will remove any content that:
• Promotes illegal drugs, counterfeit goods, contraband or weapons
• Encourages illegal or unethical behaviour
• Promotes scams or deceptive practices

6. Protect privacy and personal data

Do not post:
• Private phone numbers or personal email addresses
• Home addresses
• Staff surnames or personal social media accounts
• Medical, financial or other sensitive information

Respect privacy at all times.

7. No self promotion or advertising

Comments must not:
• Promote your own business
• Promote a competitor
• Include affiliate links
• Direct traffic to unrelated websites
• Be written as marketing copy

If you want to advertise, use official advertising options within Hackney Directory.

8. No plagiarism or copied content

Do not copy and paste:
• Reviews from Google, Trustpilot or other platforms
• Content from another website
• Marketing text from a business

Even if you wrote it elsewhere, duplicate content may be removed to maintain originality.

9. Quality standards

Comments should:
• Be written in clear English
• Stay relevant to the business listed
• Add useful detail

We may remove content that is:
• Spam
• One word reviews with no context
• Completely irrelevant
• Excessively incoherent

We do not expect perfect grammar. We do expect clarity and effort.

10. Moderation rights

Hackney Directory reserves the right to:
• Edit minor formatting issues
• Remove comments that breach these guidelines
• Temporarily or permanently suspend users who repeatedly ignore the rules

We are not obligated to publish every comment submitted.