Community Guidelines

Reviews must be firsthand. You were there, you ordered the thing, you stood in the line. Don't review places you haven't visited, don't repeat what you heard from someone else, and don't fabricate an experience — with your imagination or with an AI's. Short and honest beats long and polished every time; a two-line review that's true is exactly what HotPlace is for.

• Don't review your own business, or one you work for.
• Don't review your competitors.
• Reviewing a friend's or family member's place is rarely a good idea; if you do, say so in the review.

No business may pay, discount, gift or otherwise reward you for writing, improving or deleting a review — and you may not accept it. This is the line that keeps the map honest, and it has no exceptions.

HotPlace's own rewards programme is different by design: rewards come only from HotPlace, the amount never depends on whether your review is positive or negative, and rewarded reviews are labelled. We pay for honesty, not for praise.

If a business offers you anything in exchange for a review, we want to know: support@hotplace.app.

Post photos you took yourself, at the place the review is about. Don't post photos where other patrons are identifiable without their permission, and don't post photos you found online — even good ones. The crowd's own pictures are the point.

Criticise the food, the wait, the price, the vibe — that's what reviews are for. But:

• No harassment, hate speech or threats — toward staff, owners or other users.
• No doxxing: don't post anyone's personal information.
• No sexually explicit, violent or illegal content.
• No spam, advertising or off-topic content — reviews are about the place, not your side hustle.

Place submissions and edits are community-powered and human-reviewed. Submit real places at their real locations, suggest edits in good faith, and don't use submissions to advertise. Don't manipulate the system anywhere else either: no fake queue joins, no GPS spoofing, no coordinated review rings.

See something that breaks these rules? Report it through the app where reporting is available, or email support@hotplace.app with a link or screenshot. We review reports promptly.

Reviews pass a content check before publishing. When something slips through, enforcement is proportionate: content gets removed, rewards tied to fraudulent content get reversed, repeat or serious offenders lose their accounts. If you think we got it wrong, contact support and a human will look again.