General Guidelines

Additional things to keep in mind for our users.

Thank You!

Thank you for sharing your experience, on behalf of everyone who can learn from it from other community members to the resources and municipalities that can continue or improve services based on what you have to say.

A great review is one that is honest, reflects your experience, and tells others what they are going to want or need to know before they make contact. You’ve led the way, now you are helping others find theirs. Make your community impact stronger with a few simple tips.

It’s In the Details

The more you can share, the more helpful your review is to others. Don’t spare the details from first contact through the most recent interaction. Were they welcoming? Does everyone care? Is the paperwork straight and completed on time? Are they all talk or did they exceed your expectations? We can only ask so many sub-questions… your text response can cover everything and more with details. A text response that just generalizes what the organization does or that “It’s great!” are not going to be very helpful.

Tell Your Story

We want the original source for the review. Families and support networks have a lot to share that is incredibly valuable, whether they are talking about their personal experience with a resource or watching a loved one go through the experience. Whatever the perspective you share, please be sure to clarify it to those who read your review. If you felt the impact of a resource or you saw the impact it had on someone, please share accordingly. Just be sure to protect individual identity. For more on that, review our Privacy Policy.

Tell The Story

Tell it as it is. No sugar-coating, but no exaggeration. Just the facts, as the saying goes.

Keep it Current

We expect your story to grow as you use a resource. Don’t forget to keep your review updated as you interact. Add new experiences, add clarity to your rating with sub-questions, and keep writing.

A Couple Rules of the Road

We want every review to be honest, and to give the most information possible to the community. But that doesn’t mean you have to be a jerk. Here are some general guidelines for contributing to Pathfinder:

What’s a Total No-Go

Keep in mind the real basics. No threats or harassment of other community members or any organization or resource. Hate speech, lewd or derogatory content, and other bigotry will ensure your content goes directly to a vault deep in the tubes of the Interwebs instead of to the public. And what good does your opinion do there?

What’s Generally Frowned Upon

Yes, many of us picked up a bit of colorful language here and there. Just remember there are families here too: grandmas and grandpas are looking for resources and sometimes teens checking out what’s cool at the museum. If you can’t say it on prime time television, we will probably bleep it out of your review (the review will still show up, but might contain “[word redacted]” or “[keyboard being washed out with soap]”).

Don’t Make It a Personal Problem

Many of our community members value their privacy, just as you likely value your own. Please don’t identify other reviewers, and if referencing a person who was a part of your reviewed experience we ask that you don’t use names if possible. Any last names will be deleted from reviews unless the individual is publicly identified (like, their name is part of the company name).

While on the Topic of Personal Things

Intellectual property is just that: property. Don’t swipe reviews from other sites unless you wrote them, and don’t send us content that isn’t yours to send.

Stay on Mission

Your review and any updates are about your experiences. We don’t need to go on snide tangents and assumptions about what the staff seems to believe unless it is relevant to future users of the resource. Stay focused.

Keep it Real

Honesty is how people learn about the resource and how resources learn how they can improve their services. We want everyone to know, and to trust your review is not biased. You can write reviews of places where you work, but we ask if you work at a resource (paid or leadership positions), please let your readers know. You can do so while staying anonymous, and everyone can still get the knowledge.

Promotional Stuff

While businesses and resources can review and be reviewed, do everyone a favor and save promotions for your events, discounts, and other goodies for listing with us instead of clogging up the reviews. If you have something you want to promote, get in touch with us via our contact page to set it up.

Anti-Promotional Stuff

This is your experience. Share the good, the bad, and the ugly, but please don’t take your review space to make demands of the organization. If the service was bad, we will help you find something else that’s a better fit. Of course, if you do need legal assistance, we have a whole section for that.

One More Thing

The community needs unbiased, quality reviews. Offering or accepting anything in exchange for writing a specific review hints at bias and decreases the quality. Services and resources are there to offer the best experience and meet your needs. Be wary of any that offer anything in exchange for your review. Aim for quality, read other reviews and see what makes it effective (and vote on if that review is helpful), and know that the quality of the review is what helps improve the quality of the resource.