Quote:
Originally Posted by deirulz
If we have problems with a particuler business and would like to warn other people so they don't have a similar problem can we post somewhere on isaintjohn?
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Thanks for using the helpdesk and for your question
Yes, sorry, as puppyluv and icedragon mention, we don't allow that
The 2 main reasons are:
1) We have been threatened legally by companies over what users have written. Even if a legal case is weak or even groundless, it costs a lot of time and money to defend, so that's a reason for our restriction.
2) We once had a used car dealership co-owner sign-up with multiple usernames (male/female/young/old) simply in order to write negatively about his competition.
Having a business or person's good name be tarnished by such a schemer is not something we can allow.
Obviously, many people may say (with truth) "I'm not a schemer". But the problem is that we don't really have any way to know (in the above case, there were some clues regarding the used car dealership owner being a schemer, so that gave him away, but it can be more complicated... and even investigating his posts was time-consuming).
In some cases, we do allow "consumer opinions" to be posted, but this is on a
case by case basis.
The key issue is
"how easy is it to try the company's services?" and "how likely is it that a lot of other people on the site have used that company's services?"
So for example, going to a restaurant is free, and there's a large pool of people who do so. So if someone writes (mildly) negatively about it, we may allow it, because there will probably be many other people who will add their own views (in some cases, perhaps compliments), and thereby provide a good overall picture.
On the opposite end, if someone has issues with an accountant regarding their taxes being done poorly, we would remove it -- because the person quite possibly could be a competitor who wants to spread lies. And in this case, there may be few/zero people on the site who have used that company's services -- and who could therefore correct any lies.
In all cases though, what we allow or disallow is at our sole discretion, taking into account a variety of factors to make a judgement call.
Please read the rules for full details:
http://www.isaintjohn.com/rules.shtml
Thanks