Suburb Says Community Guidelines
Effective date: 1st August 2026

Suburb Says works because locals share genuine recommendations — not fake reviews, paid praise or keyboard-warrior takedowns.
These Community Guidelines explain what we expect from people who use Suburb Says, submit recommendations, appear in recommendations, or interact with the platform. The short version: be honest, be useful, be local, and don’t try to game it.

1. What Suburb Says is for

Suburb Says helps locals discover small businesses, trades and service providers that people nearby genuinely recommend.
We are here to surface the good ones.
We are not here to list every business, publish anonymous complaints, run public takedowns, or let businesses buy their way into recommendation results.

2. What makes a good recommendation

A good recommendation is honest, specific and useful. When recommending a business, tell us:

• who you are recommending;

• what they do;

• where they helped;

• what they did for you or someone you genuinely know;

• why you would recommend them;

• what stood out, such as reliability, quality, friendliness, responsiveness, tidiness, value, communication or care.
   

You do not need to write a perfect review. Just explain, in your own words, why you think they are worth recommending.

Good examples include:
“They fixed a leaking tap at my place in Freshwater, turned up when they said they would, explained the issue clearly and cleaned up afterwards.”
“Our neighbour used them for garden maintenance in Curl Curl and keeps recommending them because they’re reliable, fairly priced and easy to deal with.”
“They helped my parents with an electrical issue in Manly. They were calm, quick and didn’t make the job feel bigger than it was.”

3. First-hand and trusted recommendations

We prefer first-hand recommendations from people who have personally used a business.
We may also accept a trusted recommendation where you genuinely know the business has done great work for someone nearby — for example, a neighbour, friend or close contact.
If you have not personally used the business, be honest about that.
For example:

• “I used them myself.”

• “My neighbour used them and recommended them.”

• “My parents used them.”

• “A few people on my street have used them.”

Please do not pretend a recommendation is first-hand if it is not.

4. No self-promotion

Suburb Says is built on community recommendations, not business self-promotion.
Business owners, employees, contractors, agencies, marketers or anyone connected to a business must not recommend that business through the community recommendation pathway. If you are a business and want to speak to Suburb Says, use the business or sponsor enquiry path instead.

5. No family, mate or connected recommendations

Please do not recommend a business if the person you are recommending is:

• your partner;

• a family member;

• a close friend;

• your employer;

• your employee;

• your client;

• your business partner;

• someone you have a financial interest in promoting.
   

Even if the business is genuinely great, connected recommendations can damage trust in the platform. Suburb Says is strongest when recommendations come from independent locals.

6. No paid or incentivised recommendations

You must not submit a recommendation because you were paid, rewarded, discounted, pressured or incentivised to do so.
That includes:

• cash payments;

• discounts;

• free services;

• gifts;

• referral benefits;

• competition entries;

• pressure from a business;

• requests from a business to “help them out”.
   

If there is any connection, incentive or benefit involved, do not submit the recommendation through the community pathway.

7. No negative feedback for now

Suburb Says is focused on positive local recommendations. We are not currently collecting or publishing negative reviews, complaints or takedown-style feedback.

That means you should not use Suburb Says to:

• complain about a business;

• accuse a business of misconduct;

• attack a competitor;

• publish a dispute;

• make legal, safety or dishonesty claims;

• warn people away from someone.
   

If you have a serious concern about content on Suburb Says, you can contact us privately and we may review it.

But publicly, we are here to help locals find businesses people recommend — not to run a local complaints board.

8. Keep it honest

You must not submit anything false, exaggerated, misleading or manipulated.
Do not:

• make up a recommendation;

• copy someone else’s words;

• submit the same recommendation multiple times;

• create multiple accounts;

• pretend to be someone else;

• exaggerate your experience;

• coordinate a group to artificially boost a business;

• submit competitor attacks;

• use Suburb Says to game visibility or ranking.
   

If we think a recommendation is suspicious, we may reject it, delay it, investigate it, de-identify it, remove it or stop it from counting toward public recommendation thresholds.

9. Keep it respectful

Do not submit content that is:

• abusive;

• threatening;

• discriminatory;

• harassing;

• sexually explicit;

• hateful;

• defamatory;

• deliberately humiliating;

• personally insulting;

• unlawful;

• unsafe;

• irrelevant.
   

Suburb Says should feel like a helpful neighbour, not a Facebook group that went off the rails.

10. Protect people’s privacy

Do not include unnecessary personal information about another person.
That includes:

• private phone numbers;

• home addresses;

• email addresses;

• family details;

• health information;

• financial information;

• private disputes;

• details about children;

• anything that could put someone’s safety or privacy at risk.
   

Suburb Says may edit, remove or de-identify information to protect privacy.

11. How we may refer to you

When we mention or publish a recommendation, we may use limited attribution such as your first name and suburb. For example:

“Recommended by Sarah in Freshwater.”
We will not publish your surname, email address, phone number, exact residential address, login details or other personal contact information.
We may also summarise, paraphrase or combine recommendation comments so the final public version is clearer, shorter and safer to publish.

12. What Suburb Says may do with recommendations

Recommendations are not published automatically. Suburb Says may:

• review recommendations;

• verify recommendations;

• ask for more information;

• edit recommendations for clarity, length, tone, privacy or legal safety;

• summarise or paraphrase recommendations;

• combine similar recommendations;

• delay publication;

• reject recommendations;

• remove recommendations;

• stop recommendations from counting toward public thresholds;

• suspend or restrict accounts;

• review sponsor placements where trust or misuse is a concern.

We do not have to publish every recommendation we receive.

13. Businesses mentioned on Suburb Says

Businesses may be mentioned because locals have recommended them.
Being mentioned on Suburb Says does not mean we certify, license, insure, audit, guarantee or formally endorse that business.
Businesses are responsible for their own work, pricing, conduct, licences, insurance, availability and compliance with law.
Locals should always make their own checks before hiring a business.

14. Business corrections and concerns

Businesses can contact us if they believe:

• business details are incorrect;

• contact details are outdated;

• content has been attributed incorrectly;

• private information has been published;

• a recommendation appears fake or misleading;

• there is a legal, safety or privacy concern.
   

We may review the issue and decide whether to correct, amend, de-identify, remove or leave content unchanged.

A business cannot automatically remove genuine community feedback simply because it does not like being mentioned.

15. Sponsors

Sponsors may appear on Suburb Says in paid sponsor placements.
Sponsorship is separate from recommendations.
A sponsor cannot pay to be recommended. A sponsor cannot buy its way into recommendation rankings. Sponsor payments do not change the underlying community recommendation data.
If sponsor conduct damages trust in the platform, we may review, change, suspend or remove the sponsor placement.

16. AI and summaries

Suburb Says may use AI to help organise, summarise and present recommendation information.
AI may also help identify duplicates, suspicious patterns or attempts to game the platform.
AI does not create the underlying recommendations. It helps us explain what locals have told us in a clearer way.
Because AI-generated summaries may occasionally be incomplete or imperfect, we may review, edit or correct them.

17. If you break these guidelines

If we believe someone has broken these guidelines, we may:

• reject a recommendation;

• edit or de-identify a recommendation;

• remove a recommendation;

• stop a recommendation from counting;

• ask for more information;

• issue a warning;

• suspend or close an account;

• block further submissions;

• review related recommendations;

• review or remove sponsor placements;

• take any other reasonable step to protect Suburb Says and the community.

We may do this at our discretion, especially where behaviour affects trust, safety, fairness or platform integrity.

18. The spirit of Suburb Says
Suburb Says is built on a simple idea:

Locals usually know who is good.
These guidelines help make sure the recommendations on Suburb Says stay useful, genuine and fair.
So recommend the people you would genuinely tell a neighbour about.
No fake praise. No mate’s rates. No stitch-ups. No nonsense.
Just good local word of mouth, made easier to find.