Where did the reviews and advice come from?

How can I add a recommendation to the website?

We try to keep the most asked about topics up to date on the website, but there may be a delay of months or even years before they are archived. Some discussions are never archived.

To find out which topics have been archived and which haven't, see the List of Topics, which also shows what is on the To-Do list to be archived next. If there is a topic you'd like to see archived, please send us an email and tell us the topic. Note that we cannot usually accommodate requests from businesses asking us to archive favorable reviews that have appeared in the BPN newsletters. Our priority is topics that member parents most frequently ask about, as explained in the next section.

How do you decide what to archive?

Some types of postings are not archived, even for popular topics, such as reviews posted by the business itself, or by friends and family members or the business.

See What's New for recently archived discussions, and List of Topics which shows what is on the To-Do list to be archived next for each newsletter.

I can't find the most recent newsletter on the website

If you're a local parent, or you work with children, you can join the mailing list here. Members are permitted to post some kinds of messages about their businesses that are geared toward parents and children. However, these announcements are not archived to the website. For more information, see How can I let local parents know about my business?

How can I add my school to your listing?

However, over the years, parents on our subscriber list have posted recommendations for most of the schools in our area. Because our archive of school reviews is now so close to being an exhaustive list of all schools in the area, we have begun to include local elementary and high schools in our lists even though they have not been reviewed in our newsletters. Therefore, if your child's elementary or high school isn't listed, and it is "within commuting distance of Berkeley", please send us an email with the name of your school, address, and website, and we'll add it to our website.

Please note!! this applies only to K-12 schools "within commuting distance" of Berkeley, California. This does not apply to pre-kindergarten schools or extra-curricular schools and classes such as dance, music, art, martial arts, etc. These schools can still be reviewed in one of the BPN newsletters however, and eventually they will be archived to the website. See How can I add a recommendation to the website? for more information about this.

How can I contact the person who recommended X on the website?

How can I correct information about my business on the website?

How can I correct an incorrect phone number on the website?

How do you know that reviews aren't coming from business owners?

1) Reviews can only be posted by BPN subscribers. There is some amount of overhead involved in being a BPN subscriber - must be willing to receive 10-12 long emails a week, and must affirm local parent status. Therefore, BPN has obstacles that other review sites such as craigslist and yelp do not have. We probably do have subscribers who have joined the network solely to promote their and their friends' businesses, but it's enough of a hassle to do this that we think this is minimized. The vast majority of subscribers who post reviews are local parents who belong to the BPN because they are seeking community with other parents.

2) We do not archive reviews posted by the business owner or her friends. BPN does allow subscribers to recommend themselves, their friends and their family, in response to a question, and these replies appear in the newsletters, but they are not archived to the website. We archive only reviews from subscribers who have first hand experience and no connection to the business being reviewed.

3) Beginning in 2007, we do not accept unsolicited reviews in the newsletters. All reviews must be posted in response to a question from a BPN subscriber. (Prior to 2007, few unsolicited reviews were archived but some do appear on the website.) This means that a person wanting to promote his business must first subscribe, and then either wait for a request to appear for his type of business, or have a friend post a question that he can then reply to in a subsequent newsletter. However, there is a low probability that his reply will ever appear on the website. First, we don't archive promotional responses. Second, even if the response is "disguised" as an impartial review from a customer, there is still a low likelihood of archival because updates to the website are infrequent, may be delayed several years, and may not be archived at all if the topic is not one our subscribers are interested in.

4) All postings are reviewed by a BPN volunteer moderator before they are included in the newsletters to make sure they meet BPN policy. Postings are reviewed again by the website administrator before they are archived to the website. BPN volunteers review hundreds of postings a week and can usually spot questionable postings that fall outside BPN policies. Not always, but usually!