Where did the reviews and advice come from?

Adding a review to the website

See How does it work? and How do I post a message to one of the newsletters? for more information about posting reviews to the BPN newsletters.

Note that many reviews from the newsletters are eventually archived to the website, but this is not automatic. See Is there an archive for past newsletters? for details.

Removing a review from the website

• The review contains factual errors or doesn't meet BPN policy.
  If a review is later found to be factually incorrect or does not meet BPN's policies in some other way, BPN will remove it.
  Examples: 1) A critical review that appeared to come from a client of the business was later determined to have been written by a disgruntled employee. 2) A business owner posted a favorable review of herself posing as a satisfied customer.

• The reviewed business does not want to appear on the BPN website.
  The business (or school, class, etc.) that was reviewed can request BPN to remove all reviews of them from our website and not accept further reviews. This might be because the business has closed, or it might be due to a negative review. See the Negative Review Policy for more information about how to request the removal of a negative review. Note that the business itself must request this, not the person who wrote the review, because all reviews of the business will be removed, not just the negative review.

This policy is intended to discourage two practices that can detract from BPN's goal of being a useful resource for local parents:

1) Subscribers who post a favorable review for a business in exchange for a discount or other favor, and later want to withdraw the review because the business did not reciprocate in the desired way. BPN's Q&A format and other policies are meant to discourage these kinds of favor exchanges (see How do you know that reviews aren't coming from business owners? below.) Note to BPN subscribers: If you posted a favorable review, and it later turns out that the work was not as great as you thought, please post a follow-up review the next time someone asks about this type of business instead of asking us to remove the original review.

2) Business owners who pressure their clients to retract an unfavorable review from the BPN website. Negative reviews can only be removed under the conditions of the Negative Review Policy. In brief, removal must be at the request of the business itself, and all reviews of the business will be removed from the BPN website. BPN does not remove bad reviews while retaining the good reviews, except in the very uncommon event that the negative review does not meet BPN policy. Most businesses, schools, etc. that are reviewed on the BPN website have many more good reviews than bad reviews, and it may not be in the business' best interests to remove all reviews. Therefore, it is the business itself that must make a request under the Negative Review Policy, not the person who posted the review.

Note: If a review needs to be corrected, such as an incorrect business name or phone number, or a review that does not meet BPN policy, please send us an email. We do our best to correct errors on the website, but keep in mind that the BPN website is managed by volunteers, so we can't guarantee immediate response!

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 to the website at all, even for popular topics. These include reviews posted by the business itself, or by friends and family members of 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 business owners aren't posting good reviews of themselves?

1. BPN does not accept advertising or depend on grants or contributions from businesses, schools, etc. Therefore, BPN has no incentive to favor some businesses over others.

2. Reviews can only be posted by BPN subscribers. We only accept subscriptions from people who live locally and are either parents, or they work with children's issues or parenting issues.

3. All reviews must be posted in response to a question from another subscriber that has appeared in a recent newsletter. We do not accept Unsolicited Reviews in the style of Yelp and other consumer review sites.

4. Business owners who are eligible to subscribe to BPN may post about their businesses to the newsletters, but these are not archived to the website. We only archive reviews from BPN subscribers who have first-hand experience with the business they are recommending. We also do not archive reviews from friends, family members, and colleagues.

5. It is technically possible for a business owner to subscribe to BPN, and then post a review of herself posing as a satisfied customer, even though this violates BPN policy. When we discover that a business has done this, we unsubscribe them, and remove all reviews of their business from the BPN website. We do not accept further reviews of the business.

6. 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. Moderators and administrators see hundreds of postings a week and can detect patterns that indicate questionable postings. They have access to names and email addresses even on anonymous postings, and they can review past postings from the same name or email address if necessary.