How do I add 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.

Where did the reviews and advice come from?

Removing a review from the website

1. The review contains factual errors.
   If a review is later found to be factually incorrect BPN will remove it. For example, a subscriber's review inadvertently described a business as providing a service that it does not actually provide.

2. The review doesn't meet BPN policy.
   Examples of this include: a) A review that doesn't meet BPN's Negative Review Policy; b) A critical review that appeared to come from a client but was later determined to have been written by a disgruntled employee; c) A favorable review that is later determined to have been posted by the business owner.

3. The review is for a business that is no longer taking new clients or has closed or moved out of the area.
   Please contact us if your business is reviewed on the BPN site and you'd like us to remove the review so people are not contacting you.

4. 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 is usually because of a negative review on the BPN website, but occasionally businesses do not want public exposure and ask to be removed. See the Negative Review Policy for more information about how to request the removal of a negative review.
   Note: 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.

Please contact us if your business is reviewed on the BPN site and you'd like us to remove a review.

Why we have this policy:

1. Sometimes subscribers post a favorable review for a business or school, and some months or years later want to withdraw it, at times to "get back" at the business because of some conflict they are now having. Opinions can change over time, but it isn't fair to the business to re-write the past and retroactively withdraw good reviews. If you posted a favorable review in the past, and it later turns out that the product or service was not as great as you thought, you should instead post a follow-up review the next time someone asks about this type of business.

2. Occasionally, businesses have pressured their clients to retract an unfavorable review from the BPN website. However, negative reviews can only be removed under the conditions of the Negative Review Policy. Any reviews removed under this policy must be at the request of the business itself. All reviews of the business will be removed from the BPN website. BPN does not remove unflattering reviews while retaining the good reviews of a business, 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 schools in our lists even though they have not been reviewed in BPN newsletters. Therefore, if your school isn't listed, and it is in the Bay Area, 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 schools; it does not apply to extra-curricular activities and classes such as dance, music, art, martial arts, etc.

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. Subscribing to BPN means daily emails, some quite lengthy, so there is overhead involved in being a BPN subscriber.

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. This means that we only accept a review for a business if a subscriber has posted a request for reviews of that type of business.

4. Business owners who are eligible to subscribe to BPN may recommend their businesses in response to a request, 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. We do not think this happens very often, but we do occasionally receive complaints from subscribers or website users about this, and we always investigate. When we determine that a business has done this, we unsubscribe the person who posted, and remove all reviews of the 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 read hundreds of postings a week, and most have years of experience on the BPN, so we can detect patterns that indicate questionable postings. Volunteers have access to names and email addresses even on anonymous postings, and may review past postings from the same name or email address if necessary.