Community guidelines
Effective October 7, 2026.
Help people discover the coast with useful, accurate information and respectful accounts of real experiences. These rules apply to visitor contributions, business submissions and staff-curated content.
Reviews should reflect your experience
Write about your own visit and keep your review relevant to the place. Both positive and negative experiences are welcome. Explain what happened without threats, harassment, slurs or someone else's private information. One review is allowed per account and place.
Do not invent visits, submit reviews for someone else, buy or sell reviews, coordinate fake ratings, or accept payment or a reward for posting a review here. Owners, staff and others representing a business must not review that business as independent customers. Verified representatives can submit a clearly identified owner reply.
Share content you have permission to publish
Upload your own photos or images you are authorized to share. An image appearing in search results or on another website does not by itself grant permission to republish it. A useful image description is optional and helps visitors using screen readers. Do not misrepresent what a place or event looks like.
Do not post private contact details, identity documents, passwords, illegal material, graphic violence, sexual content, discriminatory abuse, spam or deceptive promotions. Respect the privacy of people shown in your photos, especially children.
Represent businesses honestly
Claim a business only if you are its owner or authorized representative. Provide accurate contact information and explain your relationship. Staff independently review claims; submitting a form or paying for a service does not establish ownership. Tell us if your authority to manage a business ends.
Keep business details, event dates and offers accurate. Only advertise a promotion for a business or event you are authorized to represent. Promotions are reviewed and labeled; both verified businesses and eligible member event authors may request event promotion. A promotion does not exempt content from these rules. Explain any offer's eligibility, exclusions, expiry and redemption conditions. Businesses are responsible for the services and offers they advertise. Owner replies should address the experience respectfully without revealing private customer information or pressuring someone to remove a review.
How moderation works
Community reviews, review corrections and photos that pass the applicable submission checks publish immediately. Spam checks can hold a contribution for staff review. When automated image screening is enabled, photos flagged for explicit content, or whose image check cannot finish, also stay private until reviewed. Automatic checks can make mistakes; staff review the content and context before deciding. Check My account for a held contribution’s status. Community photos appear in their own section; the main listing gallery is reserved for business and staff images. Existing contributions held for review remain in that queue until resolved. Verified business owners can publish replies to reviews without a paid plan. Premium owners can publish event details and schedule changes immediately at their eligible published locations, including weekly series of up to 26 dates. Cancelling an existing event remains available when paid access ends. Members submitting a $45 event use a separate staff-review process; only approved, paid and eligible submissions are published. Premium businesses do not pay that $45 fee for their own location events. Owners may request removal of a review that violates these guidelines, but cannot remove a visitor’s review themselves. An independent staff member decides the request; the review and rating stay public while it is open. Other business-owner submissions, including photos, offers and listing changes, still require staff approval. Staff may decline or remove content that violates these rules, cannot be verified where verification is needed, or belongs to a listing that is no longer public. Serious or repeated misuse can lead to restricted account access or revoked business access.
We apply these rules regardless of a review's rating or sentiment. A business cannot pay to remove criticism, raise its rating or bypass moderation. Sponsored placements are labeled and remain separate from visitor ratings. Publication does not mean that staff have verified or endorsed a contribution. Reviews that are withdrawn or removed are no longer public.
Report a concern or appeal a decision
Use a report control on the relevant listing, review or photo. For help or follow-up, use its support link or email us with its page link and an explanation. Include evidence you are permitted to share. For a copyright concern, identify the original work, the content in question and how we can contact you. A report does not automatically remove content.
To appeal a moderation or ownership decision, use support or email us with the business or contribution details, the decision you received and why you believe it should be reconsidered. You can withdraw your own reviews and remove community photos from My account.
Emerald Coast Explorer is operated by Naekivo LLC.