Community
Guidelines.

1. Our Mission

2. Review Standards

Every review on PollenGrains must meet the following standards. These requirements ensure that reviews are useful, authentic, and fair to both consumers and businesses.

• Star rating (1–5) is required — every review must include a star rating reflecting your overall experience.

• Review body is required — minimum 50 characters, maximum 5,000 characters. Provide enough detail for your review to be useful to others.

• Review title is optional — maximum 100 characters. A concise summary of your experience.

• Photo uploads are optional — maximum 5 photos per review. Photos must be relevant to the review and must not contain personal information of others.

• Genuine personal experience — reviews must reflect your own first-hand experience with the product or service. You may not write reviews on behalf of others.

• Factual, honest, and constructive — reviews should be accurate, written in good faith, and aim to inform other consumers. Criticism is welcome; dishonesty is not.

• Edits are allowed at any time — all edits are logged and the review displays an “edited” indicator with a timestamp. Original versions are preserved in the audit trail.

• Deletion is allowed at any time — reviews are permanently removed after a 30-day grace period following deletion.

3. Verification Requirements

Every review on PollenGrains requires proof of purchase. We support multiple verification methods to accommodate all business types, from online stores to physical locations. Each method produces a distinct verification badge displayed alongside the review.

4. Prohibited Content

1. 1

   Fake or Fraudulent Reviews

   Reviews not based on a genuine customer experience. This includes reviews written by the business itself, by competitors, or by individuals who never purchased the product or service.

2. 2

   Spam

   Repetitive, promotional, or irrelevant content. This includes reviews that exist primarily to advertise another product, service, or website.

3. 3

   Harassment or Hate Speech

   Threats, personal attacks, or discriminatory language targeting individuals or groups based on race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or any other protected characteristic.

4. 4

   Personally Identifiable Information

   Exposing others' full names, home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, or financial details without their consent. Protect the privacy of individuals mentioned in your review.

5. 5

   Wrong Business

   Reviews posted to the wrong business profile. If you realize your review was left on the wrong page, delete it and resubmit it to the correct business.

6. 6

   Defamatory Content

   False statements of fact intended to harm a business's or individual's reputation. Opinions and honest criticism are protected; fabricated claims are not.

7. 7

   Incentivized Reviews

   Reviews submitted in exchange for payment, discounts, free products, or other compensation. This is a violation of FTC regulations and will result in immediate review removal.

5. Business Responsibilities

Businesses on PollenGrains benefit from a verified, trustworthy review ecosystem. In return, they are expected to uphold these responsibilities to maintain the platform's integrity.

• Domain verification is required — businesses must verify ownership of their website domain (via DNS TXT record or HTML meta tag) before managing a business profile.

• Invitations to actual customers only — review invitations must be sent exclusively to individuals who have genuinely purchased your product or used your service.

• No incentives for positive-only reviews — offering discounts, gifts, or other compensation in exchange for positive reviews is a violation of FTC regulations and these guidelines.

• No selective invitations — businesses may not cherry-pick only satisfied customers for review invitations. If you invite customers, all eligible customers must have equal opportunity to review.

• Professional responses — public responses to reviews must be professional, factual, and constructive. Responses that threaten, intimidate, or harass reviewers will be removed.

• No suppression of legitimate feedback — businesses may not use reports, legal threats, or any other mechanism to remove genuine negative reviews. Disagreeing with a review's opinion is not grounds for removal.

• Proper team management — team members must be assigned appropriate roles (Admin, Manager, Support Agent) with proper permissions. Business owners are responsible for the actions of their team.

6. Moderation Process

PollenGrains uses a two-phase moderation system designed to be fast, fair, and structurally independent from business relationships. Every review passes through this process.

7. Appeals Process

We believe every moderation decision should be challengeable. If you disagree with a decision, you have the right to appeal. The appeals process is designed to ensure fairness through independent re-evaluation.

1. 1

   Notification — the reviewer or business receives a notification of the moderation decision, including the specific documented reasoning behind it.

2. 2

   Submit appeal — either party may submit an appeal within 30 days of the decision.

3. 3

   Provide context — the appeal includes the original review, the removal reason, and space for additional context or supporting evidence (such as additional receipts or screenshots).

4. 4

   Independent reassignment — the appeal is assigned to a different moderator who was not involved in the original decision. The original decision-maker never reviews their own appeal.

5. 5

   Fresh review — the new moderator reviews all evidence independently, without being influenced by the prior decision.

6. 6

   Decision — the moderator either upholds the removal (with explanation) or reverses it, restoring the review to its published state.

7. 7

   Final notification — both parties are notified of the appeal outcome. The decision is final — one appeal is permitted per review.

8. Badges & Recognition

PollenGrains recognizes active, helpful community members through a badge system. Badges are earned through genuine participation and are displayed on your public profile.

9. Consequences & Enforcement

Violations of these guidelines are enforced through a graduated escalation process. The severity and frequency of violations determine the appropriate consequence.

10. Reporting Content

Every user has the ability and responsibility to help maintain platform quality by reporting content that violates these guidelines. Here is how the reporting process works.

1. Click “Report Review” on any review you believe violates these guidelines.

2. 2

   Select the reason from predefined categories: Fake/Fraudulent, Spam, Harassment/Hate Speech, Personally Identifiable Information, Wrong Business, Defamatory Content, or Other.

3. 3

   Optionally provide additional explanation or evidence to support your report.

4. 4

   Submit your report. The review enters the moderation queue and will be evaluated according to our two-phase moderation process.

5. 5

   Both reviewers and business owners can report content. All reports are treated with equal priority regardless of the reporter's role or the business's plan.

6. 6

   Reports are reviewed within our standard moderation timeline. You will be notified of the outcome.

11. Updates & Contact

These guidelines are updated periodically to reflect evolving community needs, regulatory changes, and lessons learned from moderation decisions. We are committed to transparency in how we enforce these standards.

PollenGrains publishes quarterly transparency reports covering total reviews processed, removal rates by category, average moderation decision time, and appeal reversal rates. These reports are publicly available on our website so that users, businesses, and regulators can independently evaluate the fairness of our moderation practices.

When we make material changes to these guidelines, we will notify affected users via email and display a prominent notice on the platform at least 14 days before the changes take effect.