What is prohibited
No business may use Hazelsong to publish, or to collect for publication, a fake review or testimonial. That includes one:
- written by somebody who did not have the experience it describes, or that misrepresents what their experience was;
- written by the business itself, its owners, officers or staff, or somebody acting for them, and presented as a customer's;
- bought, commissioned or exchanged for anything, unless the reward is disclosed with it, as below;
- copied from somebody else, or imported without the permission the import asks the business to state;
- presented, alone or with others, as every review the business received, when the business chose which to publish.
The Terms of Service say the same, and a business that breaks them may lose its pages.
Rewards for writing
A business may offer something for writing a testimonial only if it is offered the same way to everybody who writes: Hazelsong decides the reward when the testimonial is sent, before any person at the business has seen it, and never from its stars, its score, what it says, what the risk reading found, or whether it will be published. Every copy of a testimonial written for a reward says “Written for a reward”, with what it was where that was recorded, wherever Hazelsong publishes it — the widget, every hosted wall, the record page and the API. There is no setting that removes it. A testimonial written for a reward is never offered a link to post it on a review site, because those sites do not allow it.
Reviews from the business's own team
When a testimonial arrives from an address at the business's own domain — the domain of the owner's address or of the project's website — Hazelsong does not publish it until the business confirms that the writer is a customer and not on its team. A review by the business's own staff cannot be published through Hazelsong at all. Automatic moderation never approves one.
Results
When the risk reading finds that a testimonial states a result in a way a reader could take as what the business achieves for everyone, Hazelsong does not publish it until the business adds, in its own words, what results customers can generally expect. That line is shown with the testimonial wherever it is published, labeled as the business's words, not the writer's. The risk reading reads typed words only, when the month's readings allow; a testimonial that was not read is said to be unread.
What is checked, and what is not
Before anything is public, Hazelsong checks three things: that its recorded permission (the writer's own sentence, or, for an import, the API or a feed, the business's statement that it has permission) allows the place it would appear, and it is served nowhere else; the risk reading of its typed words, when the month's AI readings allow, while a recording or a picture is never read by AI and anything not read says so; and that the business approved it, in person or through the automatic moderation it chose to switch on. Nothing is published before that approval.
Hazelsong does not verify that what a testimonial says is true, who wrote it, or that they bought anything, beyond what its record shows: how it arrived (the business's collection page, an import, the API or a feed), its permission and when it was given, whether a reward was attached, and whether a second person approved it. Publishing through it is not an endorsement of any testimonial.
The words are never edited. A business may publish a version with a part replaced by “[removed]”, and the reader is told. Each published testimonial links to its own record, on Hazelsong's address, saying how it was collected, who gave the permission, and whether a reward was attached. Each hosted wall says how the testimonials on it were collected, and that the business selected them.
Reporting a review
If you believe a testimonial shown through Hazelsong is fake, hides a reward, was written by the business's staff, or misuses your words, tell us at the content notice form or support@hazelsong.com. We read every notice, may ask for proportionate evidence, may restrict a page while we look into it, and tell the people concerned what we decided and why. Somebody who wrote a testimonial on a collection form can also withdraw it from their own link at any time.
What this policy is not
It is not a certificate that the reviews a business publishes are genuine, and it is not legal advice. The business is responsible for what it publishes and for its own obligations where it sells.