Reviews and hands-on testing will earn their place.
We do not publish user ratings or aggregate scores today. This policy sets the conditions required before review intake or display begins.
The review program starts with verification, not star ratings
This policy governs any future BusinessAdvisor.Guide review intake, moderation, and display.
Product facts in our catalog come from dated primary sources and are labeled separately from our own catalog assessments. They are not user reviews. Until we have an authentic, moderated pilot, no product page or comparison will show a user-review score, aggregate rating, or review schema.
Who can submit a review
A reviewer must describe their role, industry, company-size band, how long they have used the product, how often they use it, and the date they last used it. We will ask privately for reasonable proof of use, such as a redacted invoice, account evidence, or a work email tied to the customer organization. We will not publish that proof or use it as promotional material.
A reviewer may remain publicly anonymous, but anonymous submissions still require private verification. Employees, contractors, agencies, and other people with a material connection to a vendor must disclose that connection before moderation.
Moderation, fraud, and duplicates
Every submission will receive human review before publication. Moderators will check that the reviewer describes direct experience, that the product and use period are plausible, and that the review is not a duplicate, copied campaign message, or incentive-driven submission. We may request clarification, reject a submission, or remove a published review when verification fails or new information makes it misleading.
We will not sell placements, accept payment for a positive score, or allow affiliate compensation to influence whether a verified review is accepted, edited for clarity, ordered, or summarized. Commercial links remain outside review moderation and outside fit ranking.
We will not exchange money, gift cards, discounts, or preferential treatment for positive reviews. If a future study offers a permitted participation incentive, it must be disclosed beside the affected content and cannot depend on sentiment.
Corrections and vendor responses
Reviewers, vendors, and readers can request a correction by contacting us with the specific statement, supporting information, and desired correction. We will investigate material factual claims and append a correction note, edit for accuracy, or remove the review when warranted. We will not rewrite a reviewer's opinion merely because a vendor disputes it.
A vendor may submit one clearly labeled response to a published review. Responses must address the review's substance, avoid personal information and harassment, and cannot include incentives or pressure on the reviewer. We may decline or edit a response for safety, relevance, or policy compliance while preserving its meaning.
Hands-on testing is not a user rating
BusinessAdvisor.Guide hands-on testing, when published, will be labeled as our testing and kept separate from user reviews and ratings. A testing note will state the product version or environment, scenarios used, date of testing, tester role, limitations, and any vendor access or material relationship. A guided vendor demo is not hands-on testing unless we say so explicitly.
Testing observations do not change our structural rule: fit ranking uses only fit signals. Commercial or commission data is not an input to ranking, review moderation, or testing conclusions. Read the broader methodology for the ranking boundary.
Before ratings appear, we will publish a moderated pilot with contextual reviewer fields and private proof-of-use checks. Until then, an unknown review field stays unknown—not a score inferred from catalog facts or vendor claims.