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Review Guidelines

Reviews are a place to share your thoughts and experiences with other customers, either positive or negative. By using Theo’s review feature, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy. The following guidelines explain what's allowed and not allowed. These guidelines also cover other community features including but not limited to; votes, lists, profile pages, and follows.

Community content is meant to help users learn about the Stories and Collections. While we definitely want to hear your feedback, reviews or community features may not be the right place to share it.

Comments about pricing or availability

If the comment is related to the content's value, it's OK to mention the price. For example, “This Story is really great for only $2.99.” Pricing comments related to an individual experience aren't allowed. For example, “Found this item here for $1.99 less than at another website or platform.”

These comments aren't allowed because they aren't relevant to all users. Some comments about availability are OK. For example, “I wish this book was also available in print.” However, we don't allow comments about availability at a specific website or location.

Content written in unsupported languages

We only allow content to be written in the languages supported on theoreads.com.

Repetitive text, spam, or pictures created with symbols

We don't allow contributions with distracting content and spam, including:

  • Repetitive text
  • Nonsense and gibberish
  • Content that's just punctuation and symbols
  • ASCII art (pictures created using symbols and letters)

Private information

Don't post content that invades privacy or shares your own personal information, including:

  • Phone number
  • Email address
  • Mailing address
  • License plate
  • Data source name (DSN)
  • Order number

Profanity or harassment

It's OK to question beliefs and expertise in a respectful manner. It’s not OK to use:

  • Profanity, obscenities, or name-calling
  • Harassment or threats
  • Attacks on people you disagree with
  • Libel, defamation, or inflammatory content
  • Drowning out opinions. It’s not OK to post from multiple accounts or coordinate with others.

Hate speech

Users are not allowed to promote organizations that hate speech. Users are also not allowed to express hatred for people based on characteristics like:

  • Race
  • Ethnicity
  • Nationality
  • Gender
  • Gender identity
  • Sexual orientation
  • Religion
  • Age
  • Disability

We allow links to other content on Theo, but not to external sites. Please don't post links to phishing or other malware sites. We don't allow URLs with referrer tags or affiliate codes.

Ads, conflicts of interest, promotional content

We don’t allow content if its main purpose is to promote a company, website, author, or special offer. We also don’t allow people to create, edit, or post content about their own products or services. The same goes for products and services offered by:

  • Friends
  • Relatives
  • Employers
  • Business associates
  • Competitors

We don't allow reviews written as a form of promotion. We remove reviews posted by someone with financial interest in the content, or any other conflict of interest. The following are types of reviews that are not allowed on Theo Reads,

  • A review by someone with a direct or indirect financial interest in the content.
  • A review by someone perceived to have a close personal relationship with the content’s author.
  • A review by the content’s author, posing as an unbiased reader.
  • Multiple negative reviews on the same content from one user.
  • A review in exchange for monetary reward or benefit.
  • A negative review on another author’s content, posing as an unbiased reader.
  • A positive review from an author in exchange for receiving a positive review from them.

Compensated reviews

Reviews should reflect your honest opinion. We don’t allow reviews that are created, edited, or removed in exchange for compensation. Compensation includes cash, discounts, free content, gift cards, and refunds. Some common examples of what’s not allowed:

  • After leaving a negative review, you will receive an email or other communication offering a refund if you change or remove the review.
  • You receive a text message or other communication promising full reimbursement for buying content and posting a review about it.

Plagiarism, infringement, or impersonation

Only post your own content or content that you have permission to use on Theo. This restriction includes text, images, and videos. You're not allowed to:

  • Post content that infringes on intellectual property (including copyrights, trademarks, patents, trade secrets) or other proprietary rights
  • Interact with other users in ways that infringe on intellectual property or proprietary rights
  • Impersonate someone or an organization

Illegal activities

Don't post content that encourages illegal activity like:

  • Violence
  • Illegal drug use
  • Underage drinking
  • Child or animal abuse
  • Fraud

We don't allow content that advocates or threatens physical or financial harm to yourself or others. This restriction includes terrorism, and jokes or sarcastic comments about causing harm.

It's also not allowed to offer fraudulent goods, services, promotions, or schemes (make money fast, pyramid).

You cannot encourage the dangerous misuse or re-enactment of a “scene” in an Story or Collection on Theo.


Consequences for violations

Violations of our guidelines make the Theo community less trustworthy, safe, and useful. If someone violates the guidelines, we may:

  • Remove their content
  • Limit their ability to use community features
  • Remove related content
  • Suspend or terminate their account
  • Withhold payments

If we find unusual reviewing behavior, we might limit the ability to submit reviews. If we reject or remove your review for guidelines violation, you won't be allowed to review that content again.

We might take legal action if someone violates state and federal laws, including the Federal Trade Commission Act. This action may result in civil and criminal penalties.


How to report violations

Use the Report link near the content that you want to report. You may also write to parneet@theoreads.com if someone offers you compensation to create, edit, or remove a review.