Community & Review Guidelines

Last updated: September 2, 2026

SWFL Trade Circle connects local businesses, trade professionals, property owners, and community members across Southwest Florida.

Help us keep the community useful, respectful, and trustworthy. These guidelines apply to business listings, project postings, profiles, reviews, groups, activity posts, comments, and messages. They supplement our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

1. Be Respectful

Treat others professionally, even when you disagree.

We do not allow:

• Threats, harassment, stalking, intimidation, or bullying.
• Hateful content or attacks based on personal characteristics such as race, religion, disability, sex, or national origin.
• Sexual exploitation, explicit sexual content, or graphic material unrelated to legitimate business discussion.
• Sharing someone’s private information to embarrass, threaten, or harm them.
• Repeated unwanted contact after someone has asked you to stop.

Disagreements and honest criticism are welcome. Personal attacks and threats are not.

2. Represent Yourself Honestly

Use accurate information about yourself, your business, and your role.

Do not impersonate another person, business, customer, employee, or website administrator. Only create or manage a business listing if you own the business or have permission to represent it.

Do not exaggerate or invent licenses, insurance coverage, certifications, professional affiliations, or experience. Claims about qualifications must be truthful and supportable.

Account approval or listing publication does not mean SWFL Trade Circle has verified or endorsed a person or business.

3. Keep Listings Accurate and Useful

Business listings should help visitors understand what a business does and how to contact it.

Please:

• Use the business’s actual name.
• Select relevant business categories and service areas.
• Keep contact details and descriptions current.
• Describe services clearly and accurately.
• Use photographs and logos you own or have permission to use.
• Update information when services, availability, or contact details change.

Do not create misleading duplicate listings, fill descriptions with unrelated keywords, or advertise unlawful services.

4. Post Genuine Projects

Project postings should describe a real need or opportunity that you are authorized to post.

Include clear information about the work, general location, budget when appropriate, and desired schedule. Update or remove a posting when the opportunity is no longer available.

Do not use project postings to collect contact information, advertise unrelated services, solicit upfront payments deceptively, or mislead professionals.

For your safety, do not publish access codes, alarm details, banking information, or information showing when a property will be unoccupied.

Posting or responding to a project does not guarantee a job or create an agreement with SWFL Trade Circle. The parties are responsible for agreeing on scope, price, payment, and other terms.

5. Write Reviews Based on Real Experiences

Reviews help people make informed decisions. You must have an account to submit a review, but published reviews may be read by anyone.

A review must reflect your own genuine experience with the business.

Helpful reviews explain:

• What service you requested or received.
• How the business communicated.
• Whether timing and expectations were met.
• What went well or what could have been better.
• How the business handled a problem, if one occurred.

Be specific, relevant, and fair. Distinguish your opinions from factual claims, and make factual statements accurately to the best of your knowledge.

An experience may include requesting an estimate or communicating with a business, even if you did not hire it. Make that clear rather than implying completed work.

Do not include private addresses, personal phone numbers, financial details, or other sensitive information in a review.

6. No Fake Reviews or Rating Manipulation

We do not allow:

• Reviews describing experiences that did not happen.
• Reviews written by someone pretending to be a customer.
• Business owners or employees reviewing their own business as independent customers.
• Reviews posted on behalf of someone else.
• Multiple accounts or duplicate reviews used to influence a rating.
• Reviews intended to damage a competitor rather than describe a genuine customer experience.
• Buying, selling, or trading reviews.
• Offering or accepting rewards conditioned on a positive or negative rating.
• Threatening a bad review to demand money, free work, or another benefit.

Disclose any relationship or incentive that could affect how readers evaluate your review. Disclosure does not make a fake review or another prohibited practice acceptable.

Writing tools may help you express a real experience, but they must not invent experiences, facts, or identities.

7. Honest Negative Reviews Are Allowed

You may share an honest negative experience or disagree with a business.

We do not remove a review merely because:

• It gives a low rating.
• A business disagrees with it.
• It criticizes service, communication, pricing, or workmanship.
• A business requests removal to improve its reputation.

Positive and negative reviews are subject to the same standards.

A review may still be removed or restricted if it violates these guidelines—for example, by including threats, private information, fabricated experiences, or unrelated spam.

Reporting a review does not guarantee its removal. We may request clarification or supporting information when reviewing a complaint. Do not post sensitive supporting documents publicly.

8. Business Responses Should Be Professional

Businesses may respond to reviews where that feature is available.

A constructive response acknowledges the concern, provides relevant context, and offers a reasonable way to discuss a resolution.

Do not:

• Threaten, harass, or retaliate against a reviewer.
• Reveal confidential customer information.
• Pretend to be an independent customer.
• Use unfounded legal threats to suppress honest criticism.
• Condition a refund or resolution on a favorable review.

You may invite customers to leave honest feedback, without requiring a particular rating or discouraging negative experiences from being shared.

9. Use Groups and Community Posts Appropriately

Keep posts relevant to the group or discussion.

Useful contributions include professional questions, local opportunities, trade knowledge, project coordination, and business updates permitted by the group’s rules.

Avoid repetitive advertising, excessive self-promotion, unrelated links, and posting the same content across multiple groups.

Group administrators may set additional rules consistent with these guidelines. They do not speak for SWFL Trade Circle unless explicitly authorized.

Respect the intended audience of a group. Do not assume that a restricted group guarantees confidentiality or prevents other members from copying content.

10. Send Relevant, Respectful Messages

Contact businesses and members for legitimate reasons related to their listings, projects, or community participation.

Do not send:

• Bulk or repeated unsolicited promotions.
• Phishing links, scams, or deceptive offers.
• Requests for passwords, verification codes, or sensitive financial information.
• Harassing, threatening, or sexually inappropriate messages.

A publicly displayed phone number or an email address visible to members is not blanket permission to send marketing messages.

Do not collect, sell, redistribute, or compile member contact details into mailing lists. Do not bypass the restriction on business email addresses that are visible only to logged-in users.

11. Protect Privacy

Only share personal information you have permission to publish.

Business listings, reviews, public profiles, projects, and public community posts may be visible to visitors and search engines. Think carefully before including a home address, personal contact details, or information identifying a customer.

Do not publish another person’s private messages or confidential documents without authorization.

The designated business email field may be restricted to logged-in users. An email address placed in a public description, image, review, or post will not receive that protection.

See our Privacy Policy for more information.

12. Upload Appropriate Images and Files

Upload only materials you own or have permission to use.

Do not present stock photographs, another company’s work, or altered images as examples of your own completed work. Clearly identify illustrative images when needed to avoid misleading viewers.

Obtain appropriate permission before posting identifiable people, customer properties, or private interiors.

Follow the image dimensions, file types, and size limits shown beside upload fields. Do not upload malicious files or use uploads to evade these guidelines.

13. Keep Business Activity Lawful and Safe

Do not use the community to promote fraud, unlawful work, discriminatory practices, or unsafe conduct.

Do not coordinate price-fixing, bid-rigging, or agreements to improperly divide customers or territories.

Verify licenses, insurance, references, and written agreements before hiring or paying someone. Ratings, badges, and membership are not guarantees of quality or reliability.

SWFL Trade Circle is not an emergency service. Contact emergency services or the appropriate authorities if someone is in immediate danger.

14. Report Problems

Use the report feature where available, or email info@swfltradecircle.com.

Please include:

• A link to the listing, review, profile, or content.
• A brief explanation of the concern.
• Relevant dates or details.
• Supporting screenshots, if appropriate.

Avoid sending unnecessary sensitive information. Never send passwords or financial account credentials.

Do not submit knowingly false reports or organize abusive reporting campaigns against another user.

15. How Moderation Works

We may review reports and take action based on the content, context, available information, and seriousness of the issue.

Actions may include:

• Requesting clarification or a correction.
• Issuing a warning.
• Removing or restricting content.
• Temporarily limiting account features.
• Suspending or closing an account.

Serious violations may result in immediate action without a prior warning. Repeated violations may lead to stronger restrictions.

Not every submission is reviewed before publication. We do not guarantee that we will identify every violation or resolve every report within a specific time.

We may remove content that violates our rules without deciding who is legally right in an underlying dispute. We are not a court, licensing board, or dispute-resolution service.

16. Requesting a Review of a Decision

If you believe we made a moderation error, email info@swfltradecircle.com.

Identify the affected content or account, explain why you believe the decision should be reconsidered, and provide relevant information.

We will consider requests based on the information available. Repeated abusive messages or attempts to evade a restriction may lead to additional action.

17. Updates and Contact

We may update these guidelines as the community develops. The latest version will appear on this page with an updated date.

For questions or reports, contact:

SWFL Trade Circle
Email: info@swfltradecircle.com
Website: https://swfltradecircle.com

Thank you for helping build a useful, respectful community for Southwest Florida.