YogaTrail Community Guidelines

Community

Welcome! YogaTrail members and visitors live in many different countries, speak many different languages, and have a wide range of interests, likes, and dislikes. But on YogaTrail, we all share a love for yoga – and our goal is to be a friendly website. There is one general rule for all the people coming onto the site: be kind and respectful to each other. To make sure that this is always the case, here are a few specific guidelines for using YogaTrail:

Account Rules

We are fairly strict in the enforcement of the following rules about user accounts on YogaTrail. Violating one of these rules will likely result in being blocked from using the site:

  • You must be at least 13 years old to be a member on YogaTrail;
  • Every person is limited to one account and one display name;
  • Creation of memberships to impersonate other members or YogaTrail staff is a no-no. Display names and reviews should not contain anything that would represent you as another member or as a representative of YogaTrail staff;
  • Adult language in avatars or usernames, nudity in avatars (or other photos) is not permitted;
  • Content may not be copied from other sites or other users, whether in the form of text or images. You must not post copyrighted material anywhere on YogaTrail (in your profile or in reviews);
  • Spam is strictly forbidden. Unsolicited promotional private messages are considered spam.

General Conduct

We expect all members of YogaTrail to be kind, play nice, and respect each other. Specifically, please make sure you don’t engage in the following:

  • Personal attacks: these are postings or messages which include racial, sexual, homophobic, ageist, sexist, religious, political, ethnic, or other epithets (such as against people with disabilities) that are directed against another member or yoga business, whether on our site or through the posting of off-site links. Other forms of attacks include accusations about the private behavior of another member, or challenges to another member's right to participate on our site;
  • Threats: any threats of legal action, violence, or other negative actions, whether via posts or messages sent to other members, will be taken very seriously;
  • Harassment: examples include sending messages to other members after having been asked to stop, or repeatedly linking to a post of another user or to offsite content from another user with the intent to insult or ridicule that user;
  • Hate speech: words, phrases, or images deemed by YogaTrail to express contempt towards a group of people, based on their ethnic, cultural, religious or sexual identity, gender, socio-economic class, or with reference to physical health or mental health;
  • Privacy violations: Users may not post the contents of private messages or personal information about other YogaTrail members that cannot be found on their profiles without their permission;
  • False or speculative claims about YogaTrail, our policies, and procedures are not tolerated.

Complaints are OK, but you are best served by complaining to us directly, by sending us a message.

Posting Reviews

A really good review includes not only brief answers to the standard questions about a particular listing, but also has detailed descriptions of what the teacher or venue was like, and why your ratings are what they are. The more you can say about a place or person, the more useful the review is likely to be for other people.

Please review only teachers and places you yourself have personal experience with. All reviews and posts must be truthful first-hand accounts. While your subjective opinions are very welcome, you shouldn’t exaggerate or misrepresent your experience. Libelous comments are not allowed – back your claims up with facts.

Kindly make sure your contributions are relevant and appropriate. For example, reviews should not be used to rant or rave about a business's employment practices, political ideologies, or other matters that aren’t part of the experience of someone taking a class or visiting a venue.

When creating reviews, please be kind and constructive, especially when they contain negative feedback. Perhaps do a bit of yogic introspection before beginning your review, and remember that you are talking publicly about somebody's livelihood. There is no place for vendettas on YogaTrail. If we suspect that your goal is to cause harm to a business or person that you feel has wronged you somehow, your review will be deleted.

Lastly, YogaTrail cannot accept HTML formatting, JavaScript, animated gifs or photo attachments in the body of a review. Reviews containing URLs will be deleted.

Reviews and posts which fall in any of the following categories are subject to removal. Violators may be blocked from the YogaTrail website:

  • Complaints about decisions made by YogaTrail and its moderators;
  • Calls for the boycott of any yoga business;
  • Social, political, or religious commentary that has no direct relevance to a yoga listing;
  • Self-promotion, advertisements, solicitation and SPAM;
  • Multiple messages containing identical or nearly identical text. This is also considered spam;
  • Posts that promote or seek advice on engaging in illegal activities;
  • Reviews with objectionable language and images;
  • Allegations of fake reviews or posts directed toward another member. To give us your feedback on a member, please contact us directly;
  • Reviews for a different yoga listing in our directory. Please review only the listing the review is meant for!

Guidelines for Yoga Professionals

Your reviews of other yoga venues should be unbiased and objective, and obviously there is a potential for a conflict of interest. For example, businesses and their employees should not write reviews about themselves, and must completely refrain from posting any critical comments about competitors. If you really feel compelled to participate in a discussion related to your yoga business or a competitor, you should clearly state your affiliation as a representative. People are entitled to this information to become aware of any potential bias in your comments.

Responding to reviews: people who practice yoga are generally very kind and friendly, and we hope that all your reviews are glowing endorsements. If you do receive a lukewarm or negative review, you can respond to it directly in the review section of your profile. Please do so with integrity. Keep in mind that the people reading the review will be very interested in your (level-headed) response.

Sometimes, private messaging is the best way to resolve a dispute with an unhappy customer. Don't use public comments to launch personal attacks, or offer a “bribe” or other incentive to a member to change a review.

If you see anything on the site that does not seem quite right, please let us know. We appreciate your help in making this a welcoming place and a useful tool for us all!

We hope you enjoy the site!