Love of Gothic exists to help people discover the music, events, businesses, creators, books, films, and experiences that make our community special.
Reviews are an important part of that. They help people make informed decisions, support great creators, and share genuine experiences.
We welcome both positive and negative reviews. What matters is that they’re honest, respectful, and helpful.
Be Honest
Share your genuine experience.
Positive and negative reviews are equally welcome, provided they reflect your own experience and are written in good faith.
Please don’t write reviews for things you haven’t personally experienced.
Focus on the Experience
The most helpful reviews explain what happened and why you felt the way you did.
Consider including:
- What you enjoyed.
- What could have been better.
- Whether you’d recommend it.
- Who you think might enjoy it.
Specific, thoughtful reviews are far more valuable than simply leaving a star rating.
Be Respectful
Criticism is welcome.
Personal attacks are not.
Review the product, service, event, venue, creator, or experience, not the person behind it.
Avoid insults, abusive language, name calling, or harassment.
Stay Relevant
Keep your review focused on the listing you’re reviewing.
Reviews should not be used to discuss unrelated issues, personal disputes, political arguments, or grievances that have nothing to do with the experience.
No Hate Speech or Discrimination
Love of Gothic welcomes people from all backgrounds.
We do not allow reviews that promote or encourage hatred, violence, or discrimination against individuals or groups based on race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, disability, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other protected characteristic.
No Threats or Harassment
Do not threaten, intimidate, encourage harassment, or target individuals or organizations through reviews.
Reviews should never be used as a weapon.
No False or Misleading Information
Only include information you believe to be true.
Do not knowingly post false information, impersonate others, or make factual claims that you know are untrue.
Opinions are welcome.
Deliberately misleading statements are not.
Avoid Conflicts of Interest
Reviews should be independent.
Please do not review:
- Your own business, band, event, or listing.
- A business or creator you work for.
- A direct competitor.
- Friends or family members if your relationship could reasonably affect your objectivity.
If your connection creates a conflict of interest, it’s best not to leave a review.
No Review Fraud or Manipulation
Reviews should reflect genuine experiences.
Businesses, creators, and event organizers may encourage customers or attendees to leave reviews, provided they do not pressure people to leave only positive reviews or attempt to influence the content or rating of those reviews.
The following are not permitted:
- Offering rewards specifically for positive reviews.
- Asking someone to change or remove an honest review in exchange for compensation.
- Creating fake accounts to leave reviews.
- Posting reviews for experiences you did not have.
- Coordinating dishonest review campaigns to artificially inflate or damage ratings.
If a business chooses to offer an incentive for leaving a review, it should be available regardless of whether the review is positive, negative, or neutral.
Respect Privacy
Do not include private or confidential information in your review, including:
- Home addresses
- Phone numbers
- Email addresses
- Financial information
- Medical information
- Private conversations that were not intended for public sharing
Mark Spoilers Clearly
If your review contains significant plot details, major reveals, surprise endings, character deaths, or other information that could affect someone else’s enjoyment of the experience, please mark your review as containing spoilers.
Using the spoiler option allows other community members to decide whether they want to read those details before experiencing the book, film, television series, game, or event for themselves.
If you’re unsure whether something counts as a spoiler, it’s always better to mark your review than to accidentally spoil someone else’s experience.
Intentionally posting unmarked spoilers to ruin another person’s experience may result in moderation action.
Honest Negative Reviews Will Not Be Removed
Love of Gothic does not remove reviews simply because they are negative.
Constructive criticism is an important part of helping our community make informed decisions.
Businesses, creators, venues, promoters, and event organizers cannot request the removal of a review simply because they disagree with it or because it may affect their reputation.
Reviews will only be removed if they violate these Review Guidelines, our Community Guidelines, or our Terms of Use.
Reviews Reflect Personal Opinions
Reviews represent the opinions and experiences of individual community members.
They do not represent the views or opinions of Love of Gothic.
We do not moderate reviews based on whether we agree with the opinion being expressed.
Targeted Harassment and Review Campaigns
We want reviews to reflect genuine experiences, not personal vendettas.
We may investigate or remove reviews, or restrict accounts, when we reasonably believe someone is attempting to unfairly damage the reputation of a person, business, band, venue, creator, or event through abusive or coordinated behavior.
Examples include:
- Coordinated review campaigns.
- Multiple accounts posting substantially similar reviews.
- Encouraging others to leave negative reviews regardless of their own experience.
- Repeatedly targeting the same listing with bad faith reviews.
- Reviews that focus on attacking people rather than describing an experience.
A single strongly worded negative review is not, by itself, evidence of harassment. We consider the overall context and patterns of behavior when reviewing reported content.
Reporting Reviews Responsibly
The reporting feature exists to help us identify content that may violate our policies.
Please do not report a review simply because:
- You disagree with the review.
- The review is negative.
- The review may affect a business or creator’s reputation.
- You would have rated the experience differently.
Not every reported review will be removed. Our moderation team reviews each report individually against our published policies.
Abuse of the reporting system may result in the loss of reporting privileges, temporary account restrictions, suspension, or other moderation action. This includes repeatedly submitting reports that are knowingly false, frivolous, malicious, or intended to harass another user, business, creator, or organization.
Our Moderation Approach
Love of Gothic aims to build a trustworthy review system.
We will not remove reviews simply because someone disagrees with them.
We will remove reviews that violate our policies, including those containing harassment, hate speech, spam, conflicts of interest, false or misleading information, or abusive behavior.
Our goal is to create a community where honest experiences can be shared respectfully, allowing readers to make informed decisions while supporting the people and organizations that make gothic culture so vibrant.