Moderation policy
This covers what businesses submit about themselves. For reviews written by families, see the review policy.
What can be submitted today
One thing: corrections to a listing, made by claiming it. An operator can fix a phone number, add a website, tell us whether they are accepting residents, and describe what else we have wrong. Nothing they send changes a public page until a person has read it.
Events, job postings and articles are planned and not built. When they open, they will pass through the same queue and the same rules.
What we will not publish
- Claims about care quality we cannot check
- “Award-winning”, “the best memory care in San Jose”, “rated number one”. If it has a source we can link, it can stay. If it does not, it reads as fact and is not one.
- Medical or clinical claims
- A residential care facility is a non-medical setting under its license. Copy implying nursing or medical treatment misrepresents what the license permits, so we do not publish it whoever asks.
- Edits to the state record
- License number, status, capacity, inspection history and the licensee come from the California Department of Social Services and are not editable by the business. If the state record is wrong, it has to be corrected with the state.
- Urgency that is not real
- “Only two rooms left”, “prices rising next month”. We do not publish scarcity we cannot verify, and we would not publish it on our own behalf either.
- Anything about a competitor
- A listing describes its own business. It is not a place to characterize another one.
Common questions
Who decides?
A person. There is no automated approval — every correction submitted through a claim is read before it changes a public page, and AI-drafted description text is edited by a human before publication rather than after.
Does paying change what gets approved?
No. Featured placement is the only thing a business can buy here and it buys a labeled slot, not editorial latitude. The same rules apply to a paying business and to one that has never spoken to us.
Can I submit a business that is not listed?
Not yet — there is no self-submission form. Listings are built from the state license record, so licensed facilities appear whether or not anyone asks. Other categories, like home care and elder law, are still being sourced.
If we get it wrong
Tell us and we will look again. Write to tom@southbayseniorguide.com. We would rather argue about a decision than quietly leave something wrong on a page families are using to choose care.