Terms of use

The short version

Use the site and these terms apply to you. Read them, because they are not long. If you do not agree with them, the answer is straightforward: do not use the site.

Everywhere below, “I” and “me” mean the publisher of Richmond Local at richmondlocal.ca, and “you” means anyone reading it or sending me something through it.

What this site is

Richmond Local is an independent directory of businesses in Richmond, BC, along with the guides and articles I write about the area. I live here. The site is not affiliated with any level of government, any business association, or any of the businesses listed on it.

A listing is not an endorsement, a certification, or a guarantee of anything at all. Where I do recommend something in an article, that is one person's opinion, written as an opinion, and you are welcome to disagree with it.

Accuracy, and its limits

I check listings by hand and I fix them when somebody tells me they are wrong. I still cannot promise that every detail is current. Businesses change their hours, move, change owners and close, usually without telling a directory first.

The practical version of the legal position is this: phone ahead before you drive across town. The site is provided as it is, with no warranty that the information on it is complete, current, or fit for a particular purpose. What you decide on the strength of a listing is your decision.

Getting listed

Listings are free. There is no fee, no subscription and no paid placement, and money is not a route to a better position, because there is nothing to pay.

I decide what gets listed. I read every submission, and I may decline one, edit it for length and house style, file it under a different category than the one you asked for, or take it down later. I do not have to give a reason, though I usually will if you ask. Some categories fall outside what this directory covers, and a submission in one of those gets declined.

Sending a business through the listing form is a request, not a booking. Nothing goes live until I have looked at it.

Claiming a listing

If a business is yours, you can claim its page and ask me to correct it. Claiming means you are telling me you are the owner or an authorised representative, and I take that at face value while reserving the right to check.

A claim does not hand the page over to you. I keep publishing it, and I may keep publishing accurate factual information about the business, including information you would rather I left out, so long as it is true and lawfully obtained. Claiming does not give you editorial control over an article that mentions the business either.

What you send me

When you send a listing, a claim, or a message, you are confirming that:

• the information is accurate as far as you know;
• you are entitled to send it, and sending it breaks nobody's rights;
• any photograph or text you supply is yours to give, or you have permission;
• it contains nothing unlawful, misleading, defamatory, or built to fool a search engine.

You keep ownership of what you send. You give me a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to publish it on this site and to edit it for length, spelling and house style. You can withdraw that licence by asking me to take the listing down.

Acceptable use

Do not:

• submit a business that does not exist, or one you have no connection to;
• use the forms for advertising, bulk mail, or anything automated;
• break into, overload, probe or interfere with the site or its server;
• impersonate somebody else, or claim a business that is not yours;
• send a review or a complaint about a competitor through the forms. This is a directory, not an arbitration service.

Copying and scraping

The listings on this site were assembled, checked and written by hand, and that compilation is the work. You may read it, link to it, quote a reasonable extract with credit, and share individual pages.

You may not systematically copy the directory, in whole or in substantial part, by any means. That covers crawlers, scrapers, headless browsers, data-extraction services and anything else that harvests listings for a database, a mailing list, an app, or a rival directory. Search engines indexing the site in the normal way are welcome, and this paragraph is not aimed at them.

Who owns what

The site design, the written guides, the editorial descriptions, the images produced for the site, and the arrangement of the directory belong to me. Business names, logos and trade marks belong to the businesses they identify. They appear here to identify those businesses, which is ordinary descriptive use, and it implies no association.

Other people’s websites

Listings link out to business websites, booking systems, maps and social profiles. Those are not mine. I do not control them, I do not recheck them continuously, and I am not responsible for what they contain or for what happens once you are on one.

Not professional advice

Nothing on this site is legal, medical, financial or other professional advice. A guide to where to eat is a guide to where to eat. If you need advice, get it from somebody qualified to give it to you.

Liability

To the extent the law allows, I am not liable for loss or damage arising from your use of this site, or from anything you did or did not do on the strength of information found here. That includes a business turning out to be closed, keeping different hours than the listing says, or being wrong for what you wanted.

Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, and nothing in them affects your rights under British Columbia consumer protection legislation.

Removing content

I can remove a listing, decline a submission, or block access to the site from a particular source at any time, and I will where these terms have been broken. If you are the subject of a listing and you want it gone, ask. It comes down, and I do not require a reason.

Changes to these terms

These terms get updated as the site changes. The effective date at the top always reflects the current version, and carrying on using the site after a change means the new version applies to you.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of British Columbia and by the federal laws of Canada that apply in it. The courts of British Columbia have jurisdiction over any dispute arising from them.

How to reach me

Questions about these terms, takedown requests and corrections all go to the same place. Use the contact form. How personal information is handled is set out separately in the privacy policy.