Frequently Asked Questions

Regarding Membership

Who are members of Eco Gathering? Can anyone join?

You and everyone can join the Members Community. All companies must be on the Path to Sustainability in some way (see green rating section).  It’s totally free, or you can upgrade to a paid listing and get access to exclusive site features – more info

How do I delete my Eco Gathering member account/profile?

To permanently delete your member account you must first log in. Then visit your profile page and click on the link at the bottom left of the page “delete”.  If you see your listing is unclaimed and don’t want it on our site email us here and request us to remove it.

I'm stuck, I can't login

If you are unsure of your username or password, reset your password using the email address you used to sign-up and instructions will be emailed to you. – Reset password

If you registered but never received the email to validate your account, you may have it resent, here. Please be sure to whitelist *@ecogathering.com

If you are certain you previously registered, know your username & password, and are unable to login it may be because:

  1. Your email address became invalid and your account was deleted.
  2. You did not login for more than 6 months and your account may have been deleted.
  3. If this is the case and you’ve written reviews that you want to re-claim, you will need to contact us to see if your account has been permanently removed.
  4. Otherwise: create a new account
Why is my location required to register for an account?

Your location is required because this is a geographical directory that uses locations to share places near your (the viewer) location with you and others searching for eco-conscious businesses and events that are interested in creating a sustainable environment.

Make sure after adding your address, click the BLUE “Set Address On Map” button. This places a pin in the map, otherwise, your location will show up incorrectly.

I have a home-based internet comany, can I not register my address?
Yes, but you are required to enter your city and state. Make sure after adding your address, click the BLUE “Set Address On Map” button. This places a pin in the map, otherwise, your location will show up incorrectly.
How does a listing get featured on the homepage?

Featured listings are a part of the paid membership. You can either be a Premium Member or an Eco Member, both of those will get your listing featured in the top two tiers on the homepage. Upgrade Now!

How can I get a Free Listing?

Free listings are done here.  Join

Owners and Managers

How do I add my business to Eco Gathering?

Easy, just visit here: and select a level by clicking that button. Once on the application page fill out the form and submit it. After submitting it you will be sent to PayPal to pay for your membership. You will then receive several emails for verification and approval please respond to them all.  If you chose a free listing then you will immediately receive an account verification email.  Once you’ve registered please visit your listing and add more details and promote your listing via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

What size images can I upload?
Uploading images:
1. You can use many different kinds of images on your listing, including your company logo, product images, and Ad images. Depending on how and where you want to use an image, it might be best to upload it in a certain size or format.

Eco Gathering supports the following image formats:

  • JPEG or JPG
  • PNG
  • GIF

Compression rates

To keep load times fast, Eco Gathering compresses images when they’re displayed on your online store. Compressing an image means reducing its file size to allow for faster page loading. With compression, more images can be stored in a given amount of disk or memory space. Additionally, the time required to access the images is greatly reduced. Compression might result in a change in image quality, depending on your image’s format, size, and original quality. Image quality levels after compression are as follows:

  • JPEG: Between 65 – 90 percent
  • PNG: 90 percent
  • GIF: no change in quality

Upload Limits

Image uploads to Eco Gathering have restrictions in terms of file size (measured in kilobytes). Megabytes are used to indicate how many millions of bytes of memory or disk space an image takes up.

Images uploaded can’t exceed either of the following limits:

  • 1200 x 600 px
  • 300 kilobytes
How do I deal with an unfair or negative review of my business?

Eco Gathering’s goal is to support businesses and restaurants worldwide and help to promote businesses like yours. We also have an unbiased obligation to our site users – to allow for a fair and democratic system for sharing their personal opinions and experiences.

Eco Gathering is legally protected against claims regarding content written by participants. A United States Federal law called the Communications Decency Act (“CDA”) does not allow direct action against sites such as Eco Gathering for the comments of third parties.

Eco Gathering and our reviewers/participants are also legally protected by SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) which grants every person petition and free speech rights to speak freely on public issues and issues of public interest and facilitates the recovery by SLAPP victims of their damages through a SLAPPback (malicious prosecution action) against the SLAPP filers and their attorneys after the underlying SLAPP has been dismissed.

Here’s what we recommend:
Get actively involved in the Eco Gathering community – primarily as an individual and also as someone managing your business’ reputation on the Eco Gathering website. Below is a useful list of DOs and DON’Ts for business owners, and we hope you’ll apply them, and let us know which works best.

First, the DON’Ts:

  1. DON’T review your own business anonymously or have your friends do that repeatedly (see below for alternatives).
  2. DON’T over-estimate the impact of a single negative review. It happens to even the best & most well-liked businesses. In fact, in speaking to Eco Gathering users, we’ve learned that negative reviews intermingled with favorable reviews often act to enhance the credibility of the positive reviews by illustrating the honesty and openness of the Eco Gathering environment. That said, if you see a trend of negative reviews, you may want to take this feedback and determine if there is a way to improve your business.
  3. DON’T lash out at the people who have written negative reviews about you. Tempting as that may be, we see that backfiring in some cases as the users/reviewers may up the ante and even engage in “vigilante justice” by spreading more negativity (see below for alternative).

Now, the DOs:

  1. DO register yourself on Eco Gathering, as an individual or as a business owner, and engage with the community by writing some reviews, upload an avatar, etc…). Even as a business owner/manager, you are a real human being, and Eco Gathering is the right place to show that.
  2. DO add photos to your business page, and make sure your business information is correct. Click on the ‘UPDATE’ link if you want to make changes, and be sure to announce that you are the business owner when submitting the information.
  3. DO post a response to a negative review by logging in, then click the “Respond” link under the review.
  4. DO take the feedback to heart… but remember that each review is just one single opinion, and it’s the entire set of the Eco Gathering reviews together that really matters most.
  5. DO post an Eco Gathering banner on your own website with a link to Your Review Page. You can find banners for your business by clicking “link to this page” towards the top right of the review page for your business (under your phone number).

Finally, if an excessively negative review was written by a “GUEST” or a name that is not clickable from the review, we will have a look at the review to determine whether it qualifies as being “extremely unfair” or “excessively negative” – open a ticket. In the case that the review removal request meets the below guidelines, we will remove it:

  1. Review reflects personal differences between the reviewer and owner. Vulgar, vengeful, profane, attacking language. We strongly insist that customers and owners settle all fights, arguments, and disagreements elsewhere and NOT on the Eco Gathering website.
  2. Overly detrimental to a business. Slanderous, extremely negative remarks without explanation or justification.
  3. Excessively negative comments without explanation and not offering suggestions of constructive steps a business might take to improve and/or not fully explaining reasons.
  4. Unacceptable content, please refer to Terms of Use.

If your request of removal does not meet the above guideline, no action will be taken.

I don't want my business listed, can I get removed from Eco Gathering?
If your business has ceased to operate, just send an update and we’ll mark it closed. Eco Gathering publishes business listing information so that consumers can share their experiences about local businesses, and because the information is typically a matter of public record and public concern. Therefore we don’t remove such information from the site.

While we understand that some business owners might prefer not to publicize their business for whatever reason, it’s important (and a legal right) for consumers to be able to find and share helpful information about businesses.

If you need to update or change the information on your listing, please submit any changes by clicking the “Edit” button at the bottom of your listing’s page.

Regarding Reviews

How does the leaves rating system works?

Leaves DescriptionAssign (1 – 5) Green Leaves based on the transparency of the following:

🍃 Reduce – the amount of general waste created
🍃 Reuse or Repurpose – choose sustainable alternatives or redesign to be used again
🍃 Recycle – bins separated properly (glass, plastic, metal, and paper)
🍃 Refuse – limiting single-use plastic and the amount of items that go to the landfill
🍃 Compost – system in place for biodegradable waste such as food scraps

 

Why was My Review Removed?

There are a number of reasons why a review gets removed:
1. The review was never posted. Reviews are posted immediately once you write them. If your review did not appear it could be that you had internet connection trouble on hitting the submit button. You should always see the message “Thanks, your review has been added to:” immediately after you hit “Submit Review”. If you took more than 45 minutes to write it, it’s also possible that your session “timed out” and you were logged out (we do this for security reasons).

2. The business owner read it, has begun to make corrections/changes, and requested for it to be removed.
Eco Gathering investigates all requests by business owners asking for excessively negative or damaging reviews to be removed — these may include reviews that are intentionally damaging to a business or reflecting personal differences between the reviewer and owner. Such kinds of reviews will be removed. Please note that Eco Gathering is not a website for venting your personal conflicts, differences, attacks, and issues with a business or management. Please consider settling your fights, arguments, and disagreements with the business elsewhere. We are not here to take sides.

3. Review was written a long time ago, anonymously. If you had left a review(s) as a “GUEST,” we have no way to contact you to investigate the story behind your review. In such a case, a request for removal by the owner will be based solely on Eco Gathering staff discretion. To deal directly with the owner (or people in disagreement), please create a member profile for yourself so that members (including owners who join) can leave messages for you. Your identity and email are kept private unless you choose otherwise. If you are making strong statements we highly advise you to use your real identity and link your Eco Gathering account to your Facebook account.

4. The review is putting down a business solely to promote another business.

5. The review contains descriptions or claims that should be reported to the business owner and/or local health department and are potentially “legal slander” to the business in question. For instance, “I got food poisoning here“. Contact your state or local Health Department. Phone numbers may be found in your local phone directory. Or, “This place is run by a cult!”- not appropriate to be posted on Eco Gathering.

6. It did not include a review of the food, atmosphere, dining experience, or products, just ranting/complaining about something else.

7. The review expressed negativity without any story to back it. When a review is overly simplistic, bad-mouths a business without explaining clearly in detail what happened and why one disliked that particular restaurant or store, we reserve the right to remove it.

8. Use of negative language. At Eco Gathering, our mission is to provide a central hub where eco-savvy shoppers and community members can find and engage with small businesses, independent startups, and entrepreneurs. Negative comments can be made in different ways. A remark like, “I hated the pumpkin soup as it was totally tasteless,” is acceptable, while, “The guy making the soup is a stupid idiot who has no taste and he should get out of the restaurant business!” is unacceptable and will be removed, as would: “THESE PEOPLE ARE EVIL, PLEASE HELP ME SHUT DOWN THIS BUSINESS!!!” or “please i’m begging you, do not go to this place”. Negative remarks can be used as constructive criticism when viewed by owners, but excessively negative remarks can also dissuade potential customers from visiting due to one person’s isolated experience. We all have different standards. We feel that if an owner has read and taken note of a user review and personally asked us for it to be removed, then it has served a purpose and made a difference. If nothing has changed over time, we want to hear about it and wish for you to contact us.

9. Multiple reviews posted by same user/IP saying basically the same thing (positive or negative) we will delete all but the last.
10. You posted on one negative review, which was unsubstantiated or abusive, and never logged in again.

11. The review was posted long ago (more than 1 year) and since then things have changed, been corrected, or maybe there is new ownership, etc… We feel it is important to keep all existing reviews current.

12. The business has closed/shut down.

13. Profanity of any kind used.

14. The review looked like spam or was incomprehensible gibberish.

15. Review was written in a language entirely other than English.

16. The review got lost. Although we keep back-ups of our website frequently, occasionally data gets lost. If you feel that this might be the case with your post, we apologize. Please consider re-posting.

17. Unacceptable content, or any other possibility, please refer to our code of conduct, and please feel free to contact us.

PLEASE NOTE THAT REVIEW REMOVALS INVOLVE MANY FACTORS AND ARE NOT PERSONAL. ECO GATHERING WANTS TO HELP BOTH YOU AND THE BUSINESS OWNERS, BUT WE CANNOT PLEASE EVERYONE ALL OF THE TIME.

WHO WE ARE: A GATHERING OF ECO-CONSCIOUS BUSINESSES, ENTREPRENEURS, AND CONSUMERS WORKING TOWARDS A COMMON GOAL: CREATING A SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT.

OUR MISSION IS TO PROVIDE A CENTRAL HUB WHERE ECO-SAVVY SHOPPERS AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS CAN FIND AND ENGAGE WITH SMALL BUSINESSES, INDEPENDENT STARTUPS, AND ENTREPRENEURS.