General

What is OurFaves?

It's a living, breathing snapshot of the best places in the city according to you, seasoned experts, your friends, and a whole extended network of people who love sharing their insider tips. Just real reviews from real people in real time. On OurFaves, you can explore different categories, neighbourhoods, and social groups in your quest for the very best.

Is OurFaves free?

Yes. All the features of OurFaves are available for your use without charge.

What can I do on OurFaves?

OurFaves lets you discover the places and things in your city that have people talking. You can join the conversation by rating, reviewing, and recommending places you love – or don’t love – in your community and beyond. Get creative, add a profile and share reviews of your own, join a group (or two, or three) and get to know other like-minded reviewers, or enjoy exploring the place where you live through the eyes of other people who have a passion for finding the best.

Why Review?
Is OurFaves only in Toronto?

Toronto was the first to get the fave treatment, but other cities have now joined in the fun! OurFaves has expanded nation-wide to Montreal and Vancouver communities.

How can I contact OurFaves?

We'd love to hear from you. If you have comments, suggestions, or questions, please submit them through the "Feedback" button on the site, or contact us at info@ourfaves.com.

Creating Reviews

How do I create a review?
Creating a review is a piece of cake:

Find a place. Rate it. Add your favourite things. Review it. For a little pizzazz, add a photo. A picture really helps tell the story of the place you want to recommend.

What should I be reviewing on OurFaves?

OurFaves is really new and improved word of mouth, so if you just had the best meal of your life, found a great new boutique, or discovered a gem of a late night diner, don’t keep it to yourself – create a review! You can write reviews about places worth avoiding, too. The only limitation is that you can only review places that have a valid, mappable address and are accessible to the public. So Grandma’s house won’t do. But any place you can take Grandma to brunch, lunch, shop, karaoke, and eat late-night ramen noodles is fair game. So get out there, explore your neighourhood, explore your city, and report back on the results! People can’t wait to hear what you have to say.

What makes a great review?

Write about the places you really want to recommend – or not recommend - that you wouldn’t hesitate telling a friend. Write a description that gives people a sense of why this is place is worth talking about, or share an insider tip or some special info if you have it. Make it long and entertaining, or short and snappy. And, for a really outstanding review, include a photo. You can also let someone else know you found his or her review helpful by answering “Yes” to “Was this helpful?” at the bottom of every review. You’ll know you’re on to something good when you start to see the number of votes from users who have found your reviews useful, which is tallied and displayed on the right side of your profile page.

Who can see me and my reviews?

If you create a profile and/or reviews, they are viewable by all visitors to OurFaves.com. You’ll be contributing to an interactive, real-time guide to what’s the best in the city, and joining an online community of people who will have access to the information you share.

How do I edit my reviews?

You can edit, delete, or add a photo to the reviews you’ve made by returning to your personal page and clicking “Edit Review” at the bottom of your review.

Can I review a business I'm connected to?

Absolutely! But it’s important to be transparent about your connection. Let people know you’re involved – you’ll be seen as a more objective reviewer, and it will allow people to assess your comments with your connection in mind, and that’s important.

Profile and Account Information

Why should I build a profile?

Not only does your complete profile give you a face in the OurFaves community, it helps OurFaves be the most useful city guide it can be – by helping people whose interests and preferences are similar to yours easily find their way to your great reviews. By joining up to three of OurFaves’ seven social groups, and by indicating where you live in the city, you can always let people know the kind of content and places that most interest you. You, in turn, can find your most trusted sources by checking out other users’ profiles.

How do I update my profile?

You can always access your personal profile page by clicking on your name in the upper right corner of every page. When on your page, click on the link "Edit" beside your name in the navigation path. You can use the buttons to edit your personal info, personal blurb, photos, password, etc.

What does following mean, and how can I follow someone?
OurFaves lets you keep tabs on like-minded folks by allowing you to follow, and be followed by, other users. Your followers are people who have taken an interest in what you have to say and have chosen to follow your profile and reviews. Following people is like bookmarking their profile page. You can follow people by clicking on the “Follow” button on the right side of a user’s profile page. You can follow someone without him or her following you, and vice versa.

What are groups?

There are seven OurFaves ‘tribal’ groups that capture different user interests. A group page features places that have been deemed ‘good for’ this group by other users during the review process. For example, a new yoga centre could be considered ‘good for’ the Fit & Healthy group by a user, and subsequently this listing will live on the Fit & Healthy group page. Group pages also feature local experts in that particular field, as well as other group members. The group pages are a way to view content directly related to your interests.

Why should I join groups?

Because everyone’s doing it! By joining a group you join a community of people who share similar values and who are in search of the same type of places and things. When you fill out your profile information, you can indicate to which group, or groups, you’d like to belong. You can belong to up to three groups. Once you join, the reviews you create start to feed into your group’s most recent information and suddenly your content becomes that much more contextual and powerful.

I’m a member of multiple groups. Why does only one show under my name?

Choose wisely! You can join up to three groups, but keep in mind that your first group is the one that will display underneath your name when you perform activity on the site. It’s like your ‘default group.’ This provides other users with a little more information about who you are. You can’t switch your default group every time you write a new review, but you can change it by clicking on the “Edit” link on your profile page.

What are the differences between a helpful, knowledgeable and expert user?

On OurFaves, no great review goes unnoticed. We have three designated user levels on the site: Helpful, Knowledgeable, and Expert. A Helpful user is relatively new to the site, has filled out his or her profile, has uploaded a user photo, and has created at least five reviews. A Knowledgeable user has created more than five great reviews, a significant portion of which have been deemed ‘useful’ by other users. Expert status is reserved for local writers and professional experts who serve as special ambassadors to different groups and niche areas. You can apply to become a part of OurFaves’ expert program by emailing admin@ourfaves.com, and outlining your area(s) of expertise. User-level status is not generated automatically but is rather granted by the OurFaves editorial team.

Why don’t I have a user status?

Don’t fret - everyone starts off sans status. You will achieve a Helpful user status once you create five reviews on OurFaves and have uploaded a snazzy profile picture. If you’re feeling a bit bare, get started on becoming a status symbol and start adding your reviews!

How do I change my e-mail address?

This feature will be coming soon, but in the meantime, if you need to change your e-mail address, please send an e-mail to admin@ourfaves.com.

Why do you need to verify my e-mail address?

We need to make sure that the e-mail address you provided is both valid and belongs to you.

I have forgotten my password, what do I do?

If you have forgotten your password, you can reset it by clicking the "Forgot your username or password?" link on the sign in page.

How do I change my password?

To change your password, click the "Edit" link on your profile, which appears beside your name in the navigation path. Then scroll down to “Reset Password."

Can I write reviews under multiple accounts?

We like to think one account is enough. Choose one identity and roll with it.

How do I cancel my OurFaves membership?

To cancel your membership, please send an e-mail to admin@ourfaves.com, with “Cancel Membership” in the subject line.

Tags

What are tags?
Tags are simply keywords assigned to a piece of information, allowing that information to be easily categorized and linked to other related information.

When you create a review, you can indicate your favourite things about that particular place. In some cases, a list of favourite things that other people have chosen will already exist – and you can add those as your own – and/or you can enter in an entirely new thing you love about that place. For example, you might add a tag for “soup” or “great brunch” to a restaurant you want to review. The tags will live on the place page and will also be attached to your own review. These tags allow links to be made between items that share any one of these characteristics. Since most items will have multiple tags assigned to them, this type of classification allows for multiple and very specific ways of filtering and browsing information.

Privacy and Reporting Inappropriate Content

What does OurFaves do with my personal information?
We take privacy very seriously. We do not sell, rent, share, trade or give away any of your personal information, unless required to by law. We hate Spam even more than you do.

If any of our members are found to have violated our Terms of Use by sending unsolicited commercial messages to other OurFaves members, we will investigate and take action immediately. If you receive Spam from another OurFaves member, or if you receive a message that contains a violation of our Terms of Use, please forward the message to admin@ourfaves.com.

What do I do if I find something on OurFaves inappropriate?

If you receive a message that is harassing, abusive, or contains a violation of our Terms of Use, please forward the message to admin@ourfaves.com.

Do you monitor the site?

We do our best to keep up with all the activity on the site, but if you notice something that you think needs our attention, use the “report an error” function to notify us of inappropriate fave content, or send us an e-mail at info@ourfaves.com.