Community Guidelines

Seen & Stamped is a travel guide made by and for ethnically diverse travellers, and it’s open to everyone. Every stamp and collection is read by a person before it goes live. These guidelines explain what we’re looking for and what we’ll turn down.

What makes a good stamp

• You’ve been there. Share places you’ve visited yourself, not places you’ve only heard about.
• It helps someone decide. Say how you were treated, what stood out, and anything you wish you’d known before going.
• It’s specific. Name the place, the city and the country, and add a map link that points to the exact spot.
• The tags fit. Pick every tag that describes your experience, such as Welcoming, Halal food or Afro hair care. Only choose tags you can stand behind.
• The verdict is honest. Must go, Worth it, It’s okay and Skip are all useful. A fair “Skip” can protect the next traveller.

Be respectful

• Write about places and experiences, not individuals. Don’t name or describe staff, locals or other travellers in a way that could identify them.
• If you had a bad experience, including one involving racism or discrimination, you can describe what happened factually. Avoid insults, threats or claims you can’t back up.
• No hate speech, slurs or content that demeans anyone because of their race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, disability or nationality. That includes the people and places you’re writing about.

Collections

• A collection groups stamps around a theme, like the best halal food in one city. It needs at least three stamps.
• You can use stamps already on the map or add new places. New places are reviewed as stamps in their own right, and appear in the collection once approved.
• The same guidelines apply: be specific, be honest, and write about places, not people.

Voting

Vote a stamp up if it helped you, or down if it’s out of date or misleading. You get one vote per stamp and can change it at any time. Please don’t organise others to vote on a stamp; stamps with a low score are flagged for a person to re-check, not removed automatically.

Your contributor name

You can add a name or handle so others know who shared a stamp, or leave it blank to post anonymously. Don’t use someone else’s name, and don’t put contact details such as phone numbers, emails or social links in the name or note.

What we won’t publish

• Adverts, promotions or stamps written for a business you own or are paid by
• Content that is false, copied from elsewhere, or not about travel
• Personal information about anyone, including yourself
• Links other than a map link to the place
• Duplicates of a place that’s already on the map (we may merge them)
• Anything illegal, dangerous or sexually explicit

How moderation works

Every submission waits in a review queue until the admin approves or rejects it. Approved stamps appear on the map with the contributor name, if one was given. We may lightly edit a stamp to fix a map link or remove personal details, but we won’t change your verdict or the meaning of your note.

Stamps already on the map can be removed if they become out of date, break these guidelines, or are reported. To report a stamp or ask for one of yours to be removed, email hello@seenandstamped.com.