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Trust Score for Brands, Pages, and Places

People ratings are recognition-only, but businesses and public destinations need room for both positive and negative feedback. HYFY therefore uses a separate, familiar 1-to-5 review scale for brands, pages, and places.

The Review Scale

ScoreMeaning
1Poor experience
2Below expectations
3Average or acceptable
4Good - above expectations
5Outstanding

An unrated profile shows 0. Once ratings exist, early business scores are treated cautiously around the neutral point rather than allowing one review to create an instant extreme score.

How It Works

  • Only active public or professional people profiles can submit ratings.
  • Self-ratings and ratings between profiles controlled by the same account are blocked.
  • A mutual follow is not required for brands, pages, or places.
  • The brand, page, or place must also be active and publicly rateable; private profiles cannot be rated.
  • Ratings are attached to traits that fit the profile type.
  • Only the latest active opinion from each reviewer on each trait counts.

Profile Types

TypeDescriptionExample
BrandA business, product, or creator brandA fashion label or software product
PlaceA physical venue or locationA restaurant, gym, or coworking space
PageA public page, publication, or communityA fan page or local guide

Different profile types can have different traits because the qualities that matter for a restaurant are not the same as those that matter for a software product or community page.

Evidence Quality and Time

Reviewer influence is kept within a narrow range. Verification and account history may add a small amount of confidence, but follower count, popularity, the reviewer's own Trust Score, and agreement with the crowd do not create extra voting power.

Older reviews gradually matter less. For business profiles, fading confidence moves an uncertain score toward the neutral middle rather than assuming that the business became better or worse.

Business ratings also use update windows and cooldowns so that genuine opinion changes are possible without allowing repeated review spam.

Updating a Business Rating

Under the current policy, a reviewer can revise a business rating during the first 30 days, but no more than once in a 24-hour period. After that update window, a 30-day cooldown from the previous rating must have passed before a new version can be submitted for the same profile and trait.

Updating a rating replaces the current opinion. It does not add another vote.

Reading a Business Score

As with people profiles, the score is most useful when read with its supporting counts:

DisplayMeaning
TrustThe current overall business score
HypersDifferent people whose current ratings contribute
TraitsDifferent business qualities that have ratings
RatingsCurrent reviewer-and-trait ratings in total

A high score supported by many independent reviewers and several traits gives more context than the same number supported by one review.

A business Trust Score summarizes eligible user feedback. It does not verify every purchase, visit, claim, or reviewer experience.