Welcome and Purpose
The Geek Menu LLC encourages thoughtful participation from people who enjoy food, cooking, baking, technology, gaming, creativity, and the many interests that bring the community together. These Community Guidelines explain the standards that apply when visitors contribute content or interact through community features operated by The Geek Menu LLC.
The goal is to support useful, respectful, honest, inclusive, and enjoyable participation while protecting visitors, contributors, creative work, privacy, safety, Website operations, and the broader community.
Scope and Application
These Guidelines apply to comments, ratings, reviews, recipe submissions, photographs, profiles, messages, contests, surveys, official social-media spaces, and other interactive or community features that The Geek Menu LLC owns, operates, administers, or controls, where available. They also apply when a feature, activity, promotion, event, product, or service expressly incorporates them.
When The Geek Menu LLC operates a community space through a third-party platform, both these Guidelines and the platform’s rules may apply. These Guidelines do not control independent websites, accounts, groups, or discussions that The Geek Menu LLC does not operate, even when they mention the Company, the Website, its content, or its community.
A particular feature or activity may have additional terms, notices, eligibility requirements, submission instructions, or rules. Those additional requirements apply together with these Guidelines.
Respectful and Inclusive Participation
Questions, corrections, different cooking experiences, thoughtful disagreement, and constructive criticism are welcome. Contributions should relate to the page, recipe, review, product, event, or discussion and should be expressed in a respectful and reasonably clear manner.
Harassment, threats, intimidation, stalking, hate speech, discriminatory abuse, targeted humiliation, repeated personal attacks, or conduct intended to silence, frighten, exclude, or drive another person away from the community is not permitted. Disagreement with an idea does not justify attacking the person who shared it.
Relevant, Honest, and Authentic Contributions
Comments, ratings, reviews, testimonials, photographs, and other contributions should be relevant and should reflect a genuine experience, honestly held opinion, or good-faith attempt to provide useful information. Content should not be knowingly false, deceptively edited, or presented in a way that materially misleads others.
Impersonation, fabricated reviews, fake engagement, coordinated manipulation, deceptive identity claims, fraudulent statements, scams, and false claims of authorization, sponsorship, endorsement, expertise, or affiliation are not permitted.
A contributor should clearly disclose a relevant commercial, employment, family, ownership, sponsorship, affiliate, referral, or other material relationship when it could reasonably affect how a recommendation, rating, review, testimonial, or endorsement is understood.
Prohibited Content and Conduct
Community features may not be used to promote, coordinate, encourage, or facilitate unlawful activity, threats or violence, abuse, exploitation, dangerous wrongdoing, fraud, or conduct that violates another person’s rights. Content intended to shock, harass, degrade, intimidate, or create a foreseeable risk of serious harm may be removed or restricted.
Sexually exploitative content, nonconsensual intimate material, or other sexual content that is unlawful, abusive, or grossly inappropriate for a general-audience food and lifestyle community is not permitted.
A person may not impersonate The Geek Menu LLC, its representatives, another contributor, a business, a professional, or a public authority; falsely claim authorization or endorsement; encourage others to violate these Guidelines; or evade a moderation decision, account restriction, participation limit, or other protective measure.
Privacy and Personal Information
Contributors should protect their own privacy and respect the privacy of others. Private contact information, account credentials, financial information, government identifiers, confidential records, precise private-location information, or another person’s personal information should not be posted, requested, exposed, or distributed without a lawful basis and appropriate permission.
Public community spaces should not be used to send confidential information to The Geek Menu LLC. Information shared publicly may be copied, indexed, quoted, or redistributed by others beyond the Company’s control.
The Geek Menu LLC may remove, limit, redact, or obscure personal information when reasonably appropriate to protect privacy, safety, legal rights, evidence, or Website operations.
Food, Recipe, Allergy, Nutrition, and Safety Information
Community contributions about recipes, ingredients, nutrition, substitutions, cooking methods, allergies, dietary needs, equipment, and food safety reflect the contributor’s own knowledge and experience. They are general information and are not verified professional medical, nutritional, dietary, or food-safety advice unless expressly identified otherwise by a qualified source.
Ingredients, labels, manufacturing practices, product formulations, restaurant practices, and availability may change. A substitution may introduce an allergen, change nutrition, affect cooking behavior, or create a different safety risk. Cross-contact may occur during manufacturing, storage, preparation, cooking, or service.
Each person is responsible for checking current product labels and manufacturer instructions, confirming ingredient and equipment suitability, preventing cross-contact, using appropriate food-safety practices, and consulting a qualified professional when personal medical, allergy, dietary, or nutrition guidance is needed.
Content that deliberately conceals a known allergen or safety risk, encourages unsafe food handling, misrepresents a product or ingredient, or presents general community information as individualized professional advice may be removed or restricted. Additional information appears in the Recipe & Nutrition Disclaimer.
Intellectual Property and User Content
A contributor may submit only content the contributor owns, created, or is otherwise authorized to use and share. Appropriate credit should be provided when required. Another person’s recipes, photographs, writing, trademarks, designs, music, videos, confidential material, or other protected content may not be copied, altered, or presented as original without permission or another lawful basis.
A contributor generally keeps ownership of original content. Submission does not transfer ownership to The Geek Menu LLC unless a separate written agreement states otherwise. The limited license that permits submitted content to be hosted, stored, displayed, reproduced, published, distributed, archived, promoted, and reasonably formatted or adapted for technical and accessibility needs is described in the Terms & Conditions.
Submitting content does not guarantee publication, continued availability, promotion, compensation, a particular placement, attribution beyond what is legally or contractually required, or a response. The Geek Menu LLC may decline a submission or discontinue a community feature. Copyright complaints should be submitted under the Copyright & DMCA Policy.
Advertising, Affiliate Links, and Self-Promotion
A relevant reference to a personal project, business, product, service, event, or professional resource may be acceptable when it contributes meaningfully to the discussion and is not misleading, repetitive, or disruptive. Content posted mainly to advertise, solicit business, recruit customers, collect leads, or drive traffic may be removed.
Affiliate links, referral links, discount codes, paid promotions, sponsored messages, product placements, contests, giveaways, and other commercial activity may require prior authorization and an appropriate disclosure. Undisclosed paid promotion, a misleading claim of independence, or an attempt to disguise advertising as an ordinary community contribution is not permitted.
The Affiliate & Advertising Disclosure provides additional information about commercial relationships involving The Geek Menu LLC. It does not authorize community members to conduct advertising or promotional activity without permission.
Spam, Automation, Security, and Technical Misuse
Spam, repetitive messages, chain content, mass posting, automated flooding, fake accounts, malicious or manipulated links, malware, phishing, credential collection, unauthorized scraping, attempts to bypass access controls, and efforts to disrupt, overload, probe, manipulate, or interfere with the Website, a community feature, or another user are not permitted.
A person may not use automation, coordinated activity, or multiple accounts to manipulate ratings, reviews, engagement, contests, search results, moderation, reporting systems, or the visibility of community content. Attempts to avoid a restriction by creating or using another account or identity may result in additional limits.
Moderation and Enforcement
The Geek Menu LLC may, but is not obligated to, monitor or review every contribution before or after publication. The presence of content does not mean that it has been reviewed, verified, approved, or endorsed by the Company.
When reasonably appropriate, The Geek Menu LLC may decline content; make minor formatting or accessibility adjustments that do not materially change its meaning; label, limit, hide, remove, or preserve content; restrict a feature or account; prevent further participation; or take another proportionate action. Advance notice is not required when immediate action is reasonably necessary to protect safety, privacy, legal rights, evidence, security, Website operations, or the community.
Moderation decisions may consider context, severity, repetition, relevance, authenticity, safety, applicable law, legal obligations, these Guidelines, other governing terms or policies, and the practical needs of operating the Website. The absence of immediate action does not approve the conduct or prevent later action.
The Geek Menu LLC may be unable to explain or disclose every moderation decision, especially when another person’s privacy, safety, account information, legal rights, or an investigation is involved.
Reporting Concerns
A community concern may be reported to info@thegeekmenu.com. A useful report should identify the page, account, post, comment, image, message, or other content involved and briefly explain why it may violate these Guidelines, another applicable policy, or law. Copyright complaints should follow the Copyright & DMCA Policy.
Reports will be reviewed when reasonably practical, but a report does not guarantee removal, a response, disclosure of the result, or a particular outcome. False, retaliatory, repetitive, deceptive, or abusive reports may themselves violate these Guidelines.
The Website and its reporting process are not emergency services. A person facing an immediate threat or emergency should contact the appropriate local emergency service or public authority rather than relying on a community report.
The Geek Menu LLC may preserve relevant records or share information when reasonably necessary to investigate misuse, protect rights or safety, comply with law, respond to lawful process, or maintain Website security and operations.
Changes to These Guidelines
These Guidelines may be updated as community features, business operations, safety needs, technology, industry practices, and legal requirements change. The current approved version will be made available through thegeekmenu.com, and the Last Updated date will identify the most recent approved revision.
Revised Guidelines become effective upon publication unless another effective date is stated. Community members should review the current version periodically, especially before using a new feature or participating in a promotion, event, product, service, or activity with additional rules.
Related Policies
These Guidelines complement any other terms, policies, notices, or agreements that may apply to The Geek Menu LLC’s website, services, products, promotions, programs, events, or physical locations. Where provisions differ, the document most directly addressing the matter will apply unless applicable law requires otherwise.
Contact
Questions about these Guidelines or reports of activity that may violate them are welcome and may be submitted using the contact information below:
The Geek Menu LLC
P.O. Box 69
Hastings, NY 13076
Email: info@thegeekmenu.com
Website: https://thegeekmenu.com