Seated Community Guidelines
Our Community Guidelines
Community Guidelines
Last updated: September 9, 2026
Seated only works because people report what they see. There's no company feeding it data and no sensor in the ceiling — every wait time comes from someone who was standing there.
That makes the whole thing depend on honesty. These are the rules that keep it useful.
How to report well
Report what you actually experienced. The wait you had, at the place you were, around the time you were there. Not what you heard, not what you'd guess, not what it looked like from the parking lot.
Report when you're seated, not when you arrive. You don't know the wait until it's over. The best moment is right after you sit down, while it's fresh.
Round honestly. The buckets are wide on purpose — Instant, under 10, 10–20, 20–30, 30–45, 45+. If you waited 22 minutes, that's 20–30. Don't agonise over it, but don't round in whichever direction helps a place you like.
Party size and parking help. Both are optional, but a 40-minute wait for a party of eight means something different from a 40-minute wait for two. Same for whether the lot was empty or full.
Report even when there's no wait. "Instant" is the most useful report there is. It tells someone they can walk right in — and people are much less likely to report a good experience than a bad one, which quietly skews the whole map.
What not to do
Don't report a place you weren't at. This is the one rule that matters most. A single false report can send someone across town for nothing.
Don't inflate a competitor's wait. If you own or work at a restaurant, don't report on the place down the street. We can see patterns, and this results in a permanent suspension.
Don't deflate your own. Same rule, other direction. If you want to post official wait times for your restaurant, claim your listing — there's a proper way to do it.
Don't report the same place repeatedly to farm points. Points are for contributing, not for tapping. Rate limits exist and evading them is a suspension.
Photos
Restaurant photos currently come from us, not from users. If you see one that shouldn't be there — wrong restaurant, or something inappropriate — use the report option on it. Those are reviewed and removed where appropriate.
Photo submission is coming back in a future update.
What happens if you break the rules
We look at patterns, not one-off mistakes. Getting a wait time wrong isn't breaking a rule — that's just being human, and the system averages it out.
Deliberate false reporting is different.
First, we watch. Unusual patterns get flagged: reports from places you couldn't have been, a burst of reports for one restaurant, timing that doesn't match how people actually eat.
Then, suspension. A suspended account can't submit reports or contribute in any way. It's enforced at the database level, so there's no working around it in the app.
Suspensions follow the device, not just the account. Making a new account on the same phone doesn't reset anything.
If you think a suspension was a mistake, email support@seated.site. We read every one of these, and we've reversed suspensions before.
Reporting someone else
If you notice a restaurant with wait times that are obviously wrong — a place you know is empty showing 45+ minutes every night, or the reverse — tell us at support@seated.site. Include the restaurant name and what you're seeing.
You won't be identified to anyone, and it genuinely helps.
Restaurant owners
If you run a restaurant on Seated, you can claim your listing. That lets you correct your details and post an official wait time, shown differently from community reports.
Claiming is free. Email support@seated.site to start.
What you can't do is report on your own restaurant as if you were a customer, or report on anyone else's. That's the fastest way to lose access.
Privacy
You don't need an account to use Seated, and reports are shown to other people without your name attached. Nobody can see who reported what.
Full detail is in the Privacy Policy.
The short version
- Report what you actually waited
- Report the good ones too
- Don't report places you weren't at
- Don't manipulate wait times for any business
- If something looks wrong, tell us
That's it. Everything else follows from those.
Questions: support@seated.site