Each signed-in account may hold one community ballot per open ranking.
No bots, fake accounts, bought votes or attempts to bypass controls.
Results are discovery signals, not certifications, guarantees or professional advice.
Agreement
Welcome to the Topinion beta.
These Terms govern access to and use of Topinion, including topinion.app, rankings, voting, expert applications, ranking suggestions and related features.
Topinion is currently a free, non-commercial public beta operated by Paul Lombrea, based in Bucharest, Romania. “Topinion”, “we”, “us” and “our” refer to Paul Lombrea as the current operator.
By accessing or using Topinion, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the service.
01 · The service
What Topinion provides.
Topinion lets people view rankings, submit ranked community ballots, compare community and expert results, apply for a verified expert profile, suggest rankings and update a previous ballot while a ranking remains open.
Topinion rankings express the opinions of participating accounts or verified experts. They are not scientific polls, representative population studies, product certifications or guarantees of quality. The current scoring system is explained in our Ranking Methodology.
Because the service is in beta, features, rankings and presentation may change as it develops.
02 · Eligibility and accounts
You must be at least 16.
If the law in your country requires permission from a parent or legal guardian, you must obtain it before creating an account or submitting content. You may not use Topinion where doing so would violate applicable law.
Authentication may be provided by email or an external provider such as Google. You are responsible for accurate information, control of the email or external account used to sign in, and informing us if you believe access has been compromised.
Before voting, suggesting a ranking or applying as an expert, you must confirm the current Terms, Privacy Policy and minimum age. Topinion records the document versions and confirmation time with your account so the applicable rules can be demonstrated later.
You may not share an account for the purpose of manipulating results or create and use multiple accounts to cast additional votes.
03 · Community voting
One account, one current ballot per ranking.
A community ballot may contain up to three different candidates in preference order: first choice receives 3 points, second receives 2 points and third receives 1 point. Submitting again replaces the account’s previous community ballot for that ranking.
Every valid community ballot has equal weight. Expert ballots do not add points to the community ranking. Rankings marked closed remain viewable but no longer accept changes.
Optional community reasons and individual ballot choices are not displayed publicly in the current beta. Ballots contribute only to aggregated public scores, choice counts and participation totals, as explained in the Privacy Policy.
04 · Expert profiles and voting
Verification adds context, not extra community weight.
Expert applicants must provide accurate professional information. Applications are reviewed manually; Topinion does not currently use automated decisions to approve or reject them. We may approve, decline, request more information, or withdraw status when information is misleading, outdated or connected to a violation of these Terms.
A verified label means Topinion reviewed the submitted application based on information available at that time. It is not employment, endorsement, professional accreditation or a guarantee of qualifications or opinions.
Verified expert ballots use the same 3–2–1 scoring but appear only in the expert ranking. An approved expert’s professional name, title, organization, website, ranked choices and explanation may be displayed publicly. Background text supplied only for verification is not published in the current beta.
05 · Suggestions and user content
You keep ownership; Topinion needs a limited licence.
“User Content” includes ranking suggestions, candidate lists, explanations, expert profile information and other material submitted to Topinion. Suggestions are initially visible only to the submitting user and administrators. Submission does not guarantee review, approval, publication, attribution or compensation.
You retain ownership of original User Content. By submitting it, you grant Topinion a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to store, reproduce, format, display and adapt it for clarity as reasonably necessary to operate Topinion, review submissions, create rankings, display public expert contributions and explain or promote the relevant ranking or feature.
This licence does not transfer ownership. Personal data is handled under the Privacy Policy. You confirm that your content is accurate to the best of your knowledge and that you have the rights needed to submit it.
You must not submit material that is unlawful, fraudulent, threatening, harassing, defamatory, discriminatory, privacy-invasive, infringing, malicious, spam, misleading, or falsely claims identity or professional qualifications.
06 · Ranking integrity
Actions that are not allowed.
You must not:
- use bots, scripts or automated tools to vote or submit content;
- create coordinated fake or duplicate accounts;
- buy, sell or exchange votes, or offer undisclosed rewards for them;
- bypass account, ballot or expert-verification controls;
- interfere with Topinion’s website, database, security or availability;
- scrape or systematically extract Topinion data without permission;
- misrepresent a result as an official certification or guaranteed fact.
Topinion may apply short technical cooldowns to repeated ballot changes or submissions to protect availability and ranking integrity. These controls do not change a ballot’s weight or prevent a reasonable correction after the displayed waiting period.
Where we reasonably believe activity is fraudulent, manipulated or invalid, we may investigate manually and remove affected ballots or content, restrict the account or take another proportionate step.
07 · Moderation and reports
Current decisions are reviewed by people.
We may reject, restrict or remove User Content that violates these Terms, creates legal or security risk, is irrelevant, or materially harms ranking integrity. We may consider context, severity, previous violations and impact on others.
Current content-moderation and enforcement decisions are made manually. The automatic calculation of ranking scores is not content moderation. Topinion does not currently use automated content-moderation decisions and does not promise to monitor every submission before it affects a ranking.
Report unlawful content, infringement, manipulation or an incorrect expert claim to privacy@topinion.app. Include enough information to identify the issue. Where appropriate and legally permitted, we will explain a restriction and allow a request for manual review.
08 · Intellectual property and third parties
Topinion content and third-party rights.
The Topinion name, visual identity, original design, software and original platform materials are owned by or licensed to the operator. You may use Topinion for personal, non-commercial purposes and share links or ordinary screenshots, provided you do not misrepresent results, remove attribution or imply endorsement.
Product names, trademarks, photographs and other third-party materials remain the property of their respective owners. Their appearance is for identification and informational comparison and does not imply affiliation, sponsorship or endorsement. Rights holders may contact us with a concern.
Topinion may link to brands, organizations or expert websites. We do not control their content, products, claims, security or privacy practices.
09 · Independence and future paid features
No payment can secretly alter a score.
Topinion does not currently charge users to view rankings, vote, suggest a ranking or apply as an expert. If paid features are introduced, their price and conditions will be shown before purchase.
Future advertising, affiliate relationships or sponsored content will be clearly labelled. Payment or sponsorship may not add ranking points or secretly alter result order.
10 · Availability, disclaimers and liability
A discovery signal, not professional advice.
Results represent only participating accounts or verified experts and may change as ballots are added or updated. Topinion does not independently test every product or verify every statement.
Do not rely solely on Topinion for medical, legal, financial, safety-critical or other high-impact decisions. Nothing on Topinion is professional advice, a warranty, product-safety assessment or recommendation tailored to you.
Topinion is provided on an “as available” basis and may contain errors or interruptions. To the extent permitted by law, we are not responsible for indirect or unforeseeable losses arising from reliance on a ranking or User Content, purchases based on the service, another user or expert, or temporary external-service failure.
Nothing excludes liability where exclusion is prohibited, including fraud, wilful misconduct, gross negligence or mandatory consumer rights.
11 · Service changes and account restrictions
The beta may evolve.
We may add, change, suspend or discontinue features, rankings or candidates, and correct technical errors, duplicates, inaccurate information or legal issues. Where reasonably possible, we will avoid changes that misleadingly alter the meaning of existing results.
You may stop using Topinion at any time and request account or personal-data deletion under the Privacy Policy. We may restrict an account to enforce these Terms, protect users or ranking integrity, prevent abuse, comply with law or investigate a credible complaint.
Provisions that must continue by their nature—such as intellectual-property terms, valid licences, disclaimers and applicable-law provisions—survive account closure.
12 · Changes to these Terms
We will date revised rules.
We may update these Terms as Topinion develops or legal, security or operational requirements change. The page will show a new date. For material changes affecting registered users, we will provide reasonable notice through the site or by email where practical.
If you do not agree with revised Terms, you should stop using the service. Changes do not remove rights already acquired under mandatory law.
13 · Law, general provisions and contact
Romanian law, with mandatory protections preserved.
These Terms are governed by Romanian law. If you are a consumer in another country, this choice does not remove mandatory protections granted by the law of your country of residence. You may bring a claim before any court that has jurisdiction under applicable law.
If a provision is invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue. A delay in enforcement is not a waiver. We may transfer Topinion to a company or successor, subject to law, notice and continued mandatory rights.