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The New Hanoian User Guide

Welcome to The New Hanoian website. Whether you are living and working in Hanoi, passing through on holiday, or considering a move in this direction, this site is here to give you a heads up on all that all that is and isn't a part of the Hanoi experience. As New Hanoians, we're part of a community in constant change. In the course of that flux, we often fill multiple roles with all the expectations and responsibilities that accompany that. Remember that as you begin to make your presence felt here. We are students and teachers, consumers and businesses owners, travelers and locals, or parents and children. Give fellow your New Hanoian the space and respect to express a different take on life here. We look forward to your active participation in the community, as it is the combined energies of people like yourself that can make Hanoi such an engaging place to spend time. Be enthusiastic; be honest; but also, please be responsible. To help point you in the right direction and remind you of some of the things encouraged and discouraged among our community, we've written up a few user guidelines.


  • Be as clear and personal as possible in your reviews. Remember that saying a certain spot is "great" or "terrible" is of little value if other users have no way of gauging why you feel that way about it. Give personal, anecdotal information so that other people can decide if it's something they might like to pursue further. Give people some context for your rating.
  • Interact with other users. This is a community, after all, and exchanging information and opinions will be a big part of making it successful. We've tried to provide each user with the tools necessary ask questions of one another, give advice, and generally benefit from a shared knowledge base. Our private messaging system can be used to ask more detailed follow up questions of users, compliment their writing, or just generally banter about some shared experiences that have no obvious home in the more public spaces of the site.
  • Don't use the review pages as a place to carry on an argument. We have no problem with people having fun with the reviews or referencing other people's opinions about a place, but it will not be allowed to degenerate to the level of back-and-forth attacks by users. If you feel the need to call somebody out on something, please do so by appropriately rating their review and using the private messaging system for more extensive exchanges.
  • Offer both the good and the bad you know about Hanoi. This isn't a Hanoi PR site. A great many of us enjoy our lives here (or we wouldn't be here any longer), but that certainly isn't to say that the experience is flawless. In fact, documenting the rough experiences we've gone through can help others avoid similar mistakes. We can also steer people in the right direction, allowing businesses and organizations that operate effectively to enjoy greater success.
  • Don't anonymously review or provide content about a spot you have a personal/financial relationship with. If you own or work at a spot that you'd like to give you opinion on, that is perfectly fine. Simply make it very clear in the review or comment what your relationship is. People will respect that as the opinion of a person close to the situation. If it is well-written, it can be of great help. On the other hand, trying to covertly review your own place rarely works out. Our users are not idiots. If they suspect someone is shilling for themselves, subsequent user reviews are frequently ruthless, whereas places with honest and modest reputations are more likely to get the benefit of the doubt.
  • Don't ask family and friends to review a place you own...unless of course, they are very clear about their relationship to you in the review. This is a very simple idea. Remember that credibility is essential, and once it's lost, it's very difficult to reestablish.
  • Keep the feedback coming. We are a work in progress. We will continue to develop features of use to all of you. To do that effectively, let us know what you would like to see.