About the platform

We are not here to name and shame.
We are here to change things.

theghostboards.com — A hiring transparency initiative

Every year, millions of candidates invest their time, their preparation, and their hope into hiring processes that were never designed with them in mind. This platform exists to change that — one structured, verified experience at a time.

The problem we are solving

The hiring process is one of the most consequential experiences in a person's professional life. It shapes careers, incomes, and self-perception. And yet, for too long, it has operated without accountability, without transparency, and without any meaningful obligation to the people it affects most — the candidates.

Ghost after final interview. Six rounds for a role that was never going to be filled. A salary range disclosed only after three stages. A presentation built over ten unpaid hours, followed by silence. These are not edge cases. They are industry norms. And they are wrong.

What ghosting actually means here

We are precise about this — because precision matters. Ghosting on The Ghost Boards has a specific definition. It is not a company failing to respond to a cold application. Organisations receive hundreds of applications for every role. The absence of a response to a speculative submission is not a moral failing.

Ghosting, as we define it, is when an employer or recruiter who has actively engaged with a candidate — who reached out, invited them to interview, asked for their time, made verbal commitments — then chooses silence over closure.

That is a deliberate choice. That is a broken professional commitment. That is what we measure.

"We don't track unanswered cold applications. We track broken professional commitments."

III

What we are

The Ghost Boards — The Good. The Bad. The Ugly. — is a hiring transparency and candidate experience intelligence platform. We give candidates a structured, professional, and constructive way to document what they experienced. Not to vent. Not to attack. To record, to measure, and to drive improvement.

Think of us as a mirror held up to the hiring industry — calm, factual, and impossible to ignore once enough people are reflected in it.

We are not a revenge website. We are not a complaints forum. We are not interested in outrage or humiliation. We are a change incubator. Every review submitted is a data point. Every data point is part of a pattern. Every pattern is an argument for doing better.

What we are not

We are not anonymous grievance culture. Every submission is structured, moderated, and purposeful. We collect data, not drama. We measure process quality, not personal character.

We do not name individual employees, recruiters, or hiring managers. We hold organisations accountable for the systems they build and the cultures they allow — not the people who operate within them under pressure.

We are not anti-employer. Some of the most important entries on this platform will be from candidates who had genuinely exceptional experiences — because those employers deserve to be known too. The Good exists for a reason. The goal is not to tear down. The goal is to raise the floor.

Our vision

We believe the recruitment and hiring industry is at an inflection point. Candidates are more informed, more connected, and less willing to accept opacity as the default. The talent market has shifted. Expectations have changed. The platforms that serve as the bridge between people and opportunity have a responsibility to reflect that.

Our vision is a world where salary transparency is the norm, not the exception. Where candidates receive timely, honest feedback regardless of outcome. Where the number of interview rounds is proportionate to the seniority of the role. Where ghosting is understood to be a reputational risk, not a convenience. Where hiring is treated as a two-way relationship — not an audition that only one party has to prepare for.

We want to be the platform that makes that world possible. Not by naming and shaming — but by measuring, benchmarking, and holding up the data until the industry has no credible choice but to respond.

How it works

Candidates submit two types of structured reviews. The first captures the opportunity itself — role accuracy, salary transparency, job description quality. The second — the full process review — is only available when an employer or recruiter actively engaged with the candidate. This distinction is fundamental. It ensures our data reflects genuine hiring relationships, not unanswered cold applications.

Every review is moderated before publication. Free text is limited and contextual. The intelligence is in the structure.

Employers can engage. They can respond officially to reviews through a verified process. They can demonstrate improvement. They can participate constructively. The platform is designed to make accountability feel like an opportunity, not a threat.

Over time, the data becomes the product. Transparency scores. Ghosting rates by industry. Salary disclosure benchmarks. Candidate effort indices. The kind of structured intelligence that makes it impossible for organisations to claim ignorance about the experience they are creating.

VII

Our commitment

To candidates: we will protect your privacy, moderate your submissions fairly, and ensure your experience is treated with the seriousness it deserves. You are not a data point to us. You are the reason this exists.

To employers: we will give you the right of response, the opportunity to demonstrate improvement, and the benefit of the doubt where it is earned. We are not interested in destroying reputations. We are interested in improving processes.

To the industry: we are coming — not with anger, but with data. And data, over time, is the most powerful argument there is.

"The ghost is not just a verdict. It is a metaphor. It represents every candidate who was left in the dark, every process that ended in silence, every employer who chose convenience over decency. We are here to make the ghost visible — and in doing so, to make it impossible to ignore."

— THE GHOST BOARDS, 2025

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The Good. The Bad. The Ugly.

Legal

Terms of Use

Last updated: May 2025 · Applicable jurisdictions: United Kingdom, United States, European Union

These Terms of Use govern your access to and use of The Ghost Boards — The Good. The Bad. The Ugly. ("the Platform", "we", "us"). By accessing or using the Platform, you agree to be bound by these terms. If you do not agree, you must not use the Platform.

1. Nature of the Platform

The Ghost Boards is a candidate experience transparency and hiring intelligence platform that enables individuals to submit structured reviews of their hiring experiences with employers and recruitment agencies. The Platform is designed to improve hiring standards and accountability across the industry.

The Platform is not a defamation website, a complaints forum, or a naming-and-shaming service. It is a structured data and transparency initiative. All content is moderated prior to publication.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years of age to use this Platform. By submitting a review, you confirm that you have personally experienced the hiring process you are describing and that your submission is truthful, accurate, and based on genuine first-hand experience.

3. User Submissions

When you submit a review, you grant the Platform a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide licence to publish, display, distribute, aggregate, and commercialise your submission in accordance with these Terms. You retain ownership of your individual submission content.

You agree that your submission:

Is based on a genuine, personal hiring experience
Does not name or identify private individuals (employees, recruiters, hiring managers)
Does not contain false statements of fact presented as true
Does not include confidential business information or trade secrets
Does not constitute harassment, threats, or discriminatory content
Does not include personal data of third parties
Complies with applicable laws in your jurisdiction

4. Platform Data Ownership

The Ghost Boards owns all rights in and to the Platform Dataset, defined as the aggregated, anonymised, and structured collection of all submissions, responses, metadata, derived analytics, benchmarks, scores, indices, and intelligence produced by the Platform.

The Platform Dataset is a proprietary commercial asset. The following are strictly prohibited without express prior written consent from The Ghost Boards:

Systematic or automated extraction of Platform content (scraping)
Reproduction, republication, or redistribution of Platform data in whole or in part
Commercial use of Platform data in any form
Use of Platform data to build, train, fine-tune, evaluate, or benchmark any artificial intelligence, machine learning, or large language model system
Incorporation of Platform data into any competing or derivative product or service
Sale, licensing, or transfer of Platform data to any third party

Requests to licence the Platform Dataset for research, journalism, benchmarking, or commercial purposes should be directed to: legal@theghostboards.com

5. Prohibition on AI Training Use

Notwithstanding any other provision of these Terms, the content, data, and structured information on this Platform — including individual reviews, aggregated statistics, employer scores, and derived metrics — may not be used, in whole or in part, for the purpose of training, fine-tuning, distilling, evaluating, or otherwise developing artificial intelligence or machine learning models, systems, or products without a separately executed written data licence agreement with The Ghost Boards.

This prohibition applies to all entities including AI research organisations, technology companies, academic institutions, and individual researchers. Automated crawling or indexing of this Platform by AI training systems is expressly prohibited and constitutes a material breach of these Terms.

6. Platform Liability — Section 230 (United States)

For users in the United States: The Platform operates as an interactive computer service under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (47 U.S.C. § 230). The Platform is not the publisher or speaker of user-generated content and is not liable for content submitted by users. Users are solely responsible for the content they submit.

7. Platform Liability — UK & EU

For users in the United Kingdom and European Union: The Platform operates as a hosting service under the UK Online Safety Act 2023 and the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) Regulation (EU) 2022/2065. The Platform is not liable for unlawful user-generated content where it acts expeditiously to remove such content upon obtaining actual knowledge of its unlawful nature.

8. Prohibited Content

The following content is strictly prohibited and will result in immediate removal:

Identification of private individuals by name, role, or description sufficient to identify them
Content constituting defamation under applicable law
Disclosure of confidential, privileged, or legally protected information
Fabricated or knowingly false reviews
Content submitted by or on behalf of competitors
Coordinated inauthentic submissions
Content promoting discrimination based on protected characteristics

9. Moderation

All submissions are subject to moderation prior to publication. The Platform reserves the right to reject, edit, or remove any submission at its sole discretion. Moderation decisions are final, subject to the Platform's dispute process.

10. Intellectual Property

All Platform design, branding, methodology, scoring systems, indices, benchmarks, and software are the intellectual property of The Ghost Boards and may not be reproduced without written permission. The name "The Ghost Boards", the tagline "The Good. The Bad. The Ugly.", the platform methodology, and all derived data products are proprietary assets of the Platform.

11. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Platform is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind. We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any user-submitted content.

12. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales for UK and EU users. For users in the United States, disputes shall be governed by the laws of the State of Delaware.

13. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms at any time. Continued use of the Platform following notification of changes constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

14. Contact

For legal matters, disputes, data licensing, or terms-related enquiries: legal@theghostboards.com

Legal

Disclaimer

Last updated: January 2025

Please read this disclaimer carefully before using the Platform or relying on any content published on it.

1. Nature of Reviews

All reviews published on The Good. The Bad. The Ugly. reflect the individual, subjective experiences and opinions of the candidate who submitted them. Reviews represent one person's account of one hiring process at one point in time.

The Platform does not verify, endorse, or adopt the views expressed in any review as its own. Published reviews are not statements of fact by the Platform — they are statements of opinion by individual users.

2. No Verification of Accuracy

While the Platform moderates submissions for compliance with its guidelines, it does not and cannot independently verify the factual accuracy of any review. Employers, recruiters, and agencies may have different accounts of the same process. The Platform encourages employers to use the official response mechanism to provide their perspective.

3. No Professional Advice

Nothing on this Platform constitutes legal, employment, financial, or career advice. Reviews should not be relied upon as the sole basis for employment decisions. Users should conduct their own due diligence.

4. Historical Accuracy

Hiring processes, company cultures, and recruiter behaviour change over time. A review submitted in 2024 may not reflect the current practices of an employer in 2025. The Platform displays the date of each review to assist users in contextualising its relevance.

5. Third-Party Links

The Platform may display links to employer LinkedIn profiles or company websites. We are not responsible for the content, accuracy, or practices of third-party websites.

6. Employer Logos

Company logos displayed on the Platform are sourced from publicly available sources (Clearbit Logo API) for identification purposes only. Display of a logo does not imply endorsement by or affiliation with the named company.

7. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the Platform, its operators, and affiliates shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages arising from use of the Platform or reliance on its content.

In jurisdictions that do not permit limitation of liability, our liability is limited to the maximum extent permitted by law.

8. Indemnification

By submitting a review, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Platform and its operators from any claims, damages, or costs (including legal fees) arising from your submission, including any claim that your review is defamatory, false, or in breach of any third party's rights.

9. Platform Availability

We do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free access to the Platform. We reserve the right to suspend, modify, or discontinue the Platform at any time without notice.

Trust & Safety

Abuse Handling & Reporting

Last updated: January 2025

The Good. The Bad. The Ugly. is committed to maintaining a safe, accurate, and constructive platform. We take abuse, misuse, and harmful content seriously.

1. What Constitutes Abuse

The following constitute abuse of the Platform and will be actioned promptly:

Fabricated reviews — submissions not based on genuine personal experience
Coordinated attacks — multiple submissions targeting the same employer organised by a third party
Competitor abuse — reviews submitted by or on behalf of a competing business
Identity disclosure — content that names, identifies, or could reasonably identify a private individual
Harassment — content designed to intimidate, threaten, or distress any individual or organisation
Discriminatory content — submissions targeting individuals or organisations based on protected characteristics
Legal violations — content disclosing confidential information, breaching NDAs, or constituting criminal content
Spam or automated submissions — use of bots or automated tools to submit reviews

2. How to Report Abuse

Any user, employer, or third party may report content they believe constitutes abuse. To submit a report:

Email: abuse@thegoodthebadtheugly.com
Subject line: "Abuse Report — [Company Name if applicable]"
Include: the specific review or content you are reporting, the reason for your report, and any supporting context

All reports are treated confidentially. We aim to acknowledge reports within 5 business days and resolve them within 14 business days.

3. Our Response Process

Report received
We acknowledge your report and assign it a reference number.

Initial review
Our moderation team reviews the reported content against our guidelines within 5 business days.

Action taken
Content may be: kept as published, amended, temporarily suspended pending investigation, or removed. You will be notified of the outcome.

Right of appeal
Both the reporter and the original reviewer may appeal our decision within 14 days of notification.

4. Employer Abuse Reports

Employers and recruiters who believe a review is inaccurate, fabricated, or in breach of platform guidelines may submit a formal report. We treat employer reports with the same impartiality as candidate reports.

Employers may not submit reports simply because a review is negative or critical of their process — criticism of process is protected expression. Reports must identify a specific guideline violation.

5. Escalation

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may escalate to the relevant regulatory authority in your jurisdiction:

UK: Ofcom (Online Safety Act matters), ICO (data protection matters)
EU: Your national Digital Services Coordinator under the DSA
US: FTC (deceptive practices matters)

6. Zero Tolerance

We have zero tolerance for coordinated abuse campaigns, regardless of whether they are directed against the Platform, an employer, or a reviewer. We reserve the right to refer evidence of coordinated abuse to relevant law enforcement authorities.

Legal Framework

Defamation Protection Policy

Last updated: January 2025 · UK Defamation Act 2013 · US First Amendment · EU DSA

The Platform takes defamation risk seriously — for the protection of employers, candidates, and the Platform itself. This policy sets out our framework for identifying, preventing, and responding to potential defamation.

1. What Is Defamation

Defamation is a false statement of fact — published to a third party — that causes or is likely to cause serious harm to the reputation of a person or organisation. The legal standard varies by jurisdiction:

UK (Defamation Act 2013): A claimant must show the statement caused or is likely to cause "serious harm" to their reputation. For bodies trading for profit, this means serious financial loss.
US (First Amendment + common law): Public figures must show "actual malice" (knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for truth). Private figures must show negligence. Opinion is constitutionally protected.
EU: Defamation law varies by member state but generally requires falsity, publication, and damage. The DSA provides hosting platforms with safe harbour protections where they act promptly on notice.

2. How the Platform Is Designed to Minimise Defamation Risk

Every aspect of the Platform's review structure is designed to minimise legal risk while preserving legitimate expression:

Structured data over free text — The majority of each review is structured (yes/no/partial fields, dropdowns, pre-set tags). Structured data reflecting genuine experience is significantly less likely to constitute defamation than unstructured opinion.
Opinion framing — Free text submissions are framed explicitly as personal opinions and candidate experiences, not statements of objective fact.
No private individual naming — The Platform prohibits naming of employees, recruiters, or hiring managers. Reviews target organisational processes, not individuals.
Pre-publication moderation — All submissions are reviewed before publication. High-risk content is blocked before it reaches the public.
Disclaimer language — All published reviews carry a platform-level disclaimer that they represent individual candidate experience and opinion.

3. Defamation Complaints Process

If you believe a published review is defamatory, you may submit a formal complaint:

Email: legal@thegoodthebadtheugly.com
Subject line: "Defamation Complaint — [Company Name]"
Required information: (a) the specific content you believe is defamatory; (b) why you believe it is false; (c) the harm caused or likely to be caused; (d) your name and relationship to the subject company

Acknowledgement
We acknowledge receipt within 2 business days and assign a reference number.

Interim suspension
Where a complaint raises a credible defamation concern, we may temporarily suspend the review pending investigation. This does not constitute admission of liability.

Investigation
We assess the complaint against applicable legal standards. We may contact the original reviewer to provide context or evidence. Our target is resolution within 21 business days.

Decision
We will: reinstate the review (if the complaint is not upheld), amend the review (if specific elements require modification), or permanently remove the review (if it constitutes defamation under applicable law).

Appeal
Either party may appeal within 14 days. Appeals are reviewed by a senior member of our team not involved in the original decision.

4. Platform Safe Harbour Protections

United Kingdom: The Platform benefits from the hosting defence under the Defamation Act 2013 (s.5) where it did not post the content and responds appropriately to a notice of complaint. We operate a notice-and-takedown process consistent with these provisions.

United States: The Platform is protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act for content submitted by third-party users. We are not the publisher of user-submitted content.

European Union: The Platform operates as a hosting provider under Article 6 of the EU Digital Services Act and benefits from liability exemption where it acts expeditiously on actual knowledge of illegal content.

5. What We Will Not Do

The Platform will not remove reviews solely because they are negative, critical, or damaging to an employer's reputation. Criticism of a hiring process — even strong criticism — is legitimate expression and is protected under applicable law provided it is opinion-based, not demonstrably false as a statement of fact.

We will not engage in "pay to remove" arrangements. Removal decisions are made solely on legal and guideline grounds.

6. Legal Correspondence

All formal legal correspondence, including solicitors' letters, cease and desist notices, and court documents, should be addressed to:

Legal Team
The Good. The Bad. The Ugly.
legal@thegoodthebadtheugly.com

We aim to respond to formal legal correspondence within 5 business days.

Data & Intelligence

Data Licence & Intelligence

Last updated: May 2025

The Ghost Boards hiring intelligence dataset is a proprietary commercial asset. As the platform grows, this data becomes one of the most structured, specific, and actionable hiring transparency datasets in existence. Licensing enquiries are welcome.

1. What the Dataset Contains

The Ghost Boards Platform Dataset is the aggregated, anonymised collection of structured candidate experience data captured through the platform. It includes:

Salary transparency data — rates of upfront salary disclosure by industry, company type, seniority level, and geography
Interview burden metrics — average rounds, preparation effort hours, assignment requirements by role type and sector
Ghosting rates — rates of non-response after application and final interview, by industry and company type
Process transparency scores — communication quality, timeline clarity, interviewer preparation ratings
Candidate effort indices — total unpaid time investment required per hiring process
Work model accuracy — rates of advertised vs actual work arrangement discrepancy
Outcome data — offer rates, rejection with/without feedback rates, withdrawal rates
Recruiter responsiveness benchmarks — agency and direct employer communication quality scores

2. Why This Data Is Valuable

No equivalent structured dataset of candidate hiring experience exists at this level of specificity. Existing employer review platforms capture general sentiment. The Ghost Boards captures measurable, structured process data — the kind that can be benchmarked, trended, and acted upon.

As submission volume grows, the dataset will enable:

Industry-level hiring transparency benchmarking
Employer hiring process improvement intelligence
Recruitment agency performance benchmarking
Academic research into hiring inequality and candidate experience
Journalistic investigation into hiring practice standards
HR consulting and talent advisory services
Regulatory and policy evidence on hiring standards

3. Licence Types Available

Research Licence
For academic institutions and independent researchers. Non-commercial use. Requires attribution and pre-approval of research scope. Available at reduced or no cost for qualifying institutions.

Journalism Licence
For editorial and investigative journalism. Non-commercial publication use. Requires attribution. Considered on a case-by-case basis. Contact us with your publication and story scope.

Commercial Benchmark Licence
For HR consultancies, talent advisory firms, and professional services organisations seeking to incorporate Ghost Boards data into client benchmarking or advisory work. Annual licence fee. Contact us for pricing.

Employer Intelligence Licence
For employers and recruitment agencies seeking access to their own hiring reputation data, sector benchmarks, and candidate experience analytics. Monthly subscription. Contact us for pricing.

AI & Technology Licence
For technology companies, AI developers, or research organisations seeking to use Platform data for model training, evaluation, or product development. Requires a separately negotiated agreement. Not available as a standard licence — contact us to discuss.

4. What Is Not Licensed

The following uses are not available under any licence without a bespoke written agreement:

Reproduction of the full dataset or any substantial portion of it
Redistribution or resale of Platform data to third parties
Use of data to build competing candidate experience or employer review platforms
Use of individual review content in any identifiable form

5. Attribution Requirements

All licensed use of Ghost Boards data must include clear attribution: "Source: The Ghost Boards — theghostboards.com". Attribution format may vary by medium but must be visible and prominent.

6. How to Apply for a Licence

To discuss a data licence, contact us with:

Your organisation name and type
The intended use of the data
The scope of data required (industry, date range, metrics)
Whether the use is commercial or non-commercial

Contact: legal@theghostboards.com
Subject line: Data Licence Enquiry — [Your Organisation]

7. Prohibition on Unlicensed Use

Any use of Platform data outside these licence categories — including automated extraction, systematic copying, or incorporation into AI systems — constitutes a material breach of the Platform's Terms of Use and may give rise to legal action including claims for damages, injunctive relief, and recovery of legal costs.