These are the official posting guidelines ("Site Guidelines") for www.ratemyprofessors.com website, application or other interactive service ("Site”). The Site is owned, operated and/or provided by Altice USA News, Inc. f/k/a Cheddar, Inc. (“Cheddar," "we," "us," or "our") and these Site Guidelines are a part of, and an Additional Terms under, our Terms of Use Agreement.
Rate My Professors is the largest online destination for students to research and rate professors, colleges, and universities across the United States. Our mission is to provide a safe forum to share classroom experiences to help fellow students make critical education choices.
THE SITE/APP
The Rate My Professors website (www.ratemyprofessors.com) and mobile app provide user generated feedback on professors' teaching methods and their respective courses as well as user generated feedback on the lifestyle and facilities of college and university campuses.
Professor ratings should only be posted by users who have taken a class from the professor or who are currently taking a class with the professor. For each course a professor teaches, users are limited to posting one (1) comment. Campus ratings should only be posted by students who have attended or are currently attending the specific course, college or university being rated.
Rate My Professors is NOT the place to report dangerous, illegal or illicit behaviors. If you believe that you, another professor, or a student is in danger, we strongly advise you to report such incidences directly to your campus authorities or local law enforcement. (For more information and resources, please read here).
HOW WE WORK
Rate My Professors has a team of moderators who read every rating submitted. We have defined site guidelines to help reinforce our mission and most importantly to ensure our decisions around moderation are 100% consistent, regardless of student or professor. Our moderators are experts on our guidelines and will remove any comment that doesn’t comply.
Did we miss something? If you feel an inappropriate comment should be removed from the site, we want to know. You can flag a comment for re-review and it will immediately be escalated to our moderators. Moderators will determine whether to remove the rating permanently or restore it to the website. Our moderators will never edit a rating to make it comply or remove a rating simply because it is a low score or negative review.
GUIDELINES:
Student Guidelines:
FLAGGING A RATING
If you see a rating that you believe violates these Site Guidelines, please click the "report this rating" at the bottom of the comment and state the problem. Such comments will be evaluated by the Site's personnel. Please do not flag a rating just because you disagree with it.
SOME LEGAL STUFF
Rate My Professors occasionally receives removal demands that include threats to sue Rate My Professors. To date, no one has followed through with a lawsuit against us for our reviews.
The law protects Rate My Professors from legal responsibility for the content submitted by our users, like the reviews that appear on our site. Specifically, the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (47 U.S.C. Sec. 230) created a federal immunity to any cause of action that would make service providers, like Rate My Professors, liable for information originating with a third-party user of the service.
The law is clear on this. Anyone who wishes to sue Rate My Professors for the reviews posted by our members risks penalties imposed by the court. These may include financial sanctions and reimbursement of our attorney's fees for our having to defend against a lawsuit that ignores obvious legal protections for Rate My Professors.
If, despite our caution, you feel that legal action is the only recourse for you, our address for service of legal process is:
Cheddar, Inc.
1 State Street
New York, NY 10004
If you intend to serve documents on Cheddar, Inc., please make sure that service is properly effected in the US in accordance with all applicable law. We are not obligated to respond if service is not valid.
These guidelines are provided for informational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. While we stand by our guidelines, you are encouraged to seek advice from an attorney who is competent in the relevant field of law.
RESERVATION OF RIGHTS
The Site reserves the right to remove any comments deemed as inappropriate, libelous, defamatory, indecent, vulgar or obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit or sexually suggestive, racially, culturally, or ethnically offensive, harmful, harassing, intimidating, threatening, hateful, objectionable, discriminatory, or abusive, or which may or may not appear to impersonate anyone else or that otherwise violate the Terms of Use Agreement.
The Site reserves the right to remove, provide to authorities or otherwise take appropriate action regarding comments that threaten violence or bodily harm to another user or professor including, but not limited to, notifying the authorities of your IP address, where available, and the time you rated and taking any action as described in the Terms of Use Agreement and Privacy Policy.