Help me restore my reputation
January 15, 2010 1:33 PM Subscribe
Help me rescue my good name and contact someone in authority at ratemyteachers.com
I am a college teacher in Canada and over the past few years have been rated on ratemyteachers.com. My rating is very high.
At some point late last year all comments associated with my name were switched with all comments associated with one of my colleagues. My colleague has a much lower rating than I do. This change is affecting registration in my classes. It could also potentially affect my income, as some classes I teach require a certain number of registered students in order to go ahead. In addition, in the past, I have had friends and relatives tell me they've looked me up on the site.
To anyone who looks deeper it is clear that this switch has happened. Comments that are now associated with my name go back several years before I started at the college. They also mention my colleague's name more than once. Comments now associated with my colleague's name refer to courses that only I teach. However, a student taking a quick look before they register will probably not notice these details. They'll just see the sad face icon and move on.
I have tried using the contact forms on the site several times over the last month but have received no response. Someone is moderating the site because ratings for my college are being approved. About a week ago I tried to register for the forums on the site but haven't received any response. I am in contact with some of my ex students and I wrote about the problem on a social networking site. Many of them posted new ratings, but these were removed in short order.
I have approached HR and our communications department at work and while they are sympathetic they tell me I am on my own. I am at my wits end, losing sleep over this.
I have to suspect that this is a case of a school moderator with a grudge. Does anyone have any idea how can I reach someone with control over this site in order to have my comments restored, or my name removed entirely? Or do I need to privately hire a lawyer (I have two young kids and money is tight, of course, but I'll do it if I have to) in order to make someone take notice. Any ideas?
throwaway email: protectmyrep@gmail.com
anonymous because I don't want any students/colleagues who know about this situation to stumble on my posting history
I am a college teacher in Canada and over the past few years have been rated on ratemyteachers.com. My rating is very high.
At some point late last year all comments associated with my name were switched with all comments associated with one of my colleagues. My colleague has a much lower rating than I do. This change is affecting registration in my classes. It could also potentially affect my income, as some classes I teach require a certain number of registered students in order to go ahead. In addition, in the past, I have had friends and relatives tell me they've looked me up on the site.
To anyone who looks deeper it is clear that this switch has happened. Comments that are now associated with my name go back several years before I started at the college. They also mention my colleague's name more than once. Comments now associated with my colleague's name refer to courses that only I teach. However, a student taking a quick look before they register will probably not notice these details. They'll just see the sad face icon and move on.
I have tried using the contact forms on the site several times over the last month but have received no response. Someone is moderating the site because ratings for my college are being approved. About a week ago I tried to register for the forums on the site but haven't received any response. I am in contact with some of my ex students and I wrote about the problem on a social networking site. Many of them posted new ratings, but these were removed in short order.
I have approached HR and our communications department at work and while they are sympathetic they tell me I am on my own. I am at my wits end, losing sleep over this.
I have to suspect that this is a case of a school moderator with a grudge. Does anyone have any idea how can I reach someone with control over this site in order to have my comments restored, or my name removed entirely? Or do I need to privately hire a lawyer (I have two young kids and money is tight, of course, but I'll do it if I have to) in order to make someone take notice. Any ideas?
throwaway email: protectmyrep@gmail.com
anonymous because I don't want any students/colleagues who know about this situation to stumble on my posting history
I would definately hire a lawyer, with the specific goal of having them write a letter for you (which normally is cost effective.) If they are publishing reviews that are not about you but assigning them to your name, they are probably legally vulnerable here and should be happy to fix this.
posted by DarlingBri at 2:17 PM on January 15, 2010 [5 favorites]
posted by DarlingBri at 2:17 PM on January 15, 2010 [5 favorites]
A pointed letter from an attorney will get their attention.
posted by Crotalus at 2:23 PM on January 15, 2010
posted by Crotalus at 2:23 PM on January 15, 2010
As far as I can tell, the site is owned by MisterMessage LLC, here is their LLC filing with the state of California.
The address listed is a residence and all the phone numbers I can find for them have been disconnected.
Check out this post on their forums: "Does anybody know who owns the site"?
A bunch of the moderators respond with a simple "yes". Very very shady.
In the same post above you can get some of the names and email addresses of some of the master administrators -- maybe try emailing them?
posted by hamsterdam at 2:24 PM on January 15, 2010
The address listed is a residence and all the phone numbers I can find for them have been disconnected.
Check out this post on their forums: "Does anybody know who owns the site"?
A bunch of the moderators respond with a simple "yes". Very very shady.
In the same post above you can get some of the names and email addresses of some of the master administrators -- maybe try emailing them?
posted by hamsterdam at 2:24 PM on January 15, 2010
Also here is the blog of the guy who founded the site, Michael Hussey. Here is his Twitter feed.
posted by hamsterdam at 2:33 PM on January 15, 2010
posted by hamsterdam at 2:33 PM on January 15, 2010
Here's their hosting provider.
posted by one more dead town's last parade at 2:35 PM on January 15, 2010
posted by one more dead town's last parade at 2:35 PM on January 15, 2010
The registered agent for MisterMessage LLC is listed as Nancy L. Davis.
Going by the message in the footer of every page on ratemyteachers.com, and this obituary page (scroll down), this LLC's information is nearly four years out of date, perhaps deliberately so.
posted by one more dead town's last parade at 2:49 PM on January 15, 2010
Going by the message in the footer of every page on ratemyteachers.com, and this obituary page (scroll down), this LLC's information is nearly four years out of date, perhaps deliberately so.
posted by one more dead town's last parade at 2:49 PM on January 15, 2010
Oh, and the residence in question apparently hasn't had its property taxes paid. And the USPTO seems to consider the trademark abandoned.
Wikipedia says that ratemyteachers.com is owned by RMT Acquisition Company, a Florida LLC.
posted by one more dead town's last parade at 3:22 PM on January 15, 2010
Wikipedia says that ratemyteachers.com is owned by RMT Acquisition Company, a Florida LLC.
posted by one more dead town's last parade at 3:22 PM on January 15, 2010
while you could hire a lawyer and pursue this matter legally... would it be more productive to spend the effort promoting your class on campus? how many students do you really lose to the ratings on this site? do you really know? maybe students don't sign up for your class because your class description is unappealing somehow? or that you have a word-of-mouth reputation for grading hard? I'm just suggesting that there may be other things to fix rather than this website?
posted by mhh5 at 4:04 PM on January 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by mhh5 at 4:04 PM on January 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
Does your school have legal counsel, or someone on retainer, who could write the letter for you? Consult with someone and see if this is getting into slander territory, since it's negatively affecting you and you can show damages.
I think you might need to go somewhat public to get someone at the website to pay attention to you -- Consumerist?
posted by thebazilist at 6:15 PM on January 15, 2010
I think you might need to go somewhat public to get someone at the website to pay attention to you -- Consumerist?
posted by thebazilist at 6:15 PM on January 15, 2010
Oh man, this sucks.
I had to deal with this recently on another review website. I had a student who was angry with me and instead of writing a well thought out criticism decided to obfuscate and lie. It sent me into the stratosphere. I would like to think that it doesn't matter, but boy oh boy did it upset me.
I contacted the website, but they sent me a letter saying that they are not a court of law and it is up to me to smooth it over with my customer (we were way past this point). I contacted my attorney who essentially said that we could try to sue or write stern letters, but that damages were incredibly hard to prove if we were to sue, and that the letters would not work unless we did sue. Kind of a catch 22. She said that essentially I would have to find people who decided not to take my classes based on that one review.
It changed for the better when another student, without my knowledge, decided to contest the review and make a bit of a show about it on my behalf. She had an "in" at the site and was a respected, active member. This worked. The reviews and subsequent even crazier reviews by this former student were pulled. It was a bit more public than I would have liked, but it worked.
Since then, a number of students who saw the review thought it was funny, as all of the others are so solid and this one, written in all caps really stood out.
What you don't want to do is fake accounts to change things - this can get you caught up in the same lies and mis-direction that are part of the problem to begin with. 10-to-1 it is not as big of a deal as you may think.
And, like mhh5 mentioned, you may have to work a little harder to get things right in the real world - I find myself using the criticism to really push through to the next level as far as what I give my students, so if nothing else came out of it, I find myself working harder to be better and prove what a lying dolt that one reviewer was.
Good luck!
posted by Tchad at 5:48 AM on January 16, 2010
I had to deal with this recently on another review website. I had a student who was angry with me and instead of writing a well thought out criticism decided to obfuscate and lie. It sent me into the stratosphere. I would like to think that it doesn't matter, but boy oh boy did it upset me.
I contacted the website, but they sent me a letter saying that they are not a court of law and it is up to me to smooth it over with my customer (we were way past this point). I contacted my attorney who essentially said that we could try to sue or write stern letters, but that damages were incredibly hard to prove if we were to sue, and that the letters would not work unless we did sue. Kind of a catch 22. She said that essentially I would have to find people who decided not to take my classes based on that one review.
It changed for the better when another student, without my knowledge, decided to contest the review and make a bit of a show about it on my behalf. She had an "in" at the site and was a respected, active member. This worked. The reviews and subsequent even crazier reviews by this former student were pulled. It was a bit more public than I would have liked, but it worked.
Since then, a number of students who saw the review thought it was funny, as all of the others are so solid and this one, written in all caps really stood out.
What you don't want to do is fake accounts to change things - this can get you caught up in the same lies and mis-direction that are part of the problem to begin with. 10-to-1 it is not as big of a deal as you may think.
And, like mhh5 mentioned, you may have to work a little harder to get things right in the real world - I find myself using the criticism to really push through to the next level as far as what I give my students, so if nothing else came out of it, I find myself working harder to be better and prove what a lying dolt that one reviewer was.
Good luck!
posted by Tchad at 5:48 AM on January 16, 2010
I can't help with getting your ratings removed/switched, but I just wanted to respond to mhh5's comment...
"how many students do you really lose to the ratings on this site? do you really know? " etc.
I don't know about the OP's specific classes, but I think you would be VERY surprised to find out how many students use teacher rating sites to plan their schedules. I have radically changed my schedule in the past just to avoid the "bad" teachers- sometimes the reviews are bogus, but I would say they're pretty true the majority of the time. My school has an in-school rating system, but no student comments are displayed, so sites like ratemyprofessor (where it's pretty easy to see who's giving a genuine review and who's bitter about the grade they got) or Koofers (where you can see the exact grade percentages for each teacher teaching a particular class, along with any reviews they might have gotten) are a big deal. The OP has a very valid worry that their reviews are affecting registration in their class.
posted by kro at 7:09 AM on January 16, 2010
"how many students do you really lose to the ratings on this site? do you really know? " etc.
I don't know about the OP's specific classes, but I think you would be VERY surprised to find out how many students use teacher rating sites to plan their schedules. I have radically changed my schedule in the past just to avoid the "bad" teachers- sometimes the reviews are bogus, but I would say they're pretty true the majority of the time. My school has an in-school rating system, but no student comments are displayed, so sites like ratemyprofessor (where it's pretty easy to see who's giving a genuine review and who's bitter about the grade they got) or Koofers (where you can see the exact grade percentages for each teacher teaching a particular class, along with any reviews they might have gotten) are a big deal. The OP has a very valid worry that their reviews are affecting registration in their class.
posted by kro at 7:09 AM on January 16, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
Webmaster, Admin, Suggestions and Teacher: webmaster@ratemyteachers.com
Advertising: advertising@ratemyteachers.com
Press: press@ratemyteachers.com
I'd send an email CC'd to each. I'd hope that ones coming from the contact form might be handled differently than those coming from a real live human. Couldn't hurt to try, at least. The idea is to get to a real person, any real person.
(I also checked the whois for the site, but it didn't tell me anything useful other than it's hosted by GoDaddy.)
posted by cgg at 2:10 PM on January 15, 2010