There is a deplorable genre of Web sites that encourage consumers to assassinate the character of others publicly – anonymously and permanently– online. Be clear: these sites are not motivated by civic duty; they are businesses getting significant revenue from advertisers. Not only can you read slanderous comments on the sites themselves, but these comments are also likely to come up on any search engine query against the names of those being vilified.

I'm calling out three Web services that scrape the bottom of the decency barrel: RateMyTeachers.com, RottenNeighbor.com, and juicycampus.com.

RateMyTeachers.com

This site can claim the dubious distinction of being an early muckraker as it has been around for a few years. While there are some positive comments about teachers on the site, there are good reasons that 962 schools and 181 school districts across the country have blocked it the site by not allowing comments for the schools. The site does not require any balance, evidence to back claims, or even that the students give their names. Instead, the site provides a virtually unmonitored forum to spew venom.

To get an understanding of the "quality" of comments that are acceptable on RateMyTeachers, I've created the screenshot below in which I've collated comments, stripping out any information that could identify a teacher.

RottenNeighbor.com

This new addition to the bottom feeding genre allows anyone to post whatever they'd like about neighbors, and the site abets the slander further by providing a map to locate the victim’s home. Notice that the people posting chose to be private, a courtesy they certainly didn't afford their victims. It is apparently justifiable to attack neighbors for such "crimes" as being disabled or going bald.

juicycampus.com

This Web site (still in beta, a pre-commercial launch) is entirely dedicated to allowing students to comment on other students. It seems no level of slur or amount of profanity is too low. The site brags about allowing posters to be 100% anonymous, and ranks listings by how "juicy" they are. Individuals can be called out by name and school and bullied— with no recourse.

What you can do

Sending feedback to these Web sites is probably not going to be very effective – though it may have more success on RateMyTeachers than on the other two because this site pretends to be a legitimate service. A better approach is to register your objections with the advertisers thereby targeting their revenue stream.

Here are a few of the advertisers that should be ashamed of supporting these sites:

RateMyTeachers – Vonage, Yellow Pages,

RottenNeighbor - Buchan Homes, National Alert Registry, Wilshire Homes,

Juicycampus – American Express, Hewlett Packard,

Take a stand for decency.

Linda