Wednesday, March 05, 2008
France Decides That Expressing An Opinion About Your Teachers Should Be Illegal
Techdirt: "Sites like RateMyTeacher.com and RateMyProfessor.com have been around in the US for ages, but it appears that some other countries aren't too thrilled with the concept."
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2 comments:
That title is a little harsh.
Ratemyteachers.com is a really lousy site. Most of the users aren't mature enough to handle the site, and just post mean, disrespectful, and even slanderous misinformation about their teachers because of a poor grade, or personal vendetta. I would be okay with these sites if 1) the teacher consented to the use of their name, or 2) only legitimate criticism could be posted. Unfortunately, there are so many users, quality control is pretty difficult. I'm pretty sure ratemyprofessors.com is the same way.
The outright banning of the site is a little ridiculous, but I can see why people would do it. A user can basically post whatever they want about a teacher until it's taken down. An anonymous user could post any sort of personal information, and it would take days for it to be taken down.
I actually read some of those websties when I was considering colleges. They gave me an insight on the people I'd have to work with and gave me a better insight on what the faculty was like. It was usually clear who was just being an asshole and those who are actually giving an honest opinion. I completely agree with the closing argument of the article: if teachers are concerned about their grade, they need to evaluate themselves. I understand not every country has freedom of speech, but I highly doubt trashing a teacher is enough to put a country on alert.
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