Content Reporting and Removal Guidelines

Rotten Apples provides a "Report" link next to all user-generated content on both our website and mobile app. This allows users to report any content they believe to be inaccurate or offensive. We may review and evaluate reported content on a case-by-case basis at our sole discretion. To ensure eligibility for posting, users must verify their email address after creating a Rotten Apples account.

Our platform aims to serve as a space where individuals can share experiences about schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods, while reading others' experiences. We do not edit user-submitted content and do not filter or remove negative reviews, unless it violates Site User Agreement. Our goal is to remain neutral in factual disputes, and we do not act as the "finder of fact" in reviews. We only remove content when it fails to meet our guidelines, as outlined below and in the Site User Agreement.

We apply consistent standards to all content. This policy helps maintain user trust and supports an objective and unbiased stance. Below are the circumstances under which we will consider removing a review:

Inappropriate Content: Reviews containing offensive language, hate speech, racism, bigotry, or derogatory terms.
Personal Information: Reviews that reference specific personal information, such as an email address or birthdate.
Criticism of Individuals: Reviews that negatively target an individual by name.
Specific Crimes: Reviews referencing a specific crime or violation. Rotten Apples is not a platform for crime reporting. General statements such as "drug problems" or "harassment issues" do not qualify.
Threats of Harm: Reviews that contain threats of harm to oneself or others.
Gibberish: Reviews that are clearly unintelligible or nonsensical (e.g., random letters or song lyrics).
Third-Party Links: Reviews that include links to other websites.
Clear Inaccuracy: Reviews that clearly address the wrong place, such as mentioning a location in Ohio when the review pertains to a school in Florida.
Uninformed Reviewer: Reviews from users who lack experience with or knowledge about the subject they are reviewing. Examples include "I'm not involved in Greek life" or "I don't know."
Intellectual Property: Reviews that contain copyrighted or trademarked material. Refer to the User Agreement for disputes over intellectual property.
Advertising Content: Reviews that contain blatant advertisements or promotional material.
Coerced Users: Reviews that are clearly written under duress or coercion.
Emoji Usage: Due to system limitations, reviews containing unsupported emojis may be removed or not published. For the best chance of your review being posted, we recommend refraining from using emojis.

For more details on how we monitor user-generated content, see our Quality Control Procedures.

We reserve the right to change, modify, or delete any part of these Guidelines at our discretion. Additionally, we are not obligated to follow these Guidelines in reviewing reported content and may refuse to act on any report at any time, for any reason.

Quality Control for User-Submitted Content

Rotten Apples employs various measures to ensure the accuracy of user-submitted data and reviews. While no system is perfect, these techniques aim to minimize inaccurate or erroneous data and ensure that aggregated data is representative of the given school.

User Content Submission

User-generated content is collected through surveys and account registration on Rotten Apples. To submit content (reviews or surveys), users must create an account. We collect data to identify fraudulent users or reviews but do not require a school-affiliated email, allowing alumni to participate even if they no longer use a school email.

Quality Control Procedures

Rotten Apples follows three primary phases for content verification:

Automatic Quality Control: Prevents erroneous or fraudulent data from affecting the site, checking for data outliers and inappropriate language.
Community Flagging/Feedback: Visitors can report content via the "Report" link, prompting a manual review.
Regular Data Audits: We conduct periodic reviews to detect anomalies like multiple similar reviews, suspicious activity, or mismatched user locations.

Quality control is an ongoing process that evolves based on user feedback, school data, and internal reviews. We continuously improve our practices to enhance content accuracy.

Effective: February 5, 2025