How To Ask For Rating

Getting started

Since there's no way to predict your experience level, this guide has elements directed to novices.

Before asking, please do a quick check of your website and answer the following questions to yourself. Please fix any issues you find. Regular voters will notice these things and ask you to correct them anyway. Please note: The rules here might seem a bit harsh, but trust is one of the most coveted goods on the internet; Easy to lose, difficult to gain.

Do you have a Contact Information/Impressum?

While it may or may not be required by your local law, the WOT community frowns upon missing contact information. Please understand, laws differ by country, we cannot take that into account. We use the simple rule that you need one. While you might not agree, you should add one or be prepared to explain why you haven't.

Think about it, would you trust someone who declines to tell you his / her name?

A Contact Us page should include:

   * Company name
   * Your name
   * Phone number
   * A physical address
   * A business email address
   * A business phone number

Tip!
Displaying contact information may be done using an image as opposed to written text. This allows the data to be viewed by human eyes and less likely to be harvested by spam bots or other automated processes.

Do you have a Privacy Statement?

With a privacy statement you declare what you do with collected information. People are increasingly sensitive about these things.

Since privacy is a big concern, it has its own page. If you have no privacy statement or are not sure about it, look here for more information.

Basically you need a privacy statement when you:

• Use Web Bugs
• Use HTTP Cookies
• Flash Cookies (LSOs)
• Have input forms (collecting any, even anonymous, data)

Do you need SSL Encryption?

If you collect any sensitive information e.g. Personally Identifiable Information (PII), you should use 'https' to do so. A login box may require SSL depending on the content it unlocks.

Basically it's the difference between a postcard and a sealed letter. Ask yourself: "Would I write my credit card/account information on a postcard?". Use common sense to decide whether you need SSL or not. If you are unsure, SSL is the safe bet. If unsure, ask for opinions.

Once you have SSL on your site, you can check to make sure that it is properly configured here or here

I have an adult site, should I still ask for a rating?

There is no reason not to. However, you should expect the Adult Content category to be rated RED. The other categories will be rated independently.

Please note: We do consider all content that is inappropriate for children to be adult material. If you have violent pictures on your site, we will rate it as adult content.

Important things about asking

The first and foremost thing: Be polite. The answers/questions you get in response may sound hostile to you. People look at your website and try to find something that is wrong with it. It's similar to a test in school: The teacher tries to find the mistakes. While this may feel hostile, it isn't. We just want to make sure your site is safe and trustworthy.

Also, please take into account that a lot of people (probably you, too) in the forum are not native speakers of English and may not even know that their answers sound gruff.

Time to ask!

To speed up things, please give us the following information when you request a review of your site:

• Mention the domain name in the title
• Mention the domain name in the text
• Acknowledge the site has a privacy policy with a link in the footer, along with the Terms of Service (ToS) if the site is a forum or offers a service or product (business).
• If you are not the owner, tell us your affiliation to the site
• Give us a few words about your site, tell us what it is, a shop, a blog, etc.

Remember: Be polite.