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How to Rate a Website
This text is directed at new members of Web of Trust who would like to know how to check a website and then rate it. It tries to give a simple overview of the things that are important.
Browsing the forum can be intimidating, with all the information the senior members seem to be able to dig out. Following the instructions here, you will be able to close the gap a bit and be able to find out more about a website. Some of the tools described here need some experience to use, but it is not as difficult as it may sound at first. Don't let yourself freak out, simply dive in and try it. If in doubt or if you don't understand some parts of this text, please ask in the forum. You will be helped and your question may help to improve this guide.
Check the scorecard
The first thing you should do is check the WoT Scorecard of the site. You can get there by adding the domain name to the link to the scorecard. e.g. in case of "example.com" go to http://www.mywot.com/de/scorecard/example.com
If there are comments, they might give you a few hints about the site. Please use common sense about them. If the site is commented to host malware, be extra careful. Please try to keep an open mind, not all comments are true. Some might be outdated, some created by the owner to promote his site, some by people who do not like him. With some experience you will get a feeling for the comments.
Check for blacklisting
Blacklisted means, that the site is on one of various lists that track misconduct like hosting malware or spamming. If a site hosts viruses or is a known attack site, you wouldn't like to go there, won't you? So it's a good idea to check for that before you visit it.
How to check on How_To_Check_For_Blacklisting#UrlVoid UrlVoid. How to check on How_To_Check_For_Blacklisting#Malwareurl Malwareurl.
If a site is detected on a blacklist, give the person who asked for voting the advice to clean up the site and get delisted. Only after you could confirm (e.g. by a delisting) you should consider to vote the site good. Please note: A delisting does not automatically make a site "good". It still has to meet the rest of the conditions like having a good privacy policy.
Read "How to ask for rating"
Basically, the same rules that apply to site owners apply to your rating. Contact information, privacy policy, SSL encryption. Look out for them!
A missing privacy policy is the simple case. A more subtle thing is an insufficient or bad privacy policy. Insufficient means that some things are missing and should be mentioned. Bad privacy policys contain passages which are harmful to the people visiting them. An example would be: "We are allowed to share the gathered information with third parties without your consent." That line would basically allow the company to give or sell all collected data to anybody.
Useful tools
Firefox plugins:
- NoScript - Blocks javascript code unless you allow it to be executed.
- Ghostery - Lists trackers on the site
