Our WebSite Rules

Rate It Green is an online community committed to growing the Green Building market through shared resources and information.

Rate It Green, LLC Site Rules
Last Updated: June 1, 2012

PLEASE READ THIS SITE RULES DOCUMENT CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS SITE. By using, accessing or registering as a member of the Rate It Green, you agree to be bound by and hereby become a party to all the terms of this document as well as the User Agreement. If you do not agree to abide by the rules set forth in this document as well as in the User Agreement, then you may not use the Rate It Green web site or participate as a member of this community.

This document is a description of some of the "rules of the road" for posting and sharing information on the Rate It Green online community, or web site. Again, make sure you have read and understand, and agree to our full User Agreement before participating as a member of this community.

Introduction

Rate it Green is a community where information is to be shared among people with common interests. These interest include learning more about green building and design products and services, and generally expanding opportunities for everyone interested in more environmentally responsible materials and services. As such, it is important that we all adhere to certain rules and community standards. Content listed or posted on Rate It Green should really be designed to promote the greater sharing of information and/or to help those interested in various types of products learn more so that they can make the responsible purchasing decisions that are right for them. Praise is encouraged for products and services that do a superb job and/or deliver what has been promised and perhaps exceed expectations. Constructive criticism is appropriate when a product and service is not up to standard and/or has not delivered what has been promised. Please keep in mind that, though each person's experience and feedback is highly valuable and welcome, each person's experience is one data point among many. It is our hope that the collective feedback of this group will help form an accurate picture of what most people can expect so that consumers can learn and can therefore make better purchasing decisions, and so that manufacturers and service providers can learn through feedback how to make improvements in their offerings.

We have listed our usage policies so that you may understand how and why we regulate site usage. We encourage you to contact us if you should have any questions or concerns.

Site Usage Policy/Site Rules

The Site Usage Policy detailed below is a part of Rate It Green's User Agreement. Please understand that by using the Rate It Green web site, you are agreeing to be bound by the terms and conditions of the User Agreement, including this Site Usage Policy.

When submitting content to Rate It Green whether in the form of reviews, editorials, comments, ratings or your profile page, the following are highly appropriate and encouraged: (!)

• Sharing your informed views with others about products and services you have used and are educated about in a manner designed to help others who are seeking this type of information
• Asking questions so that you may learn more from others about green products and services
• Congratulating manufacturers and service providers who you believe have done a great job
• Offering constructive and respectful criticism when you believe that a manufacturer or service provider has offered a product or service that needs improvement for one reason or another, in your opinion.
• Being supportive of fellow individual and corporate members
• Becoming an individual member in addition if you have signed up for a company account. As a corporate member, you represent your company on Rate It Green and should limited your participation top activities regarding your company's products and services (and your posts will be labeled with the company or organization name). As an individual, you have a protected identity and can participate as a full member of the site by offering your opinions and posting questions and answers about other green materials.
• Becoming a very active member of the Rate It Green community
• Asking questions and/or contacting Rate It Green with site feedback at any time. We welcome your ideas and opinions!

When submitting content to Rate It Green whether in the form of reviews, editorials, comments, ratings or your profile page, the following are inappropriate:

• Posting information that is known by you to be false, inaccurate or misleading;
• Posting information in a manner that or containing information that misrepresents your (protected) identity as an individual user in a way that might mislead others;
• Posting information in a manner that or containing information that misrepresents your company or organization or information about your company organization as a corporate user. An employee of an organization posting information about a product or service offered by that organization must identify him or herself as such by posting while registered as a corporate member within that account or by noting in the post that he or she is an employee of said organization.);
• Posting information that is not related to the particular forum or ratings space where posted;
• Uploading, posting, emailing, transmitting or otherwise making available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or any form of solicitation (as opposed to a sincere forum posting or rating from one person who has used a product or service and is advising another based on their experience) that is not specifically approved by Rate It Green in advance;
• Posting information that violates any law, statute, ordinance or regulation (including, but not limited to, those governing export control, consumer protection, unfair competition, anti-discrimination or false advertising);
• Posting information that is, or may reasonably be considered to be, defamatory, libelous, hateful, racially or religiously biased or offensive, unlawfully threatening or unlawfully harassing to any individual, partnership or corporation;
• Posting material containing profanity and vulgarity;
• Posting information for which you were compensated or granted any consideration by any third party;
• Posting information that includes any information that references addresses, email addresses, contact information or phone numbers of others (we work to protect your privacy, but you control whether or not you choose to let others know more about your identity);
• Posting information that contains any computer viruses, worms or other potentially damaging computer programs or files;
• Posting material containing profanity, vulgarity, hate speech or threats of violence;
• Defaming a third party;
• Posting information and/or link to materials or resources that contain restricted or password only access pages, or hidden pages or images (those not linked to or from another accessible page);
• Providing material that exploits people under the age of 18 in a sexual or violent manner, or solicits personal information from anyone under 18;
• Providing instructional information about illegal activities such as making or buying illegal weapons, violating someone's privacy, or providing or creating computer viruses;

As an individual or corporate member of Rate It Green Rate It Green, the following are inappropriate:

• Using language in your username that is or may reasonably be considered to be offensive
• Creating more than one individual or corporate account. You may, and are actively encouraged, to create one of each types of account. On Rate It Green, we view a logged in authorized user a representative/ambassador of the company he or she represents. But an individually registered member is completely independent and speaks for him or herself. See below for more information - A user should not represent his or her identity in a way that can be misleading to others.)
• Re-establishing an account on Rate It Green after your account has been terminated
• Selecting or using a Member ID or image that violates someone's trademark rights
• Affecting the way Rate It Green displays its pages, such as by framing Rate It Green or placing pop-up windows over its pages
• Using any automated means to access the site or collect any information from the site
• Using ActiveX, Java, Javascript, cookies, web bugs or tracking technologies (such as HumanClick or Sitemeter)
• Collecting any personal information about user_id through Rate It Green, including, but not limited to, their username or password
• Using emails tools (such as "Email this page") to send spam
• Sharing your password with a third party
• Publishing or using files or processes that pose a threat to the proper technical operation of the system or to the security of other members
• Provide any content that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots or other computer programming routines that are intended to damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information
• Customizing Rate It Green in a way that adversely affects the display of any advertising or promotional links on the site
• Requesting search engines to crawl or index any portion of Rate It Green
• Modifying or creating variant versions of Rate It Green's logos or other trademarks
• Illegal activity under the laws of Massachusetts and the United States
• Speaking on behalf of Rate It Green, describing yourself as a Rate It Green employee or using Rate It Green's letterhead
• Including contact or personal information about another individual without their permission
• Including any pornographic content (This includes any sexually explicit pictures.)
• Submitting content on a product/topic that is reasonably likely to offend a person looking for information on that product/topic
• Submitting content on a product/service that appears to have malicious intent towards that product/service beyond reason (to the discretion of Rate It Green, LLC's management team)
• Harassing another member
• Publishing the same review more than once. A review may only be published more than once if the review compares two products and there is at least a 50 word difference between the two reviews
• Using advertisements, paid links, affiliate marketing, or any form of link spam.
• "Stalking" or otherwise harass another; and/or collecting or storing personal data about other user_id in connection with the prohibited conduct and activities set forth above
• Soliciting passwords or personal identifying information for commercial or unlawful purposes from other user_id; and engaging in commercial activities and/or sales without our prior written consent such as contests, sweepstakes, barter, advertising, and pyramid schemes.
• Providing material support or resources (or to conceal or disguise the nature, location, source, or ownership of material support or resources) to any organization(s) designated by the United States government as a foreign terrorist organization pursuant to section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act;

If in its sole discretion, Rate It Green's management determines that a violation of this policy has occurred, actions will be taken as described in the Rate It Green User Agreement. Such actions might include but are not limited to the removal of challenged content and the termination of your Rate It Green membership.

As you post, please make sure to be respectful of the organizations and companies, and other Rate It Green members (!) that make up our community. We welcome praise and advice and even criticism, but all ratings should be constructive in nature.