RateMyProfessors.com has its own vocabulary, its own values and its own idiosyncrasies. Success on the site is a badge of something. It’s just not immediately clear what. As a result, Rate My Professors is best consulted “for novelty purposes only,” as the tag on bad fake-ID cards used to read.
Students should not base decisions about their education on it, believing (mistakenly) that they always know how to filter information on wiki sites. And professors should not get ideas from it, believing (mistakenly) that it represents the wisdom of crowds. The top professors on Rate My Professors, after all, are not the top professors in the nation. Rather, they’re the top professors on RateMyProfessors.com.
via nytimes.com