The Rules
We published these before there was a single post on the site. That's on purpose. A place to be honest about Tulane only works if it isn't a place to go after people.
This page used to bar naming anyone. That rule was loosened to allow naming an instructor when a post is specifically about their teaching. This materially increases the site's exposure to a defamation claim, and the change has not been reviewed by anyone qualified to sign off on that risk.
You can name an instructor. Write about the teaching.
If you're posting about a class, you can say who taught it. What we care about is that the post is about the teaching — how clear the lectures were, how the grading worked, whether feedback showed up, how much work it actually was, whether office hours happened.
“Professor Ruiz's grading criteria were never explained and the midterm didn't match the lectures” is a scoop. “Professor Ruiz is an idiot” is not, and won't go up. Same name, completely different post.
The test: could the person reading it use it to decide whether to take the class? If yes, write it. If it's just how you feel about someone, keep it.
Off limits, regardless of who it's about
- Anything not about the course. Appearance, accent, age, personal life, politics, who someone is dating. None of it belongs here.
- Accusations of misconduct. If something serious happened — harassment, discrimination, anything that needs an investigation — this site is the wrong place and posting it here may make it harder to deal with properly. Take it to the university or to Title IX. We will remove those posts, and we're not being difficult: we can't investigate, and a public accusation nobody has looked into helps no one.
- Anything you can't stand behind. Write what happened, not what you heard.
Other students, staff, and everyone else stays unnamed
The naming exception is for instructors in their teaching role, and only that. Don't name other students, RAs, dining staff, advisors' personal details, or anyone else.
No pile-ons
If something's already been said, you don't need to say it again louder. Repeated posts aimed at the same target get removed even when each one on its own looks fine.
Be honest, including when it's boring
The useful scoop is often unglamorous — a deadline nobody mentions, a building that's further than it looks. You don't have to be funny. You have to be accurate.
Don't post things that aren't yours to post
No private messages, no photos of people who didn't agree, no someone-else's-business.
How moderation works
Every post is read by a person before it appears. Nothing publishes automatically. If a post follows the rules it goes up; if it doesn't, it doesn't, and it isn't published in edited form either — we don't rewrite what you said.
We ask for a Tulane email address when you post. It is never shown on the site. A moderator is the only person who sees it, and it exists so that posts come from people who actually go here.
Who moderates, how quickly they respond, and what happens on a weekend have not been decided. Turnaround must not be stated on this page until the team can actually meet it. A takedown path that works outside business hours is required before launch.
Reporting a post
If something here breaks these rules, tell us and we'll look at it.
No report form and no monitored address have been set up. A report link that goes nowhere is worse than none at all, because it creates a record of a complaint that was ignored. This blocks launch.
If we get it wrong
These rules will have gaps we haven't thought of. When we change them, we'll say what changed and why, on this page.