Terms of Service

Effective date: August 24, 2026

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your use of ratewave.net (“RateWave”, “we”, “us”). By creating an account or using the service you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use RateWave.

The service

RateWave lets you rate video games, TV shows, and movies, attach a public comment to a rating, keep a watchlist, and follow other users. It is currently free, with no advertising and no paid tier. We may introduce paid features or advertising in the future; if we do, we will update these Terms before they take effect. We may change, suspend, or discontinue any part of the service at any time, with or without notice.

Your account

• You must be at least 16 years old to use RateWave.
• You must provide a valid email address. Your account is not created until you enter the 6-digit confirmation code we email to that address.
• You must keep your password secure and are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account. Tell us promptly if you believe your account has been compromised.
• Your email address cannot be changed in the current version of the service.
• One person, one account. Do not create accounts to evade a ban.

Usernames

Usernames must be 3–20 characters using lowercase letters, numbers, and underscores. Certain names are reserved. We may reclaim or change a username that impersonates someone, infringes a trademark, is offensive, or is used in bad faith.

Our content

RateWave’s name, logo, design, code, layout, and all other material we create are owned by us or our licensors. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, revocable licence to access and use the site for personal, non-commercial purposes. Nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of that material to you, and you may not copy, adapt, or reuse it outside that licence without our written permission.

Catalog data, artwork, and metadata belong to their respective providers and rights holders, not to us.

Your content

You retain ownership of the ratings, comments, and profile content you post. By posting, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, display, and distribute that content within the service. This license ends when you delete the content or your account, subject to the retention described in our Privacy Policy.

You are responsible for what you post and must have the right to post it. RateWave is public by design: your username, avatar, ratings, comments, watchlist, and follow relationships are visible to anyone and may be indexed by search engines. Do not post anything you are not willing to publish.

Content posted by other users

Ratings and comments on RateWave are created by users, not by us. We do not endorse, verify, adopt, or take responsibility for anything a user posts, and opinions expressed in comments are those of their authors alone.

We do not pre-screen or routinely monitor user content, and we are under no obligation to do so. We may, but are not required to, review, remove, or restrict any content at our discretion. Because we cannot review everything, we rely on users to report content that breaches these Terms. Please use the report control on any comment.

You access and rely on user content at your own risk.

Because comments come from other users, you may come across opinions or material you find offensive or objectionable. If you see something that breaks these Terms, please report it using the report control on the comment.

Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Post unlawful, harassing, hateful, threatening, or infringing content.
• Post sexually explicit material, or content promoting self-harm or violence.
• Impersonate others or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or organization.
• Manipulate ratings, for example through duplicate accounts, automated voting, or coordinated review campaigns.
• Game the follow system, for example trading reciprocal follows, or using duplicate or automated accounts to inflate follower counts or a title’s apparent popularity.
• Abuse, spam, scrape, or attempt to disrupt the service, or circumvent its rate limits, authentication, or security measures.
• Use the service or its catalog data for a commercial purpose.

Child safety

Content or activity that sexually exploits or endangers a child is strictly prohibited and has no place on RateWave. Where we become aware of such content, we will remove it and report it to the appropriate authorities in compliance with applicable law, together with whatever related information we hold at that time. If you encounter this kind of content, report it immediately using the report control on the comment, or email [email protected].

Reporting and enforcement

Any signed-in user can report a comment. We may review reports and, at our discretion, warn you, mute you, remove content, remove an avatar, or suspend or ban an account that violates these Terms. A warning is a notice shown to you on the site, which you can dismiss; it is a record kept on your account, and it does not by itself restrict your account or automatically lead to any further action. A mute stops you from posting new comments or editing existing ones; it does not sign you out, does not hide comments you have already posted, and you can still rate titles. When an account is banned, its comments are hidden from public view and the account can no longer sign in. We are not obligated to act on every report, and we may act without a report.

Making false or malicious reports, or repeatedly reporting the same content or user in bad faith, is itself a violation of these Terms and may result in action against your account. We may also take into account conduct that occurs outside RateWave when making moderation decisions.

Copyright and other complaints

If you believe content on RateWave infringes your copyright or other rights, or is unlawful, contact us at [email protected] with enough detail to identify the content, an explanation of the problem, and your contact details. We will review the report and remove content where appropriate.

We may remove content and terminate the accounts of users who repeatedly infringe the rights of others.

Third-party data

Catalog information is provided by IGDB and TMDB and remains subject to their respective terms. This website uses TMDB and the TMDB APIs but is not endorsed, certified, or otherwise approved by TMDB. We do not control this data and are not responsible for its accuracy or availability.

Disclaimer & limitation of liability

RateWave is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, express or implied. We do not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or that data you store with us will not be lost, or that catalog information supplied by third parties is accurate or complete.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages arising from your use of the service, nor for any loss of data, goodwill, or reputation, nor for the conduct or content of any user.

RateWave is provided free of charge. To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total aggregate liability to you for all claims arising out of or relating to the service is limited to one hundred US dollars (USD 100).

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless RateWave and its operator from any claim, demand, loss, liability, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) brought by a third party and arising out of: content you post; your use of the service; your breach of these Terms; or your violation of any law or of the rights of another person.

We will notify you of any such claim and you may participate in its defence. You may not settle a claim in a way that imposes any obligation on us without our prior written consent.

Termination

You may stop using RateWave and delete your account at any time from your account settings. Deletion is permanent and irreversible: your ratings, comments, watchlist, and follows are removed, and your username and email address become available for anyone to register again. If you held a moderation role, the record of actions you took on other accounts is kept without your account details attached, so that those users’ moderation history remains complete.

We may suspend, limit, or terminate your access to RateWave at our discretion, with or without notice, for example for breaking these Terms, or for conduct we reasonably believe harms the service, its users, or us. Where it is practical to do so we will tell you why, unless we need to act immediately or are prevented from explaining for legal or integrity reasons. If your account is actioned, you can contact us at [email protected] to ask about or appeal the decision.

Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of Saudi Arabia, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. You and we agree that the courts of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the service.

Before starting formal proceedings, we ask that you contact us at [email protected] so we can try to resolve the matter directly.

Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by updating the effective date above. Your continued use of RateWave after a change means you accept the updated Terms.

General

Severability. If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, that provision is limited or removed to the minimum extent necessary and the remaining provisions stay in full effect.

No waiver. If we do not enforce a provision of these Terms, that is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.

Assignment. You may not transfer or assign your account or your rights under these Terms. We may assign these Terms to a successor operator of the service.

Electronic communications. You agree that we may send you required notices, security alerts, and other communications about your account electronically, to the email address on your account, and that these satisfy any legal requirement for such communications to be in writing.

Feedback. If you send us ideas, suggestions, or other feedback about RateWave, we may use it for any purpose without any obligation to you, including without compensation or any duty of confidentiality.

Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, form the entire agreement between you and us regarding RateWave and replace any earlier version.

Survival. The sections covering your content licence, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, and governing law survive termination of your account.

Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent to [email protected]. RateWave is operated by Salem Al-Qahtani, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. See also our Privacy Policy.