A new FAQ, and the skinny on our comment policy

If you’ll excuse a bit of a housekeeping post this morning, I just want to point out that we have a new site FAQ. Some of the content is from our old, desperately outdated FAQ, but for the most part it’s brand new and completely revised.

It explains our policy on Episode VII rumors, where we get book release dates, that whole pineapple thing, and perhaps most relevantly, our comment policy.

As the site has gotten more and more popular, the number of comments has followed suit. Generally that’s been a good thing, but it also means we have to be more on guard: We certainly don’t aspire to be one of those sites where you don’t want to read to comments, ever. We’ve been moderating comments pretty heavily recently what with recent posts on controversial topics like the prequels, politics, and the end of Clone Wars.

Here’s the question on comments in full for the link-shy:

My comment was moderated/never showed up. What gives?

Several comments are moderated. It’s generally not personal – for instance, all first comments are automatically moderated. All of them. Some comments with certain keywords regarding hot-button issues are automatically monitored. Most comments are approved within a few hours at most.

Comments that are not approved are generally for a few reasons – being off topic, bad grammar, insults and the like. It’s okay if you disagree with us or things we link, but don’t be a jerk about it.

Our goal is for our comment section to be a pleasant place to converse – though obviously we’re rather snarky ourselves, so we don’t mind a bit of bite at times. (And no, we haven’t always been perfect!) But we don’t want to be a place for unhinged ranting and raving, either – there’s plenty of forums for that already. We strongly suggest you read Dunc’s post on fandom civility – it is very relevant to the types of comments we are and aren’t interested in hosting.

There’s a fine line to sarcasm and snark. If you cross it, or if you’re outright rude or otherwise inappropriate (we really don’t care if you want to ‘tap that,’) we may just choose not to host your comment.

We’re not super-strict in the grammar thing – none of us are English teachers (i.e. don’t worry if you mix up ‘who’ and ‘whom’) but this is not Facebook or an IM chat. You do have to be in the wheelhouse.

So, basically: Play nice. Be on topic. Type properly.

Now, most comments have been approved, and I suspect most will continue to be approved, but it’s clearly more than time to make our unofficial policy official.

For the record, the most common reason for not being approved? Bad grammar. Followed by being off topic. True nastiness has been a very distant third, and I hope it stays that way. But again, I do encourage folks – new readers especially – to take a look at the civility post. There’s probably nothing on the site more relevant to the community we’d like to see.