With holiday auto executive house-cleaning in mind, it's time for a crash course in comments etiquette. What can you do? What should you definitely never do? What, in effect, do we want from you, fellow Jalopnik gearheads?
Simply put — we want you to be funny, we want you to be coherent and we want you to contribute to the post at hand.
For those of you new around here, and for those of you who just don't get it, in no particular order, here's what we are looking for in a comment:
* Good spelling and grammar (this includes coherence, capitalization and punctuation).
* Hilarity.
* Staying on topic. Ask yourself, is this threadjack worth it, or should I make a #hashtag page?
* Hilarity.
* Intelligent criticism. Attack where appropriate, but make it informed attacks — not mindless bitching.
* Did we mention hilarity?
(Here's a good place to look for more basic etiquette...)
Hashtags: Welcome to da #Future !!1!
Staying on topic is sort of essential on posts, but one place where you can make up your own place to talk is through a specific hashtag page. Look at it like a mini-forum on the topic of your choice. You want to talk about how I suck? Create a #raywertsucks page. Want to talk about Honda killing the Civic? Create a #hondakillscivic page. Then tell your friends to come over to the page you've created and have your off-topic conversation. Heck, we might even feature it in an upcoming post if you let us know.
Show us your #Tips!
But how, you might ask, will you be able to let us know? Well, use the #tips page. That's the page we've set up where you can share with us and the world breaking news, leaked info, links of interest and videos. Give us some substantive lines on why we should follow up, and your post may be promoted or featured on the blog. The #tips page is also an excellent space to audition as a first-time commenter with a juicy tidbit or to show off your investigative instincts. Self-promoters and spammers will be summarily banned, but quality contributors have the spotlight.
#Offtopic: The Commenter Lounge!
In addition, there is now an informal commenter forum, [#offtopic], where the conversation is yours to guide. This is the place to add comments, liveblogs, pictures, video, and links that are relevant to the community. It's also easy to jump over here if you find yourself veering off-topic and want to take others with you.
Some Standard Rules of Behavior
These go for everyone:
* Personal attacks, inappropriate behavior and off-topic rants in comments are subject to bans, disemvoweling, deletion and loss of stars.
* Commenters can be demoted for unruly or obscene posting.
Starred Commenters:
* Your privileges are not guaranteed. This is not Princeton, and you most certainly do not have tenure. Poor performance will get you demoted and de-starred.
* Be careful in the comments you approve and promote. Promoting a comment just to tell someone they suck is pointless, so it's best to ignore them. Promote them and you will find yourself quickly de-starred.
As always, we're all always on the lookout for our best contributors, to promote and star for brilliant efforts. Do your best, be creative and we will see you on the Internet!