We’ve gotten a flood of emails over the past few days: it seems like everyone who saw Ben shmooze it up on Nightline wrote in to vent about a bad consumer experience or two. This is truly awesome — a cursory glance at this site shows that most of its news comes from a consumerist grapevine sprouted from the loam of bad experiences. We love you guys; this site wouldn’t exist without you.

Nevertheless, we’d like to try to guide you in getting something published on the Consumerist. We’ve got a few guidelines after the jump.

1. We get a lot of one sentence emails that say, “Such and such a company reamed me. Interested in details?” Yes, we are, so just take it as read and send the details when you initially email us.

2. We want thoughtful, intelligent emails from responsible consumers, not temper-tantrums from spoiled brats with a sense of entitlement. We understand that sometimes you get frustrated and just want to get it all out, but these emails are rarely something we can use. Sit down for a few minutes, think it through. If it doesn’t seem that important after a few deep breaths, it’s probably not something we’ll post anyway.

3. We realize not everyone is Jacques Barzun. Nevertheless, please try to write your emails with the view of getting them published. What we would like to see are clear, concise emails no longer than they have to be: emails that state the company, circumstances and problem, then explain the service you expected and why you feel cheated. We get an awful lot of meandering, rambling ten page emails… even when these are good, they are hard to post. If a story is much longer than a page or two, it’s probably too long to post.

4. Proof is always better than baseless accusation. Proof’s sometimes hard to come by, and isn’t a requirement, but if you can back something up, please do. It makes it more interesting all around.

Ultimately, this site is at its best when we’re posting the legitimate gripes of intelligent, well-spoken consumers who have been burned even after they’ve bent over backwards trying to be reasonable and rational. It’s at its worst when we are posting someone’s rant about a 2 dollar plate of eggs or a copy of a phone bill being disputed over a 10 cent call to Nigeria.

We’d like to get this site to the point that as soon as a corporate executive sees his name on this site, he knows his organization has a legitimate customer service problem. And we’d like you to help us do that.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.