Hearst Corporation, a large print, television, and internet publisher, has notified one of its bloggers that he needs to stop removing the vowels from certain comments on his blog. Apparently Hearst’s lawyers have some concerns about the practice.
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The Consumerist Comments Code
The Consumerist Comments Code, which we repost every now and again, is intended to promote a discussion filled with substantive information, insights, humorous observations and relevant personal experiences. In other words, comments that other people would want to read. Here are some rules to help make this possible… (And while we’re on the topic of commenters, don’t forget to add your email address to your user profile by going to ../../../..//people/yourscreenname/profile/ so you can keep your commenter profile when we transition to a new platform this Fall)
Play Consumerist Comments Bingo
Know those Consumerist comments that get repeated and repeated, and disemoveled, over and over again? Don’t flame, play Bingo! Consumerist comments Bingo! All your favorites are there, like “slw nws dy?,” pointing out typos, blame the OP, and more! Reader catastrophe girl has uploaded a series of four delightful Bingo cards to our Flickr Pool so you can play the home version of the game we play in our minds.
Anonymous Comments And Facebook Connect Deactivated
We’re disabling anonymous comments and Facebook Connect.
How We Can Learn From The Financial Problems Of Others
Our post earlier today about Chase’s sudden 150% increase in a couple’s minimum payment on their credit card debt brought out a lot of passionate comments from readers—and it also turned into a cesspool of blame. We see a lot of a particular type of sentiment on posts about credit card debt and money management, and it’s not helpful.
Justice Department Takes Aim At Mean Commenters
Attention mean commenters: watch what you say or the Justice Department will hunt you down. Seriously! The U.S. Attorney in Nevada subpoenaed the Las Vegas Review-Journal to reveal the identities of two anonymous commenters whose statements could be read as mildly threatening to jurors involved in a tax case, if you’ve never read internet comments before.
Get Emailed About Comment Replies
Want to get an email when someone respond to your comment on Consumerist? Sign up for free notification at Bunedoggle.com. Enter your email, commenter name, select the “Consumerist” checkbox and hit subscribe. Follow the link in the authorization email and you’re ready to go. No spam, no gimmicks, just a free script a guy named Brian Bailey put together because it had to be done.
Credit Card Company Threats Don't Scare Consumerist Readers
When we wrote earlier about credit card companies’ threats to treat customers even worse in light of Congress passing credit card reform legislation, it ignited a righteous firestorm of consumer rage in the comments. Inside, our favorites.
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UPDATE: It’s getting worked on!
Comments still not functioning correctly for you? As Ben suggested, I’ve opened a complaint on GetSatisfaction.com to try to reach Gawker’s tech team. If the comment reply/preview feature is still broken for you (it seems to be working for some, not others), why not head over there and add your two cents to my complaint? [GetSatisfaction.com]
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Our reader Hank Scorpio, while taking a break from plotting to take over the world, suggested an awesome web tool earlier today: Readability. Drag the bookmark to your browser’s bookmark bar, then click it when you’re on a badly cluttered page and watch magic happen. [via Hank Scorpio]
Reply Button Issue Being Worked On
A number of users have reported that they’re having issues with the reply button not working or appearing in the comments. It popped up last week, then went away, and now it’s back again. Our tech team is on it and consider a high-priority. Hopefully it will be fixed soon. Sidenote: While we’re still on the Gawker platform, you can directly submit bugs and errors to tech at getsatisfaction.com/gawker.
Read The Consumerist Comments Code
Have you checked out the Consumerist Comments Code? It’s got guidelines we’ve found make the comments area interesting and enjoyable for others to read and participate in.
Consumerist Comments Code Makes Comment Land Happy Place
Don’t forget to familiarize yourself with the Consumerist Comments Code before, during, and after diving into the comments conversation.
Minor Comments Changes: Auto-Collapses And Star Rules
Any comment that isn’t part of an active thread, or had a recent response, will be collapsed — unless the commenter is a star or one of your friends. Stars are now only by an editor or admin. Previously, you get earn a star just by having a certain number of friends and followers, but no longer. However, if you already have a star, you will get to keep it. Unless you start stinking and we remove it. You’ve probably already noticed these changes, they’ve been in effect for about a week.
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Don’t forget we have a Consumerist Comments Code containing various rules and guidelines that help make comments a nice places for people to have conversations.
Chronological Comments Are Back
Thanks to your feedback, there’s two important tweaks to the comments revamp from yesterday:
Like Your Commenter Name? Feed Us Your Email Address
If you want to keep access to your Consumerist commenter login, it’s a good idea to update your profile with a valid email address. Sometime this fall we will transition to a new blogging platform and we will need to email everyone new passwords to migrate them over. So go into your Consumerist profile and make sure there’s a working email in there. Just click “profile” at the top right of the page, then “edit my profile,” plug your email address in, hit update, and you’re done.