apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

This was just posted in the comments for an entry on the NY site:

God this is a horrible, horrible room. HOW CAN YOU SCREW UP THE light blue & chocolate brown COMBINATION! Somehow you managed. God awful. And even worse, in PLAIN DAYLIGHT you managed to darken this into an 80s comeback, over-decorated, definitely-non-boutique-hotel, UGLY room. Shame on you.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I fail to see how comments like this improve the competition, other than by assuring that only professionals and the truly thick-skinned have the nerve to enter.

obnoxious people exist, and they're going to say stupid, petty things. that's just part of life, unfortunately. however, you shouldn't let a small number of people ruin it for the rest of us. commenting allows for feedback, suggestions, advice, or even just expressing appreciation. essentially, commenting allows for a dialogue between people who would normally probably not have a chance to do so in real life.

I agree, I enjoy the comments but not the obnoxious ones.

If you don't have anything nice to say...

I like the comments. I would have never know about the pillow or shower curtain I plan on purchasing in the very never future had it not been a response to a comment I left on someone entries. Perhaps hurtful, rude, and ignorant comments should be deleted (down with free speech! :-) ) as they are completely nonconstructive. However, I do think suggestions for improvement are appreciated. This competition has given me so many new ideas for my new home. I am excited to incorporate them and appreciate the responses everyone has left me regarding my comments.

Keep the comments.
It's what AT is all about.
A few bad apples, well, I just figure they're off their meds.

Keep the comments--but post a guideline. A comment is not a put down. It is not an opportunity to be mean. Comments should be smart and tasteful, like this website.

Comments can be very informative and helpful. Don't let a few rotten folks destroy the open community dialog. However, I would recommend posting some guidelines for comments. Most basically, nothing lewd, no profanity, be civil, etc. (And yes, I have seen some lewd and offensive postings on this site).

As for policing, I think that this is pretty well done by the individual members who comment on others' comments; and, while it does allow for some very negative comments, it also is an honest cross-section of some of the users. To remove those posts would not be in the interest of diversity... that said, I am in favor of criticizing commentators in follow-up comments by other users.

I think commenting is a great feature of contests like this. I agree with the idea of the disclaimer though about being polite. It probably wouldn't eliminate the problem but it would give a moderator cause for deleting obnoxious posts.

I would warn people once if they are out of line, and after that block their IP.

fugitiverouge-
I am all for calling out offensive commentators, but I honestly think some scumbags get satisfaction out of igniting firestorms. For a scumbag to see their comments disappear (or simply be superseded by constructive comments that do not reference their own) would deny them the satisfaction of having attention lavished upon them, and might encourage them to be civil and constructive.

Also, I think that completely offensive comments can be safely removed without sacrificing diversity of opinion. We are not talking about legitimate critics here; we're talking about those who bring nothing at all to the table.

I voted that people should be able to vote & comment - but, I think that AT should be able to delete comments that are rude or that become a string of insults and fights.

I agree mmadden--these kind of inflammatory remarks really do nothing to further the discussion on the entries. I've been in many online communities and have noticed that simply and quietly removing the offending comments, with the promise to ban repeat offenders, is fairly effective. The most friendly site I ever was a member of had the additional rule of "No responding to offensive posts/comments." The punishment for doing so was getting banned along with the troll. Sounds harsh, but it rendered completely ineffectual any rudeness intended to "ignite firestorms". Usually, the trolling posts were gone in less than 12 hours and the trolls themselves were gone in a matter of days. It was like they never existed.

Of course, this takes quite a lot of diligence and consistency from the site moderators and it's not an emotionally easy task for them. I know that sounds touchy-feely, but learning where to draw the line is a tough task that causes you to question your judgment in certain cases.