I think flagging is needed. I just read the comments of a recent contestant and it made that very clear.

Some may say get a thicker backbone and deal with it, but we all know the one negative comment in a round of positive comments is most likely the one we remember most. That one person that calls you fat is all you need to confirm your fat thoughts, if your confidence is not that stellar. Please find a solution. Thanks.

Another vote for flagging.

New thought...for the contests you could eliminate the "long shot" category, as that's essentially a vote against the entry which prompts some of those negative comments. Don't you really just want our votes in favor of an entry?

Yes, flagging please.

Contestants usually enter contests to be "judged."

However, I think AT/CB2 should post the guidelines by which contestants should be judged. Just lay em out at the top of the contest page. That way there is no confusion.
Any comments that don't fit the criteria can be deleted by AT.

How are we (the general public) supposed to react when we see things that aren't aesthetically appealing if we are asked to judge but aren't given guidelines by which we are to judge?

Comments in the AT contests should reflect why you voted for an entry, not what you didn't like about it. The entries rise to the top on the basis of their overall positive elements as appreciated by the greatest number of voters. It's the kind of judging similar to that at my state fair...the judges go down the table looking for the best apple, or pie or quilt and awarding ribbons to the winners, commenting on their outstanding qualities. The judging is all focused toward the positive elements. They don't even mention what they didn't like about any of the other entries.

But itsn't it more constructive to know the reasons why you didn't win? Going with the state fair example, wouldn't it be more informative to know that the judges didn't like your pie because your heavy-handed use of cinnamon made them gag, rather then them just saying that it wasn't the best pie in the contest?

I'd rather hear about being heavy-handed with the cinnamon and not know that it made the judge gag. CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is what this site is about. Saying "A lighter green would look better in here" is not the same as saying "your dark green room looks like ass".

The problem is, many design afficionados here are apparently unable to articulate their responses more specifically than "your room is disgusting and made me gag."

From casual perusal of decorating books and magazines over the years, I'd thought design had a vocabulary that dealt with light, color, contrast, scale, and such. Not until I experienced Fall Colors 2006 did I learn that these concepts are for sissies, and the people most confident in their taste just announce: "That's horrible! I'm appalled you made us look at it! Now I'll have to go poke an eye out! If you don't want to hear my honest reaction, you shouldn't be entering contests."

Live and learn. Live and learn.

Ann in Reno is right on.

It's called "Apartment THERAPY" not Apartment Smackdown, or Apartment Fight Club. I first started visiting this site years ago bc it was a relief from the more hostile & aggressive design sites. When the atmosphere gets mean, I find myself visiting a lot less. So to me it's more than just a disincentive to share, it's a turn off to read. I strongly agree with those that point out the difference between constructive suggestions and insults.

I'm really glad you are working to address this and steer it back towards a more helpful & supportive tone. Thank you!

Anne in Reno got it right on.

Strangely, the comment that I was most offended by in the last month or so of Apartment Therapy was by the site itself. Posting someone's apartment with the headline "What Not to Do" and inviting people to attack it seemed downright mean. (Not to mention the fact that I liked it better than many things posted, especially because it had lots of fun art on the walls, which is something that a lot of posters could learn from!). Anyway, I do recognize that the submitter made a comment that said you could use those words, but it seemed kind of said tongue-in-cheek to me -- self-deprecation is one thing; seconding that self-deprecation with a nasty headline is another. Anyway, I started noticing more particularly nasty comments on AT after that entry, and I can't help wonder if they were enabled by that post.

Hello, AT. I have been visiting this site regularly for about two years, and I can't help but observe that some version of this discussion bubbles up every time there's a contest. It seems to me that creating an option to flag abusive comments is tantamount to treating a patient with a broken leg by giving her some aspirin.

The problem with the color contest, and the other AT contests, is that the playing field isn't even remotely level to start with. There are people with huge renovation/design budgets competing with college students for whom a colored light bulb is a substantial purchase. There are professional designers, some masquerading as amateur home decorators, competing against real amateurs who come to this site only because they're interested in sharing their hobby. And sometimes, honestly, the overall content of the site strays quite far from AT's stated commitment to small space living.

Apartment Therapy cannot be all things to all people, and I wish it would stop trying. These contests always bring home the problem in an ugly way; the current discussion is just the most recent exhibit. I think AT should put some hard thought into what it is trying to achieve with these contests, and at the very least establish a framework that is nominally fair to a would-be entrant... starting with categories that allow amateurs to compete against amateurs, take budgets and square footage into consideration, etc. The current range of entries is impossible to judge fairly; the contest guidelines/criteria are opaque enough to be effectively meaningless in practice, and that leaves the AT community to judge the entries according to personal taste. Of course there's nothing wrong with judging on personal taste - indeed it's impossible NOT to - but at the moment it's a contextual free-for-all for contest entrants and commenters alike.

Even in a contest that is ostensibly about the use of color in home decor, the way the contest is currently organized, it's impossible to assess the field fairly. A room full of Saarinen and Bertoia, or even a room full of Louis XIV, will be always be at a preposterous advantage over a room full of whatever a college student or a young couple or a starving writer can afford. I see so many people striving mightily for perspective as they offer their opinions, but the contest is set up to discourage perspective, right down to the three voting categories, which are often inaccurate expressions of community sentiment. This is why it's so easy to get snarky in a hurry, especially behind a curtain of relative anonymity.

I have been on the sidelines for two consecutive color contests now, and two consecutive smallest-coolest. I live in a rental whose walls I cannot paint. I look to this site for ideas and inspiration to help me make the most of my living space, and with the help of this and many other resources, I've learned how to deploy color in my home in a way that makes all of its occupants very happy and makes a strong positive impression on visitors. But I wouldn't dream of entering the color contest here. I don't even have a favorite brand of paint - I've never purchased a can of paint in my life. There's more to color, and more to decorating, than paint, but you wouldn't necessarily know it from the AT color contest. There is also more to a creating a beautiful home than spending a lot of money on a certain set of iconic designs. I see some people striving mightily to remember that in their comments, but the way the contest is organized makes it difficult.

A great many people start their comments with "Not my style, but..." - as if this disclaimer were not insulting to the entrant. Even though commenters use this phrase to be gentle in acknowledging an entry's insufficiencies, in a contest where some of the more popular entries have been previously featured in shelter magazines, the effect is the same as the snarky three-word put-down. It's not constructive. But absent any other context, it's too easy to do this; it's entirely human to assess the field in comparison to current design trends and fads, and to judge fliply, if not exactly harshly, those that do not conform.

While multiple entry categories wouldn't completely resolve these issues, it would at least allow likes to be judged against likes in terms of financial resources, renovation vs. decoration, and the design experience of the entrant. I would be very happy if AT were to devise a contest that considered color, and creativity, in these contexts. Absent categories, at the very least, full disclosure with respect to budget and design education/experience should be required of every entrant and should be at the top of every posted submission. Maybe some contests should be limited - to design amateurs, or to pros, or to those with small budgets, or to those who have not just decorated but renovated. Under these circumstances, I might be inclined to enter such a contest, or to vote, or to offer comments on other entries. As it is, the overt unpleasantness represented by some posts coupled with a vaguer sense of futility about the constructiveness of the whole exercise makes me wonder if I'll always be on the sidelines here, an occasional visitor who eventually ends up drifting away.

Oy! "to the nines" needs a drink!

I find it very interesting that people would have me banned yet suffer the pap of "to the nines". Her/His post was preposterous on its face because 1. its just too long, 2. it indicates "to the nines" might have some sort of mental health issue and 3. and perhaps most preposterously, it actually suggests we should have some sort of affirmative action program for poor people who can't afford good design. Personally I think its absurd that college students and other self avowed financially challenged people shouldn't be entering design contests. Instead of finding "creative" ways to offend our senses, they should be spending the time getting better jobs.

I think that good taste and good use of space/color/light/furniture doesn't have to do with budget. And AT is a website, not like the International Court of Justice, so please, to the nines, don't waste your time, go back to work.

WEATHER ALERT:

MONSOON STRIKES AGAIN WITH A FURY.

The latest storm to hit AT has been called Edina.

Ever notice how Edina Monsoon discovers a new "big" word in her vocabulary and just seems to latch onto it and use it over and over and over. Today's Edina big word is:Preposterous.

colormyworld, cheesy individual.. I was perusing some of the contest entries and happened on yours. Really funny how you comment on your own entry as if it were someone else's: "not my style" "kudos"... very cheap.... And the way you use "abused child" as an insult is appalling.
Edina is cruel but authentic, you are phoney and obnoxious. I don't even know why I'm telling you this, I'm just doing you a favor. whatever.

Please don’t eliminate comments on an entry entirely by offering an on/off option. The comments are one of the most interesting components of the site! Flagging overly harsh comments seems to be a decent alternative, although ultimate removal of the comment should perhaps be left to the discretion of AT to avoid unnecessary flagging (ie: stating that something is not your particular style hardly seems like a vicious attack).

It seems that in order to judge an entry one must be able to offer both affirmation and criticism. I fully agree that the criticism should be constructive, but eliminating the option entirely could lead to a rather stagnant competition.

In addition, eliminating the “long shot” or equivalent category seems as though it would present a problem in that not every entry receives a comparable amount of votes (positive or negative), therefore there must be some sort of litmus test on each individual entry in order to gauge overall opinion.