A reminder of our commenting policy (and what you can do to help enforce it)

One of the most gratifying parts of working at The A.V. Club is the community that’s built up around our content. As with airlines, we realize you have your choice of places to congregate and talk about pop culture, and we appreciate you choosing us. It’s also been gratifying to see our content lead to conversations—smart, absurd, impassioned, and sometimes all at once—that take the discussion in places we never would have imagined. We think of comments as a force for good for The A.V. Club.

There’s a dark side to that force, however, and as anyone who’s spent more than a little time on our site knows, commenting can sometimes take nasty directions. Here are some highlights from our commenting policy, and the parameters we use to determine what we delete as stated on our FAQ (where you can read the policy in full).

While we reserve the right to delete any comments, these are the things we're most likely to target:

… flagrant attacks on other commentators, staffers, or interview / review subjects, particularly aggressive, insulting posts with absolutely no other point to make.

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… offensive commentary on interview / review subjects, including but not limited to ad hominem thoughts on how they look, how they might smell, and exactly what you'd like to do to them in the sack.

… racist, homophobic, or sexist remarks. Don't assume that everyone else gets your sarcasm, irony, over-the-top tone.

… blatant trolling.

If your posts fall under any of these categories, we have grounds to delete you. We like to delete as little as possible, but when the balance of the comments tips too far in the wrong direction, we’re left with no choice but to take a heavier hand. We can’t be everywhere at once, however, and offensive comments will inevitably make it to the boards.

That’s where you can help. If you’re reading this and care about the overall feel of The A.V. Club comments section, you can help. If you see comments that fit the description above, flag them. This will make our jobs easier and, if enough users flag a comment, it will disappear from the article page.

Again, we couldn’t be happier that you’ve chosen to visit The A.V. Club and our comments section, but please remember that you are guests here and guests who don’t behave can be reprimanded or, if all else fails, kicked out.