Rules for Commenting: How To Avoid The Banhammer

You guys got a little out of control in the comments for X-Play's Best of 2008 winners and we think it's time to reinforce the rules of commenting on this website. We're going to be dropping the banhammer more often and here are some ground rules on how to avoid being banned:

1. No personal attacks. If you have an issue with someone's opinion, cool. That's what opinions are all about. This doesn't mean, however, that it's time to call them names or attack them. We encourage you to discuss your differences, but do so in a mature and respectful way. Stick to the issues.
2. No hate speech including racism and homophobia. Any racist or homophobic comments will be deleted and will result in an immediate ban. This includes calling things "gay" as a negative. And no, it doesn't matter if you say, "I'm not trying to be racist, but..." and then say something racist.

You can have your flame wars, but keep it about the products.

How You Can Help

When you see a comment that breaks these two simple-to-follow rules, use the "Flag this comment for review" button. This doesn't mean you should "Flag" comments that you don't agree with.

Someone saying, "The Wii is better than the Xbox 360", should not be flagged.

Someone saying, "You're an idiot for thinking the Wii is better than the Xbox 360", should be flagged. That's probably not volatile enough for a ban, but we'll take notice of comments like this and keep a record.

If you abuse the flag system, you will be warned. Don't abuse the system.

Please use this thread to ask questions about these rules and one of the writers will answer you.