THE COMMENT SECTION GUIDELINE
Comments here are anonymous and don't require an account. We like it that way.
You can say what you think without handing over your email or building up a profile, and you can tell us we're wrong without it following you around.
The trade-off is that anonymity makes it easy to be careless, so the comments are moderated. We read what comes in, we remove what drags the conversation down, and because there's no account to penalise, moderation here means removing comments rather than tracking people. Editors and moderators have the final call, and these rules will shift as we learn what works.
WHAT TO DO
Add something: A fact, a counterpoint, firsthand knowledge, a sharp question. Anonymous doesn't have to mean throwaway, and the comments people actually read are the ones that bring something to the thread.
Stay on topic: A thread about a chip launch isn't the place for an unrelated grievance. On-topic comments are simply the better ones.
Back it up: Making a claim, especially a surprising one? Link to something solid. A filing, a study, a story. Since we can't see who you are, what you're saying has to stand on its own, and a source is how it does that.
Assume good faith: People here know different things and come from different places. Treat a disagreement as a disagreement, not an attack.
WHAT GETS REMOVED
We'd rather have a smaller comments section worth reading than a busy one that isn't. Anything below comes down, and we don't owe an explanation for every removal.
So very quickly, anything that is or even remotely feels like: Personal attacks, bigotry, any kind of shaming, trolling, lies/slander, doxxing, piracy, any NSFW and most obviously spam.
FEEDBACK ON OUR COVERAGE
We cover a lot, and some of it won't match your views or your preferred review score. Thoughtful disagreement is welcome. But "you're biased" with nothing behind it, or a cheap shot at whether a writer knows their subject, isn't a discussion. If you think we got something wrong, make the case, and it'll get a real hearing.
A NOTE ON ANONYMITY
Because comments are anonymous, we can't always stop a bad one before it appears, which means moderation here is partly reactive. If you see something breaking these rules, report it. That's the main way an open, no-login system stays readable, and it works a lot better when the people using it pitch in.