karim rashid for Corian®

in this post a few comments have been deleted.

when spam comments appear - the automatic posting of random comments,
off-topic discussions or promoting commercial services - we delete them.

when it comes to dealing with negativity, it's more difficult for us.
as readers may have noticed, we do not ask commenters for registration.
we don't like that restrictiveness and generally speaking, we feel that all that
data collection is going too far.
on the other hand, this open commenting (meaning posts will be posted without
being pre-screened), makes anonymous and offensive commenting
very easy. each month, designboom is read by 2,5 million people and luckily the
offenders are a fairly small percentage (on average 3-4 comments every article).
we reserve the right to moderate or remove comments if there's a problem,
but we're sad to say that this isn't always completely effective.
the final option in dealing with negative comments is that we'll have to go the
'must authenticate to post without approval' way.

it is far easier to criticize someone elses work than it is to create new work of your own.
original creative thought is a challenge, which is a true reason why people have impulsive,
over-sized negative reactions.

dear readers, please help us keep comments open.
we think any comments people leave should be reasonably civil and the negative ones
should include sufficient information in their criticism.
we feel this is not a forum for repressed feelings, personal attacks, clearly inflammatory
rhetoric, negative stereotypes, and discrimination.

people express themselves in different ways ...
designboom wants to make it clear that we are not talking about someone who disagrees
and offers a different view point, someone who has taken the time to discuss an opposing idea.
we feel it's really difficult to separate out those people who genuinely disagree but maybe only lack social skills from those who are intentionally offensive.
we're sorry if we sometimes don't catch the fine line and delete a genuine response.

birgit/designboom   02.22.10

I do hear what you are saying about witless comments.but I personally feel that the culture of commenting is making designboom a more interesting magazine for me as a reader.again this is a personal viewpoint, but I feel that design in general lacks the kind of criticality which has the potential to advance the field in the eyes of a general public.

http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=3767

I often go on youtube just for the comments, inane as they can be.You never know, your free, open and anonymous policies might even be gaining you a few readers too?Many people who do not normally comment still appreciate the occasional bout of negativity and interesting discussion present in this excellent magazine.

nocomment   02.22.10

gold soup cans,shakespeare quotes,marshmallows :-)
clowns get laughs.isnt that what they are there for?

Wen Jiabao   02.22.10

we sometimes receive comments that really offend the designers of the work
we feature in our publication.

the reason why we feature their work is because we think that (partially or
in total) they bring
interesting perspectives to the existing.

a short negative comment is boring, offensive language and personal jabs
are not what we like to see here.

ridhika /designboom   02.22.10

Smart-ologic Corian renders look really cool.
Can't wait to see it in Milan!

D-addict   02.22.10

You may or may not like the design, but at least it's involving sustainability....and that's good.

Mia   02.22.10