Here are things I feel bad about related to commenting on DB.

1. I don't thank javabeans, girlfriday, headnos2, gummi, and other dramabeans contributors enough. It's like forgetting to be polite with family.. I am ETERNALLY grateful for all your hard work, even if I forget to say it every week. This includes witty and thought provoking regular commenters on the OT that I follow like rock stars for their opinions.

2. I will often squee my emotions for a drama without waiting. Maybe the next day I will cringe that I let my excitement/frustration/enchantment/annoyance out in such raw form. Yet KDramas bring out strong emotions. I'm sometimes a rabid fangirl, as embarrassing as that is for a white haired old lady to admit. I want to share my excitement with other people who "get it".

3. I came to Dramabeans for the Korean dramas, but my interests have widened to include Jodramas, TDramas, and Lakhorns. I try to keep the majority of my comments about KDramas, so forgive my talking about other things that may not interest everyone who visits DB.

4. As a result of a brain injury, I can no longer express myself as well as this summa cum laude college graduate use to be able to. I cringe at the spelling and grammatical errors that crop up in my comments. The thought is clear in my head but doesn't always make it understandable sentences. I am trying my best. Please be a bit forgiving of shortfalls.

5. I write too long comments!

6. I write too many comments!

With affection to all the Dramabeans community, my sincere apologies. I will do my best to be a good citizen here.

It never ceases to amaze me how you continually make this awesome site even more awesome. This policy rocks, as does the way you presented it with your characteristic humor and class.

A couple of suggestions to consider for further tweaking:

1) I think a lot of us have clicked on "Report this comment" instead of "Reply" accidentally because of the appearance of the links. For one, "Report this comment" comes before "Reply" and is much larger than "Reply", making it look like the go-to link. Also, they both start with R-e-p, so it's easy to click the reporting link, expecting it to say "reply", before processing the o-r-t... Reversing the size and order of the two links would mostly solve this problem-- or, as someone else suggested, perhaps the reporting link could be placed on the other side.

2) If you clarify the policy regarding spoilers such as whether or not major spoilers about previously-aired dramas need to be marked (e.g. in the OT), and you allow marked spoilers in certain cases, could you please include a guideline or two about how to properly mark spoilers. Many people don't realize that we read very quickly, and often read chunks of words at a time, so something like:

"OMG! I just watched XDrama and I can't believe spoiler: WC died at the end!"

doesn't include a sufficient spoiler marker because my brain has already read "WC died" before it's had time to process the word "spoiler".

Thanks a bazillion once again for all the BTS work you do to manage this site-- you make it look so easy but I know it isn't. I hope this new policy means fewer headaches for you in the future.

Saying "thanks" is ok by me as an actually sign of gratitude. It's just obvious when people are just holding their place when you see someone reply to their own comment 20 to 40 minutes later.

Pink reply! Cool. Much easier to see.

This hasn't really been discussed, but my personal pet peeve is when a commenter makes a second comment to correct a typo or other minor error made in their first comment. If a mistake was made that actually obscures the meaning of what they were intending to say, then a clarification is appropriate. But most often, the corrections are of something very trivial, like "Oops, I meant granddaughter, not grandaughter". IMO, that kind of comment just makes the thread more cumbersome. (And many times, I didn't even notice the original error because I was reading so quickly.)

We all make mistakes, especially when we're writing quickly, and I don't think anyone here is judging anyone else based on an occasional typo or misspelling. I consider it courteous to proofread a comment before posting it, but even then, mistakes happen sometimes. I know what it feels like to be embarrassed about a mistake I've made on this site, but I try to say "oh well" and suck it up. Once in a blue moon, even the extraordinarily gifted jb and gf make a typo, etc., so we're in good company. :D

I love this site and I love your opinions about dramas I wish that there are another site as this for Turkish dramas .

A couple of additional thoughts:

-- In the capitalising point, could you also include adding paragraph breaks? I always feel bad not reading a thick wall of text when someone's gone to the trouble of writing it, but unless it's broken into paragraphs with white spaces in between, it's really hard to read.

-- Is there a way to add an html spoiler tag - i.e. a tag that makes the text invisible until you mouse over it? For example, what they have on TVTropes, where you have to highlight it to read the spoiler.

That's all for now! And I also want to take the opportunity to say thank you for creating such a sane, friendly, thoughtful community. It's been years since I joined one - precisely *because* many are not welcoming - and after so many years, it's great to feel like this place is homey. Yay for Big Beans and all the other beans.

All this talk of beans is making me hungry, ha!

This is a testament to the growing popularity of the Dramabeans site and family. Patience is a virtue that you ladies have acquired.

Thanks for instituting this policy.

Will this be posted at the top of your page after..."about"?

WooHoo! Civility and good grammar - I love it! I also love DramaBeans: keep on keeping on (please and thank you).
This site has a great group of recappers (is that not a word?) and commenters. This is excellent forum, what a treat and breath of fresh air (sorry -too many superlatives?). Kudos!

First of all thank you for setting up this commenting policy, girls. I have to admit that sometimes I have been guilty of piggybacking my own comment, although often times it was unintended. I quickly saw the errors of my way and rectified it then :) But I'm not sure I can do the same with spellings and grammatical errors yet :D

Second of all, I tried using the spoiler as per your comment in #60, JB. But I don't think it's working, just thought I should mentioned that since I think the spoiler tag feature would a great addition to this already awesome site :)

Take responsibility; you made water come out my nose with "Spelling, plz". LMAO

Ok, just finished reading all the rules.

Great reminder!

It's a good thing there's a Rule that everyone must adhere to.

Khamsamhida!!!

I just wanted to say a Big Thanks to this site for bringing a lot of KFans together and getting a chance to read up on the beautiful dramas we are all hang up on. This site has always been the first place I'd visit....Many many Thanks again!
(I hope you don't mind my extra exclamation points, just super elated..ke ke ke)

For a blog this big, it's about time to set up guidelines for the comment section... actually, it should've been done earlier. And thanks for making the comment policy fun to read. :)

Wee! I always skip the comments lacking punctuation and correct spelling; I found the comments not worth the time and effort it takes to decipher them. I also abhor getto speak.

One of the reasons I come back to this site time after time is the level of writing by the authors.
They clearly convey their thoughts through the use of: well crafted sentences, an extensive vocabulary, and a broad knowledge of and application of grammar.

Thank you for the punctuation rule.
Testing the spoiler tag

DramaBeans: The website that holds you to a higher standard. grow or go (just joking!)

Thanks for making rules on the commenting, and also in general for all the hard work you put in to running this site (as someone that runs a site, I know how much work goes in to it, and mine doesn't even have a huge following like yours so I can only imagine the time you all spend on this, so much respect to you guys).

I've been stopping by DB on an almost daily basis for the last three years, and although I rarely comment, I do read a lot of the comments and have found that comparatively DB does have the most thoughtful and courteous commenters I've come across, for the most part (there are always a couple of trolling peeps, but they are few and far between).

Anyway, thanks again. *goes back to lurking*

Policies are guidelines and I hope people won't get too rigid and start nitpicking every comments just to make sure that everyone is following the rules down to the T.

I don't know if I am being clear because what I am trying to say is, "Yes, follow the rules but don't get too excited gunning down those people who once in awhile use ALL CAPS or getting cool with spelling because they think it's gr8."

We still need to consider every individual's communication style while following a standard/framework. The rules make us more careful definitely because this site is a 'shared space'. However, we don't have to lose our individuality and open-mindedness just because we stick to the rules too rigidly.

I don't know. Just a thought.

Quick question on the no "firsts" rule!
I know the "first" or "thanks" posts are to hold your spot while you write up that long essay when the post is made but what about when you've already written up your comments in anticipation of the post? Lately I've been so excited about the airing dramas and the recaps that Ive started to write out my comments as I watch the show so I don't forget what I want to say when the episode recap is actually posted and then refreshing like crazy after. I'm not sure if I would be abusing the rule or not since my comments are more than a few words but I post my comments before I finish reading the post to avoid the queue as well.

I want to be a good citizen here :)

thank you for including the "spelling plz", I can't for the life of me read those abbreviated words. it's quite rampant here in the Philippines, the capital of texting world. everytime I received SNS like that, I just reply back with "please clarify, can't understand", hahahah =)

Then there's another abbreviation happening in the digital world -idk, sua, ikr - among others. why, why, why are the youngs/teens are so lazy to complete the words? - oh well, just ranting here =)

How about troll kind of comments? made by anti fans i.e direct bashing the actress by calling names? should we report that to you to delete the posts? it definitely such a sore in the eyes.

I'm not sure if it's just my PC... the spoiler tag doesn't seem to work for me i.e. I can still easily read "spoilers" that fellow beanies have been testing out at the above comments (they are in black wording from my PC screen).

Also want to clarify if we need to use the spoiler tag when we are speculating? Sometimes in that particular episode, we tried to speculate the background history of the characters' relationships based on the hints from the previous episodes or who is that mystery person. For example, when we were watching Arang, we were trying to speculate how Satto's mom become evil or how Arang and Satto can be together given the impossible task. I mean sometimes we guessed it correctly, sometimes the truth is way out of our imagination.

Usually when I'm speculating or making wish list, I use phrases like "Perhaps, may be, hopefully" so that others know that what comes next is guess work. Would that do? If a spoiler tag is preferred, I would be gladly to do so. :)

At first I thought I stumbled on a couch here, then a very large couch, and now a whole "living room"! Thanks, Dramabeans and friends. Your policies are well noted by me.

Testing spoiler tag too:

May your website go from strength to strength.

Cheers.

We don't want an eyesore here, right? let's play along with the rules and be friendly to each other. This is not a marathon anyway.

I really like the rules.

*applause*

Civilized chat, so rare nowadays. Thanks for the friendly policy.

I don't think using other languages is about being exclusive/inclusive. I remember writing in French in the thread about the Paris Korean film festival. It felt kind of weird replying in English to French-speakers when my own mother tongue is French. Especially when I didn't know how to say in English what I meant.

European sites (newspapers, blogs) often have multilingual comments, so it's good you made your will clear. We can get wild :D
However it means you will have to endure our poor English and our bad grammar.

I haven't been commenting much myself but I absolutely love how people have so intelligent and insightful conversations on this site and the reviews are also brilliant! It's really refreshing to read long comments with speculations and things people have noticed about the dramas. It gives and extra dimention to the whole KDrama world.

I don't even mind a bit of heat in conversations from time to time - it's pretty much given since people might be in a bit of an emotional state after watching dramas ;) - but like so many here have said it's important to respect and to forgive!

Thank you for the simple common ground rules to make sure we don't make angels out of cheese crackers and spill fruit punch all over your living room carpets :D

Finally, a commenting policy that pays respect to language! I absolutely loooooooove the spelling and punctuation policies!

Javabeans, your commenting policy is as awesome as all the other things you do. I spent about a good three minutes cracking up over your drunk guy analogy and the Lee Minoz. That aside, I'm glad there are explicit terms and hopefully people who have done the opposite of the terms have read them and will be mindful of them. Thanks also for introducing the spoiler html tags. I will definitely use them in OTs.

Awesome. I love you guys. Thank you for making the policy crystal clear in a wonderful and witty way!

I spend more time reading comments on this site than any other. I really get so tired of the rudeness and the negative comments on other sites.

Here there is always good discussion and further insight. Yes every once in a while someone goes a little off the rails, but it is the exception not the norm.

Thank you for inviting us to your living room and allowing us to comment, read or just hang out. :)

Awesome and much needed reminders! Thanks. It not only makes going through the comments and visiting the blog that much more enjoyable but we also become aware of one's own role in making it that way.

I actually do want javabeans to come after me :p

*thumbs up* on the commenting policy.

I usually do and am good at the who's who in a Korean drama, via many years of trained by the family on, "Hey, Damselfly. Who's that on TV?"

I am not watching IHYV (yet) so I am reading the recaps/comments. I did notice the crazy number of comments for it so I suppose the newly instituted commenting policy had something to do with that? :-)

In any case, I am so happy to see that most beanies are in support of the policy (understandably for me) - reason I say this is that this has been such a fun, diverse, passionate, creative and intellectual crowd with some crazily wonderfully off-the-charts wonderful comments/fangirling. I admit I come to this site to read the blogging/recaps as much as I read the comment section. So just hoping the new commenting rule is going to create any hard feelings for anyone. And it seems that there's no such worry needed based on the comments I read so far..

Love you guys. I'll continue to check my douchebaghat at the door haha.

So, this is cool. I haven't really been reading the comments as much lately, which is kind of a shame. I don't know whether its cos I'm at an age where I don't get as obsessive about kdramas anymore (lolnowaythatstrue), or because I was getting sick of the same few commenters cropping up at the top. I know that I personally like reading a variety of different reactions and comments rather than the same old block-text analysis echo chamber.

Sorry if anything I've written hurts anyone's feelings (honest), but as I get the impression those people rarely read past the first page anyway, I doubt it will be an issue.

On a more polite note, thanks DB and GF (whether you see this or not) for the hard work implementing stuff! I've just started working as a youth facilitator and I'm starting to get an idea of how difficult it can be to please and manage a diverse community. Sometimes the Facebook group alone makes me want to smack my head against the nearest wall.

Peace out! #1990slang #teambottomfeeder #inappropriatehashtagsyeah

As expected, a no-nonsense, no-frills guideline. Most of us here are mature and respectful anyway. That is if one discounts the fact that we squeal and sigh over good-looking male dongsengs. Thank you for taking the time out to clarify things. And thank you for churning out intelligent, entertaining blogs that we, the readers from all points of the globe, appreciate so much.