Not everyone is an expert at the Gawker.TV commenting system. Find out what it means to be a starred commenter, how to make friends, what HTML works in the comments, and how to use our tagging system.

[Photo by Diana Levine.]

How to Set Up Your Commenter Account

Hit the "login" button in the upper right hand corner of the page. You'll be offered the choice of logging into an existing commenter account or creating a brand new one at that point. It's a quick process and we only ask for very basic information.

Why Aren't Your Comments Showing Up?

Initially your comments won't appear to anyone except moderators and starred users. Your comments will only show up to them, framed in pink.

Don't worry, we aren't snobs-your opinions are more than welcome here! We simply use an audition process in order to reduce the number of spammers and trolls on the site. Basically, a starred user or moderator will approve your account after they see a few comments which are particularly great or show that you are in fact a real human being.

When you are approved, you will see a "such-and-such has approved this comment" message. Now that you're approved, remember to be reasonably nice and polite. Don't be an annoying self-promoting spammer. If you happen to get banned, you'll see a message on your profile page explaining that your account is no longer approved for commenting.

There Are Profile Pages Here?

Your profile page is located at http://tv.gawkerarchives.com/people/YOURUSERNAME. You can also access it by clicking on your username in the upper right hand corner of the site.

On this page you can see all your commenter activity—your comments, replies, private messages, and friends. You can also use this page to change personal settings by clicking "Edit My Profile." You can change your profile picture, user name, password, and contact email address (in case you forget your password and need to reset it).

What Do the Hearts Mean?

This is a question we hear all too often-and we're pretty sure most everyone is clueless when they first arrive to the site. "Hearting" is how you can add friends in our comment system. You just click on the little heart next to another person's name and voila-friends! That person will now be listed on the "Friends" section of your profile.

What HTML Works in the Comments?

Our comment system allows you to use a handful of HTML tags. With them you can turn text bold, italic, or into links. You can also embed images and YouTube videos directly into your comments!

The trick is simply to surround the text in these tags like this:

For links, you can paste the URL in as is which will show up in your comments as [gawker.com]. If you want to make a part of your text a hyperlink, tag it as you'd normally in html: < a href="https://www.gawkerarchives.com/">and type your link text here</ a>.

You can embed YouTube videos easily by clicking the button and simply pasting the url (not the embed code).




As well as embedding images, which you can either host on our site or link to from an outside source:


What Are the Hashtags?

You'll see plenty of hashtags on our site. #tv, #thetonightshow, #nbc, #comedy, #fail… Each of those tags links to a corresponding tag page which is like a forum of sorts. You can contribute to one of those pages by using the box at the top right of the page.

If you're a TV fan, you can browse our shows the same way. Going to http://tv.gawkerarchives.com/tag/thesimpson… will take you to a list of every post about The Simpsons. This is great if you've heard a lot about a show but have never checked it out before, missed a clip that people are talking about, or if you just want to talk about your favorite show with other fans.

Try out some favorite shows: #lost, #archer, #theoffice, #teenmom, #community, #thetodayshow, #thedailyshow, #30rock, #theview, #saturdaynightlive

You can browse any of our features the same way. Visiting http://tv.gawkerarchives.com/tag/standup takes you to a page filled with only Stand Up comedy. This is a great way to browse through content that you know you already like. To get started, try out: #pranks, #wtf, #saturdaymorningcartoons, #howto, #afv, and #freezeframe.

Once you're in a tag page you'll notice you can get even more specific. You can start out in #animals and find your way to #cats, #dogs, #birds, and so on...

Also remember that you can browse by people as well! #tyrabanks, #davidletterman, #marthastewart, #stevecarrell, #conanobrien, #kimkardashian,#jimmyfallon, #stephencolbert, and so on...

To get to any tagpage, just enter whatever tag you want to use at the end of the http://tv.gawkerarchives.com/tag/ URL. Or you can navigate your way through the tags on the right hand side of any post or on the top of all videos on the main page.

How Do You Get a Star?

The easiest way to get a star is to comment often-and comment well. We aren't asking for you to blow us away with your comedic talents-but yes, that will help. Essentially, if you're engaging in conversation and have something interesting and TV-related to say, we're going to be good friends.

Gawker.TV encourages all to comment and share opinions-but remember that this is a positive environment. We're here to celebrate our tastes in pop culture, TV, and viral videos-not to spew hate.

What Happens Once You Have a Star?

Your comments will automatically be promoted to our "featured" status and you'll be able to promote others' comments. You'll also be able to see and approve new commenters. Their comments will show up in pink-just as yours once did-and you'll be able to give them a thumbs-up to approve their accounts. You can also approve them simply by replying to one of their comments. (Note: Your stars will not transfer to the other Gawker Media sites.)

What Are Featured and Promoted Comments?

We have a tiered commenting system on all Gawker Media blogs. Thus, great comments-those promoted or made by starred users-will show up first. You can even choose to not see any comments except for these featured ones by hitting the corresponding link at the bottom of the page.

When you're viewing all the comments, you'll be able to tell the difference between featured (or "promoted") and regular comments by looking at the color of the text. Gray comments are plain unpromoted ones, the solid black ones are promoted, and the comments that show up in pink are from users who have not yet been approved.

I Have Some Tips For Gawker.TV!

Great, because we love to get tips! Be it through our tips at gawker dot tv address or through the #tvparty tag. You'll often see a "Thanks, Random Person!" at the end of a post as indication that one of your fellow reader sent us the information for that particular post. It's a nice ego boost for you and it's a great help for us.

Thanks to Rosa and our friends at Gizmodo for the great idea.