Email to IMDB.com

Hopefully this very diplomatic letter that I wrote about 20 minutes ago (with the assistance of several plastic cup-fulls of red wine) will clear things right up, and I can go back to my usual business of reviewing the shit out of movies.

Hello,  

I wrote a review for Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. Many people liked my review and voted it "helpful," but for some reason it was deleted. 

 

I also noticed that my reviews for Hotel for Dogs and Seven Pounds were also deleted.

 

To my knowledge, I did not break any of the guidelines that IMDB sets forth for reviews. I have not used any profanity, or revealed spoilers without warning. 

I would like to know why my reviews were deleted, and is there any way to have this decision reversed and future deletions avoided in the future?  

Sincerely,  

Tom Thayer

UPDATE: IMDb's Response:

Hello, 

Thank you for your message concerning the user comments system. 

Please note that all comments must conform to the guidelines as described at: 

http://www.imdb.com/help/show_leaf?commentsguidelines 

We have examined the comment(s) which have been deleted and stand by our decision to remove them from the site. We recommend you read the guidelines again.

----
Regards,
Ann
The IMDb Help Desk

As you can see, this is a really shitty response. I told them that I read their guidelines, but didn't see what I did wrong. How is referring me back to the guidelines in any way helpful?

IMDb's guidelines say don't include:

• Profanity, obscenities, or spiteful remarks.
• Time-sensitive material (i.e., promotional tours, seminars, lectures, etc.).
• Single-word reviews. We want to know why you liked or disliked the title.
• Avoid unannounced spoilers! Please don't reveal crucial plot elements. If you include a spoiler without warning readers in advance your name will be added to a blacklist and, subsequently, all your comments will be discarded automatically. To label a spoiler make sure you check the 'contains spoilers' checkbox.
• Phone numbers, mail addresses, URLs.
• Availability, price, or ordering/shipping information.
• Writing in ALL-CAPS! Writing sentences in all-uppercase characters is considered "SHOUTING" and must be avoided.

Okay, so I broke the URL rule. I see people doing that all over the place on IMDb, so I assumed it was an acceptable rule to break. This is where it would be helpful to get an actual response to my question.