diff --git a/vimrc b/vimrc
index 66e5764..fb391af 100644
--- a/vimrc
+++ b/vimrc
@@ -86,11 +86,18 @@ let g:airline_symbols.branch = ''
 let g:airline_symbols.readonly = ''
 let g:airline_symbols.linenr = ''
 
-" configure syntastic, advanced syntax checker
+" configure syntastic, advanced syntax checker, with some reasonable behaviors
+"
+" always stick detected errors in the location list
 let g:syntastic_always_populate_loc_list = 1
+" open but only when errors are detected; default closes when errors are cleared
+" but doesn't open the list automatically
 let g:syntastic_auto_loc_list = 1
+" check when first opening a file
 let g:syntastic_check_on_open = 1
+" don't check on writing and quitting
 let g:syntastic_check_on_wq = 0
+" explicitly set the js checker to my preferred one
 let g:syntastic_javascript_checkers = ['eslint']
 
 " toggle syntastic's checking