Change of policy for online comments

There will be a change to The Reporter website beginning Thursday, Nov. 17.

Anonymous comments through the Disqus program have ended.

Sound Publishing, parent company of dozens of community papers in Western Washington including this one, has chosen to move to a new commenting system online.

The Reporter websites will begin using Facebook as a source to identify people writing comments. Anyone writing comments will be required to have a Facebook profile to comment on a story, column or letter to the editor. Comments will be linked to the personal Facebook page of the person commenting.

This is an attempt to bring to an end anonymous comments and the issues that arise when people can write without identifying who they are.

Certain stories, including those involving personal tragedy, will have the comment section turned off without exception.

This change is an attempt to encourage thoughtful discussion, civil discourse among readers and editorial staff as well as discourage hostile attacks and purposefully misleading statements.

In a letter to the editor, writers must identify themselves, and this change to the website is an attempt to raise the bar of discussion and identification.

The Disqus program requires users provide an email address.

That, however, does very little if someone wants to post a comment in obscurity and most of the time a surname will do.

Editorial staff will be moderating the comments posted via Facebook.

We hope this new system will allow readers to feel comfortable using the website as a community forum and to become more engaged with our content in ways they may not have felt comfortable before.

We know some may not like the change, but, we believe those will be in the minority and ultimately this is in the best interest of our readers and the community we serve.