We’ve asked nicely. We’ve begged. We’ve deleted too many posts to count. We’ve banned individual users, then they crop up again under fake names, even though our terms of use require people to post under their real names. It’s like a frustrating game of moderator whack-a-mole.
But the vitriol and name-calling in the opinion section’s comment threads have become too pervasive. Moderating these threads has become too cumbersome in terms of the best use of manpower.
So, we are hitting “pause.” For the time being, we will be disabling the “comments” option on all future opinion page articles, including columns, letters to the editor, guest columns and editorials. We will close any existing threads that continue to be problematic.
We may choose to re-authorize commenting at some future date, in the hopes that a “pause” will prompt the participants to rethink their contributions to the comment threads and behave in a more civilized manner.
We have always encouraged the sharing of different opinions, and a robust discussion of the issues of the day. We still do. For the time being at least, if you wish to express your views in the opinion section of our website, you can do so by submitting a letter to the editor by email at [email protected] or via the letter submission tool at signalscv.com/opinion/submit-letter-to-the-editor.
Letters appear first in our print edition, then are posted to the website. We run them approximately in the order received, with some variation due to letter length, space available in print, frequency of submissions, etc. The typical turnaround time from submission to publication is about a week to 10 days, depending on letter volume at a given time.
If you have any questions, email the editor at [email protected].
