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Letter to Editor
ShareCommunity website opens dialogue with readers
October 06, 2008Starting today, your community news site
Visitors to our website can now contribute their comments to all of our news stories, editorials and letters to the editor. You are invited to participate.
“This is a great addition to our site,” said Western News editor Dan Ebenal. “We encourage readers to comment. It’s all about discussion and dialogue, and we certainly encourage that in our community.”
Every community has standards and ours is no exception. We ask that you keep your comments on-topic and that they are smart, civil and profanity-free. Try to avoid saying anything you wouldn’t want your mother to read.
To comment, you must have a user account. Registration is quick and easy — you can sign up at the bottom of any story on our site (including this one). We believe it is important that everyone register to comment, since it encourages ownership in the participation. We also encourage you to be honest about your identity, and would prefer you use your real name when commenting, though it’s not required.
Sometimes people’s passions get the better of them and they leave comments that don’t meet our community standards. In those cases, we ask that you help police the comments by using the “Flag” button beneath each comment. Flagged items are brought to an editor’s attention.
On the rare occasion when someone simply doesn’t want to live by our community standards, we may prevent them from participating in the site.
Your opinion counts. Our comments have up and down arrows next to them, allowing you to register your approval or disapproval of specific comments with a single click. Comments with a high negative rating from users will disappear from the site, while contributors whose comments generate high positive ratings will be rewarded.
Our goal with this feature is to encourage community discussion and healthy dialogue with and between readers. We hope that you will give it a try, and we look forward to reading what you have to say.
