Dear readers of NCRonline.org,
With much regret, I must announce a change to the commenting policy on NCRonline.org. We will no longer offer our commenting service 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Effective immediately, we will restrict commenting to business hours based on our Kansas City, Mo., time schedule. Commenting will not be allowed in the evenings, over weekends or on holidays.
We do not make this change lightly, but we see no alternative at this time. The press of moderating comments has overwhelmed our very small staff. The demands of moderation have taken us from our more important duties of reporting news, analysis and commentary that our audience wants to read.
Our website has seen a dramatic increase in trolls and disruptive comments -- some of it engineered by people and groups who fear open discussion of topics that concern the Catholic church and the society in which we reside. What people who would direct others to attack our website fail to realize is that such tactics do not stop conversations and discussions. NCR won't be deterred by this.
In the next six months or so, NCR will be rolling out a new website. As we discuss how that new site can best engage our audience, we are exploring various options to make comments a healthier, stimulating experience. We have a few ideas that I think our subscribers and supporters will enjoy. But those measures are months away.
In recent weeks, several users have contacted us about increasingly aggressive users attacking others in the comments section. This is behavior that users can and must -- if they choose to -- correct themselves. Please remember to follow our user guidelines for commenting, which are included.
- Be respectful. Do not attack the writer. Take on the idea, not the messenger.
- Don't use obscene, profane or vulgar language.
- Stay on point. Comments that stray from the original idea will be deleted. NCR reserves the right to close comment threads when discussions are no longer productive.
Detailed User Guidelines are available here, for more information.
Do not attack other commenters. Do not engage other commenters who attack. Flag any comments that break our guidelines, and our moderators will review them.
We appreciate you, our readers, participating in our community by commenting. We have provided the forum, it is your responsibility to foster a community that is respectful, thoughtful and civil.
Dennis Coday,
NCR editor
