We take comments, but with some limitations

Last week, The Lakeville Journal Company launched a new website, www.tricornernews.com, which has replaced the former site, www.tcextra.com, as the place online to find content of all kinds from our three newspapers covering the Tri-state region. For this small, locally owned media business, the challenge of building a better website was daunting but exciting. There was not a lot of money (but rather just enough) to put into the project. There was, however, a lot of enthusiasm from those who worked on it, especially Production Coordinator James Clark, researching other media sites and listening to our readers to define the changes in design and features.One of the changes to the website includes the opportunity for users to comment at the end of posted articles and opinion pieces. At many online publications, such comments can be made without accountability and completely anonymously. This approach is not for this community news organization. For those of our readers who have strong opinions, and we believe that probably includes all of you, we would like to include those opinions in the comments section of the site. This has been the tradition for letters to the editor, and will continue to be even as letters go online now. But if writers are unwilling to be associated with what they write, a certain level of civility and personal filtering is lost. Comments are very welcome on www.tricornernews.com. Before commenting, though, please read the comment policy on the website and think about what your comments will mean to those who read them. Public writing such as commenting online is by definition open to all and sets the tone for the ongoing discussion. One of the goals of this newspaper group is to build community, not to destroy it. That may sound naive in today’s world and its fast and sometimes thoughtless 24/7 communication. Our goal with this comment policy, however, is to create a climate in which writers will take the time to think twice before going ahead and posting their thoughts on the issues of the day, or on their neighbors’ lives and actions. Let’s keep the discussion open but civilized, so all feel comfortable expressing themselves and don’t feel attacked in the process.