Thought I'd weigh in this morning on the back-and-forth about Web comments on Sound Off and other stories.We have set this up as a COMMUNITY forum. Comments from the public, just like letters to the editor, or opinion columns that we publish on the editorial page, do not speak for, or necessarily represent, the views of the newspaper or its staff.
Contrary to what one poster has said this morning, requiring email registration of some kind does nothing to confirm anyone's identity. Anyone can register an email address under a false name. There is, in fact, NO WAY AT ALL to confirm identity of comments on the Web. That being said, an IP address is attached to every comment, and if someone acted criminally with a comment, a judge could order that an Internet provider identify that person. The standard to get a judge to take that kind of step is pretty high.
We choose not to require registration because all it does is slow commenting down to an absolute halt. It would kill the existence of this forum. So would a delay in posting comments for the purposes of prescreening.
BUT ... I strongly agree that comments, especially in the past few days, have been way over the line in attacking people personally, and we will not tolerate it. Please use the "Report Abuse" button next to every comment to report stuff like this when you see it, and we will take it down ASAP. We will also be banning the IP addresses of users who have crossed the line in recent days, and will continue to use that option to protect this forum for the vast majority of readers and commenters who do not abuse it.