COMMENT CHANGE IS TODAY
Starting Monday, November 28th, WPDE NewsChannel 15 is changing the way you will comment on your website CarolinaLive.com, allowing people to comment only through an active Facebook account.
At first blush, the new policy may seem exclusionary. It is. But before you form an opinion about the change, I ask that you consider the motivation behind the change.
Often we see comments on CarolinaLive.com from anonymous users that are inappropriate at best, slanderous at worst.
By requiring people to comment through their Facebook pages, we up the accountability factor. People will be less likely to be racist, sexist, derogatory, libelous, or slanderous if their real names are being used.
We believe the new commenting policy will foster a more civil and pleasant online discussion.
We hope those of you who have avoided commenting on our stories because you were turned off by some of comments, will now feel free to join the conversation.
This is an industry-wide trend, and there's good reason for it. Facebook does a great job of identifying fake users and automatically blocks their comments from public view.
What if you don't have a Facebook account? Maybe you're worried about your personal privacy? We understand that this change may inconvenience a few of you, which is why we've created some additional resources to help you create a Facebook account you can feel comfortable with and use to comment on our site.
If you're dead-set against creating a Facebook page, that is entirely up to you and we fully respect your decision. We hope you continue to enjoy using CarolinaLive.com for all of the features, functionality and content you find useful. You do not need to have a Facebook account to use the site, only to comment on it.
We hope you will embrace this change as a great move forward. We are!
Here's a link to some Frequently Asked Questions about the change we're making. If you don't see your question addressed, feel free to email us at yournews@wpde.com. We'll do our best to get an answer.
