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New Commenting Section on the Flathead Beacon Website

Commenters must have a Facebook account to leave posts on stories

By Kellyn Brown

The commenting section on flatheadbeacon.com is receiving a makeover. We will no longer be using Disqus and instead have switched to a new system where commenters must have a Facebook account to leave posts on stories.

This wasn’t a change we expected or really wanted to implement. Put simply, no matter how many times we’ve tried to adjust the filters on our previous commenting system, the conversation would too often include profanity, derogatory images and personal attacks. Thus, we would end up shutting down comment threads.

There are many engaged commenters who posted well-informed critiques and added context to the end of stories. Unfortunately, they were often drowned out by others, and we don’t have the resources to approve or monitor every comment posted on our website. Some sites have shut down comments completely, but we didn’t want to do that.

We’ll see how this new system works. And if something better comes along, we’ll consider that, too.