As far as our online story comments go, this doesn't necessarily hold true, likely due to the anonymity attached to them. Sometimes, readers' comments on our website are anything but nice, but in most cases they don't cross the line.

On some occasions, however, the posted comments will cross the line for tastefulness, violating our Terms of Service and keeping those of us who monitor comments busy. On certain hot-button issues, story comments can number up to 200 or more.

Comments are posted live and in real time. Questionable comments are taken down after we notice a violation or when someone reports a potential violation. We know certain stories will draw tons of comments, and perhaps warrant us taking a closer-than-normal look at the back-and-forth commentary.

You may have noticed that on several occasions in recent months, we've nixed the ability to comment on a story altogether. This decision does not come easily. For many readers, posting and reading comments seems to be a daily habit, like drinking coffee. So taking away this value-added feature is something we don't like to do.

There are times, however, when it must be done, but only after a discussion has taken place and Managing Editor Terry Headlee has weighed in. During the times when there is one nasty comment after another, it's best for us to get ahead of it, and disable the comment feature.

Trust me, I'm the last person who wants to see the ability to comment on a story taken away because it provides an avenue for a healthy debate on issues of interest to readers. It's also true that more comments posted means more page views and longer visits to the website.

But our goal is always to allow a means for a civil discussion even if you don't agree with the comment posted by another reader.

Fortunately, most of our readers get this.

Be (one of) the first to know

Are you signed up for our breaking news e-alerts? You should be. More than 4,100 e-mail addresses are registered so far and they are in the know as soon as major local news is happening.

Go to fredericknewspost.com/login/email_alerts.htm to get signed up.

New day for Go & Do

Dating back nearly two years, the Go & Do video spot updating you on the top events of the coming weekend has gone live on Thursdays.

Well, no longer. We're keeping the popular, quick-hit format, but we're pushing it back a day. Now you can catch Jessica Frizen when she pitches Go & Do on Fridays.

Jason Brennan is the web editor for The Frederick News-Post. He can be reached at jbrennan@fredericknewspost.com and at 240-215-8658.