Commenting on The News-Tribune has been changed. Readers who wish to leave a comment can no longer hide under a veil of complete anonymity— they now must register with a valid email address and first and last name. A real name is preferred but not required.  Users may also choose an appropriate name for all to see when making comments.  Once a user has registered to comment, a confirmation email with a link to the confirmation page will be sent to that email address.  To confirm your registration you must click on or copy and paste the link in your browser and then you may comment on the intended story.
Some e-mail programs drop the final “=” sign in the URL.  If you're having trouble registering, make sure the URL for registration confirmation page contains that final “=”.
According to an email from a Gatehouse editor, this new system was installed because of ugly, irrational comments that were being made.
I am in total agreement with this approach.  As some of you may know, we have had the same problem on our guestbook and with our story comments. Commenters have been slandering people in the stories and making repeated offensive comments about other guests. It got so bad that the guestbook commenting  section had to be turned off. The commenting was turned off due to the fact that we at The News-Tribune do not have the kind of time it would take to read over and police all of the comments.  
I think for those commenters that left slanderous remarks it was easy for them to be cowardly and hide behind their anonymity.  So to all those people who were offended by these commenters' remarks, I am truly sorry and hopefully this new registration process will help cut back on some of the slanderous remarks.
Yes, we all have freedom of speech and that's a great thing, but let's leave the backstabbing and the name-calling out of it and act like the grownups we are supposed to be.
So I encourage you all to check out or new commenting system and the guestbook  (which is now turned back on) but keep in mind you can still get your point across just as strongly if not stronger by leaving out the slanderous remarks; also keep in mind to follow the pool rules.  If you see anyone violating the pool rules please do your part and help us out by clicking on the "Report abuse" icon.
So I will leave you with this quote from Bob Marley “Who are you to judge the life I live— I know I am not perfect, and I don't live to be. But before you start pointing fingers, make sure your hands are clean.”
That said, we at The News-Tribune enjoy hearing your thoughts and debates on various topics and we look forward to hearing from you!  Stay classy, commenters!