The story comments feature on the Eastern Arizona Courier’s Web site is a great way to exchange ideas on community issues, but do not take all the comments seriously.

I recently received an e-mail from a lady who said our Web site is a great way to help keep Safford natives in tune with the progress and growth of Safford. “Unfortunately,” she wrote, “people are not mature enough to leave comments that are not mean and hurtful to anybody, including the victims or your staff.”

She said she thought it would be great if the Courier would write the stories and allow people to read the paper on the Internet, but that residents can talk among themselves about their feelings on each story. “I am ashamed to say I am a native of Safford with the level of maturity Safford residents have towards each other.” She said she believes this is not something the Courier expected to see from the story comments feature, but that this is what it has been become. “I actually felt like I was reading blogs written on the bathroom walls.” She said she hoped we would re-evaluate the needs for a story comments feature on our Web site to see if it is a necessity for our paper on the Internet.

Unfortunately, blogs are part of the Internet age. Many newspapers have learned that if they do not provide readers an opportunity to comment on the Internet, someone else will, and most bloggers publish all comments.

The decision to add story comments on our Web site was difficult because we’re dealing with two different standards. Newspaper letters to the editor are edited, cannot be libelous, must be signed and include a phone number so we can verify the author.

Those controls are not in place with Internet blogs and story comments. A lot of the information is not accurate. Anonymity enables spiteful people to spread rumors and lies.

But you cannot deny that some good discussion takes place on blogs. No matter what the facts, people have their own views. We often think we know how the public feels about issues and make decisions accordingly. Blogs enable us to get a better idea of what the public really thinks.

Laws governing the Internet are vague, but people who submit information on blogs should know they can be held accountable for libelous statements. That is why we cannot edit their comments. If we do any editing, we can be held accountable, which is why the grammar, punctuation and spelling are horrible on many of the comments.

The Courier will not post comments that contain vulgarity or that are overly mean and vicious.

We encourage the healthy discussion of issues in our community, but please be civil. There’s no need to be vicious and insulting.