The Arlington Times and The Marysville Globe have had a long-standing policy that all Letters to the Editor  must be signed. But, at the same time, our online readers have been able to make anonymous comments to our stories posted on our websites.

Unfortunately, some people have taken advantage of that anonymity to post offensive or untrue comments or to post spam in the form of a comment. We believe the move away from anonymous commenting will help foster an environment of decorum and mutual respect among our readers.

So, on Nov. 17, we will be introducing a new policy which will take advantage of Facebook’s commenting system to end our anonymous online commenting and move to a system that encourages the use of real identities.

By making this change, the Globe and Times will be joining a growing number of news outlets that have moved away from anonymous online commenting. Other publications that have implemented this policy include seattlepi.com, LATimes.com, Gannet and others.

After the change is implemented you will need to have a Facebook account to comment on stories featured on www.arlingtontimes.com or www.marysvilleglobe.com.

We understand that everyone in our communities may not have a Facebook account. If you don’t have a Facebook account there are two options. You can sign up for an account at www.facebook.com, or you can send in a Letter to the Editor for the print and online editions.

We believe our Letters to the Editor and online commenting system are valuable resources to encourage community dialogue. We encourage you to take advantage of both to participate in that community dialogue in our print editions and our online publications at www.arlingtontimes.com and www.marysvilleglobe.com.

For more information, check out our Commenting FAQ.