Over the last seven days, several people have visited or called The Laurinburg Exchange to lodge complaints about comments posted to stories on our website.

In every instant, the comment in question was either defamatory or abusive. We removed the offensive posts and in one case, placed a reader’s privilege to comment on hold for a week.

Those are actions that this newspaper would prefer not to take.

We want the comment section to be a place where readers can express opinions and engage in lively discussions with others.

But far too often, leaving comments on our articles has become a way to attack, demean or insult readers that hold differing viewpoints. Instead of encouraging debate — which should be the goal — the section has devolved into a toxic space that discourages meaningful discussion.

Going forward, we ask that readers follow these guidelines:

Stay on topic. Comments should be related to the topic discussed in the associated article. Off-topic comments may be removed. That also applies to questions or concerns about discussion moderation which should not be posted as comments.

Hate-speech not allowed. Comments containing racism, homophobia, sexism or any other form of hate-speech have no place on our site.

No vulgarity. Our filters sometime allow for colorful words, but in most instances obscenities and objectionable words will prevent your comments from being posted. So please keep your language clean. If you can’t be civil and polite, don’t post.

Do not demean: It is acceptable to disagree, but refrain from posting comments which may defame, harass, stalk or threaten others. We also ask that you not interfere with any other user’s right to privacy, including posting personally-identifiable information about site users or posting private information about a third party. You are responsible for libelous or defamatory comments.

No ads. We will remove any posts that are obviously commercial or otherwise spam-like. This is a space for people to interact with our content and each other, and we discourage commercial entities passing themselves off as individuals, in order to post advertising material or links.

As a rule, this newspaper does not review comments, but we reserve the right to remove inappropriate content once posted. Those readers who continuously flout the guidelines, may find themselves banned temporarily — or even permanently — from commenting.

The best response to a troll—someone being repeatedly hostile and provocative—is no response. Don’t encourage bad behavior by responding; it only serves to delight trolls. If someone is abusing a discussion thread, let us know and we will address the situation.

If you have a question about these guidelines or a comment that you posted or one posted by someone else, please call us at 910-506-3023 or email switten@laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com.

If you help make this an intelligent place for discussion, it will be.