The Kirkland Reporter, along with most newspapers, have a long-running and simple rule for submitting letters to the editor – sign your name.

The idea of making a letter writer own their words serves many purposes. Most people are not going to outright lie in something that has their name on it. They may err by not doing their homework, but most people do not want to be known as a liar.

Being ignorant on a subject is not so much of a faux pas in our society as attempting to make a point without the truth to back it up. And while some people may attempt to twist the truth and even fewer may lie, it still makes the writer think twice about their reputation with their neighbors.

Signing your name makes it difficult to slander or demean an individual. If the subject takes issue with your words they only have to look at who wrote the column or letter to see where they should direct their anger.

Journalists are held to the same standards as a letter writer. All journalists have to take credit for their work with a byline. It is a way to hold journalists to the old axiom of presenting a story as objectively as possible. It is also a way to let the community know who to thank or correct. Anonymous sources are also frowned upon in journalism. Although they are sometimes the only way to print information, every journalist knows that the public will heavily scrutinize a story with anonymous sources.

The internet has taken letter writing into an area of anarchy. Nearly every story on a news site has a comment section at the bottom that acts as a digital letter to the editor. Anyone can have a voice.

And while most news agencies attempt to moderate the section, it is a cumbersome and time-consuming task. Most websites make the user give an email address. But that does very little if someone wants to post a comment in obscurity and most of the time a sir name will do. That anonymity allows many to lie about topics to make a point. It allows many to post mean and hateful things about people without recourse. It is also a legal liability for newsrooms that don’t constantly police the comments.

On Nov. 17 the Reporter will attempt to end the anarchy on its website and we have turned to Facebook for the answer. Our website readers will have to have a Facebook page in order to comment on a story, column or letter to the editor. Comments will be linked to that person’s personal Facebook page.

The social networking site does due diligence in making sure that users are who they say they are. Yes, there are some who have multiple Facebook pages and use several aliases.

But there is recourse. This system will help ferret out those people. In return, the commenters will have to take ownership of their words on our website.

The implementation of this policy will hopefully bring a more civil and honest discourse among our readers. The new way of commenting will also be accompanied by a new policy of restricting comments on personal tragedy stories.

While most people will not post hurtful words if their name is attached, some will do it inadvertently. We feel it is unnecessary to leave a comments section at the end of a personal tragedy story. Many who comment on such stories do so out of extreme emotion and without great thought.  If you want to comment, do it the old-fashioned way, the way that newspapers have given their readers a voice for centuries – write a letter to the editor and mail it to: 11630 Slater Ave. N.E., Suite 8/9, Kirkland, WA 98034. Or, as the digital age has given us, email: letters@kirklandreporter.com.