BLOOMINGTON - As befits the world of the Internet, change is coming to the user comment section of Pantagraph.com.

Beginning March 1, we will begin requiring users who comment on our stories to register for a unique username using a verifiable e-mail address. The e-mail address will not be accessible to other users.

Registration can be completed at www.pantagraph.com/register.

We value our reader comments as a vital part of our Web site, but we have heard from many readers over the past two years that the system is not perfect and that our current lack of registration opens the door to readers who abuse the comments to attack others anonymously.

When we launched the reader comment feature, we did not have the capability to require registration, and we also did not anticipate the negative influence some readers have brought to our online community.

We believe there is a certain amount of "frontier freedom" on the Internet, so we won't go so far as to require readers to supply their real names. Registration requires only the user's e-mail address and year of birth. Other information is voluntary.

Our editors continuously discuss and review our policy for accepting comments, which can be accessed online at www.pantagraph.com/info/comments.php.

We have tried a variety of ways to temper the discussion, ranging from an appeal to users for more civility, stricter policies regarding the review of comments and suspending comments on some stories.

We're hoping that the requirement of a legitimate e-mail address will make readers feel more accountable for their behavior.

This new policy may have a chilling effect, in that fewer readers may choose to participate in the online discussion, but our hope is that those people will be replaced by others who embrace this change as an effort to improve the overall reader dialogue.

Thanks to all for their continued interest in Pantagraph.com.