Story commenting system shifts to Facebook

We’re making a change to our story comments. Starting today, you’ll comment on our stories using Facebook.

This means you’ll now use your Facebook account to comment on stories. Your comments will appear with our stories and, if you choose, to your friends on Facebook.

Facebook’s authentication and robust spam filtering will mean fewer instances of fake accounts and less spam among the comments.

On our end, Facebook gives us a moderation toolkit better suited to our workflow and our aims to engage more fully with you, our readers.

It’s a direction many news organizations have taken in recent years, as comment moderation has absorbed a bigger share of staff time.

Our existing Disqus comment threads will still be visible on our site, but any comments made from today on will be made using Facebook’s commenting.

If you have specific questions or comments about this change, please contact us.