OregonLive and The Oregonian are part of this local community, and our success depends on our ability to connect with readers. Our journalism is strongest when it is rooted in the issues and conversations that matter most to the people we serve.

When OregonLive launched more than 20 years ago, it was built around reader conversations with some news, sports and entertainment sprinkled in. Over time, we have evolved into a real-time digital news organization, and reader conversations shifted from forums to comments, and more recently to social media, and text messaging and events that bring people together for thoughtful give and take.

Conversations happen daily on our Facebook pages, and we answer reader questions.

In light of these business and societal changes, we’ve eliminated website comments, as have many other news sites over the past decade. This change occurred Jan. 2.

Some people will be unhappy with this decision and others will celebrate. It’s important to note that very few people contribute the vast majority of comments on the site. Most readers never comment or read the comments. In fact, across our company’s websites, which serve 50 million unique visitors in an average month, just 2,340 people produce more than half of the comments. Just 3 percent of visitors to OregonLive read the comments over a three-month period last summer. A tiny fraction of visitors ever posts a comment.

And let’s be frank: Some of these conversations are uncivil, even downright nasty at times. Moderating the comments for off-topic posts or personal attacks takes time and resources that are better spent producing independent local news.

This change does not mean we care less about hearing and sharing the diversity of voices across Oregon. That’s why our journalists are active on social media and why we are always looking for new ways to engage people in this community in discussion and debate.

But the change does reflect our desire to do this work better, and it’s driven by a recognition that website comments have been replaced by better, more constructive spaces for meaningful engagement.

Just like before, you can click on a reporter’s byline on any story to email questions or comments. You also can send letters to the editor to letters@oregonian.com. We publish letters daily online and twice a week in print.

Letters to the Editor are popular online and in print.

On social media, The Oregonian’s main Facebook page publishes dozens of posts a day and provides a high-quality venue for readers and our journalists to engage. Our Oregon Ducks Facebook page and Oregon State Beavers page are also a spot for lively conversation. Our main Instagram account highlights news but also photography – ours and yours – that reflects the splendor of this place we live.

You can engage with reporters on Twitter or follow one of our main accounts: @Oregonian, @OregonianSports, @OregonianPol or @OregonianBiz.

We hold live events, including our popular annual Top Workplaces banquet.

Readers also have opportunities to inform and guide our major public-service investigations. We used Facebook to find people who were deciding where to live based on environmental factors. That led to a story, from The Dalles, that featured in our important watchdog series “Polluted by Money.” Most recently, we asked readers to share their stories involving radon in their homes.

Our editor, Therese Bottomly, writes a weekly letter to readers. We also have a public editor phone line (503-221-8221) and email address (publiceditor@oregonian.com), where readers can reach editors with questions, corrections, comments or concerns.

We think this change is an improvement for the vast majority of our audience. We hope you agree, and we look forward to hearing from you through any of the avenues outlined above.