The Advance and SILive will stop hosting comments on our website’s articles Thursday. The move is in response to our readers’ steadily growing preference to engage with our content on social media; the proliferation of other communication options; and an increase in personal-attack comments that required around-the-clock moderation. [FAQs about the decision.]

While article commenting is going away, the ability to share your views and connect with our staff has never been stronger. Here are the most popular ways to interact:

We did not take the decision to end article commenting lightly. The efforts required to moderate comments are significant, and we decided those resources are better applied elsewhere. Our data shows that less than 1% of our readers post comments, compared to significantly higher engagement on our social media platforms.

Another challenge with website comments has been an increase in nastiness and personal attacks. Everyone from community honorees, high school athletes and even crime victims have faced cheap-shot attacks on our site recently, and readers have made it clear they don’t like it. We’ve heard those concerns and they played a big factor in the decision.

This FAQ addresses common reader questions about the decision.

We continue to look for ways to grow our reader engagement and welcome your input. If you’d like to help us, please take this brief survey.