The days of posting anonymous comments on NewsOK are no more. Digital Managing Editor Alan Herzberger announced Tuesday morning that the site will be switching to Facebook commenting.

“We care about the conversation. We care so much about the conversation that we are willing to give up quantity for quality. We expect this change to result in fewer comments on our site. But we also expect this change to encourage more users to participate. And we’re confident that we will see more constructive discourse about issues in Oklahoma.” – Herzberger

This year we have had more than 196,000 comments. With the new policy, I hope to be able to engage with readers in discussions and conversations instead of spending time flagging and removing comments. I’m going to guess other web editors and reporters feel the same way.

According to Poynter, media outlets that have switched to Facebook commenting say they are seeing a higher quality of discussion and a significant increase in referral traffic. I guess only time will tell if we’ll see the same result. In the meantime, let’s talk about it.

Do you like or dislike the new policy? Why or why not? Would you rather be able to post anonymously? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Here’s some feedback on what others had to say about the new policy: