As of Sept. 27, 2014, it will be necessary to have some guidelines for comments.

I encourage people to comment on this blog. I believe in giving everyone an opportunity to exercise their right to free speech, but like any right, it is subject to reasonable limits.

Here are the rules for commenting.

1) Please identify yourself. Use your real name — first and last name. In some circumstances, if I can verify who you are, you can post using just your first name.

2) You will be asked to provide an e-mail address as contact information. This must be a real e-mail address. If I can’t contact you at this e-mail address, your comment will not be published.

3) If you feel that you must make an anonymous comment, please provide your name to me in confidence along with a reason why it is important for you to remain anonymous. I will consider these requests on a case-by-case basis.

4) Any comment that is considered to be libellous, criminal or hateful will not be approved. Please avoid profanity.

5) If you have some facts or a well-reasoned comment to make, that is what I’m looking for. Let’s move the discussion forward. Anything that doesn’t do that won’t be allowed.