As Marc so recently said, it’s been a strange (and wonderful) trip here at sync since we launched 1 year ago. So it’s sad that recent events are forcing a change on how we do business…

Typically, our readers are a great bunch, who add thoughtful and valuable comments to our posts and make the whole blog thing worthwhile.

Now and then however, we get some comments that aren’t appropriate. We try to remove these as quickly as they are brought to our attention. Lately though, we’ve seen a rash of mean-spirited, foul-mouthed comments that are simply unacceptable.

Some of these comments are personal attacks on other commenters, some are aimed against our bloggers and some are of the troll variety where they’re being rude just to annoy the rest of us.

Because sync is part of the Sympatico / MSN network of sites, we sometimes get links to our articles from the Sympatico / MSN homepage as well as the MSN Today page. This is great, because it exposes our unique brand of content to a huge audience across Canada and elsewhere in the world. But with that exposure comes greater responsibility and an understanding that when someone comes to read one of our articles, the first thing they see should not be an abusive comment. Especially since many of our readers are children.

So starting today, we’re changing the way we display comments on our posts. By default, the comments section will now be hidden, becoming visible only when you click a link on the page that says "Show Comments".

We know that for regular users who don’t abuse the privilege of being able to post without moderation, this will be a drag – yet another click to get to the stuff you want to read – and for that, we apologize. But it’s much preferable to some of the other options such as full moderation, or required sign-in.

Thanks for your understanding, and your continued support!