Dear Reader,

On Monday we introduced a major change to our comment section. It is now accessible to our members only. If you are not a member and/or are not logged in you will see the following notice where the comment section used to be:

To limit the comment section in this way is international best practice and it is a step that has been under consideration for some time, as we weighed the benefits up against the costs. We expedited this move as a completely open comment section was becoming too difficult and time-consuming to manage properly with the tools and resources that we had at our disposal.

By taking this step we hope to make the comment section more manageable, exclude bad actors, improve the average overall quality and tenor of the debate, and foster a greater sense of community and civility. The short term cost will likely be fewer comments in total. Though hopefully over time these will pick up again.  

The comment section will still be run through Disqus – so nothing changes in that regard - and you can still comment pseudonymously. We have also reactivated guest commenting which we earlier had to turn off due to persistent abuse by one or two persons.

If you are not a member and found value in our comment section previously - either as a reader or a commenter, or both - we ask that you consider signing up as one. By doing so you will help support our work, gain unrestricted access to all our content, and also enjoy a far more pleasurable reading experience. You can do so here:

If you are a long term contributor to the Politicsweb comment section in good standing, and are not currently in a position to become a subscriber, please get in touch by email and we will make a plan. We valued your contributions and do not want to lose them!

If you are a member and can view the comment section this means you are already logged in, and do not have to do anything further. If you cannot see it, and get the message above, you will need to log in.

The following is a guide to doing so:

There are two different ways of logging into the site. The first is just to click the "LOG IN WITH STEADY" on the top right of the page:

An alternative method - which will often resolve any log-in problems - is to go to your membership page on the Steady website. Click here. You can then click into Politicsweb - and log in at the same time - by clicking on the Politicsweb FC logo. 

If you have forgotten your password it can be reset here. In terms of troubleshooting one problem is that the old Internet Explorer is now obsolete. If you use a Microsoft browser you will need to upgrade to Edge. For more on the browser settings required please read here.  You can check your browser and your settings here. 

I would encourage all members to make sure they are logged in to Politicsweb - whether you wish to view the comments or not - as it is a much more pleasurable reading experience. For one thing the annoying adverts you see will disappear.

If you have not commented before, due to the sometimes rough nature of the discourse on an open comment section, I would also encourage to now consider doing so. This can still be done anonymously. 

James Myburgh
Publisher, Politicsweb.