Visiting our website, iowastatedaily.net, you may have noticed comments from the past few years are now gone. The reason for the change was because we switched to a new content management system, which helps us organize the back end of our website.

Deleting the comments is not something we wanted to do, but the new CMS has made our work flow much smoother and reporters have more ownership of their content’s presentation. It also helps get news online more quickly.

So, all comments made before the switch have been deleted.

Commenting will be restored soon, as our plan is to have it up as soon as possible — we agree, without it, the website loses a little of its flavor.

Our new system will be similar to the one we previously had with the ability to comment on each story.

However, anonymous commenting will be muzzled. Every person will be asked to verify their identity and, therefore, use their real name.

The Daily wants to create a more engaged community online where people know who they are talking to, so that, hopefully, more people will join in on conversations.

We don’t accept anonymous letters to the editor, so the same is being established on online commenting.

Facebook will be one of the major options available to users to verify one’s identity.

Logging into Facebook will also allow access to iowastatedaily.net. This is similar to the way CNN, Mashable and the Huffington Post currently operate.

Staff members will also be joining the conversation, so when you have a question on a story, reporters and editors will respond and give information when they need to.

Again, we want to cultivate an online community of trust and more conversation.

Be aware of what you state when you comment because it, like our archives, will not be removed. We want to ensure you are aware of that.

We believe the new system isn’t perfect, but it’s a step forward.