We all know the wonders of the World Wide Web.

Information at the click of a button. Talk to friends an ocean away on Instant Messenger. Recreate yourself in chat room conversations; the strangers on the other end will never know the difference.

While the Internet’s possibilities are undeniable, its dangers are too.

The Daily learned this firsthand this past summer with our Internet site. It was revamped during the Fall 2000 semester and one of the most popular parts was the feedback option at the end of every story.

A faster option than a letter to the editor, comments poured into the feedback forums every day. Some of the notes were great, well-thought-out arguments. Some were just entertaining to read.

And some were complete trash, full of vulgarities and nasty, unfounded comments about Daily reporters and columnists.

Despite these unpleasant and sometimes embarrassing letters, we didn’t change the feedback option because we didn’t want to hinder the free flow of ideas. While the discussion was inappropriate at times, we felt it was more important to continue providing a forum for our readers.

We hoped they’d be mature enough to handle it. But they weren’t.

The feedback letter caught my eye this summer as I was reading the Daily online at the Omaha World-Herald, where I was an intern. As I went through the stories I noticed the same letter posted on each of them.

I had never read anything like it before. There were claims of spaceships being hidden in the Armory at Iowa State and bodies being thrown away in the dumpsters at old Richardson Court Association.

Coupled with these unbelievable statements were accurate Bible passages, which made it seem that at least the author of this ridiculous letter was legitimate. Someone had spent a lot of time on that letter, however bizarre the claims might be.

A couple days later the Daily’s summer editor in chief found out that the letter’s ridiculous claims weren’t the only false part of it; the author was false too. For whatever reason, someone had impersonated the author and now that potentially libelous letter was sitting on the Daily’s Web site for anyone to see.

After a year of vulgarities, complaints and inappropriate comments, this was the post that broke feedback’s connection.

The feedback forums were taken down immediately, and were still down as we began the fall semester.

While I knew feedback could be a beneficial part of our site, it wasn’t worth a lawsuit.

After a semester of researching all of our options and their potential ramifications, feedback returned to the Daily Web site last Monday. The new system sends all of the posts to our online editor, who reviews them using a policy similar to the letter to the editor. The policy is under the “About Us” section of the site.

While the new system isn’t as immediate as last year’s, it provides the same service to our readers and gives us more control of the Web site we’re responsible for.

Letters to the editor provide a forum for readers to discuss and debate the ideas and information they read in the Daily.

Feedback provides a similar forum, which is why we thought it was important to bring it back to the site.

All last week I read the letters posted under various Daily stories and columns, and I’m hopeful that feedback will work out this time. I’m hopeful that the Daily’s readers will take this opportunity and use it in a beneficial way, as a forum for discussion and debate, a way to learn more.

Information at the click of a button – it’s a wonderful resource.

Being able to post your opinion for all the world to see – it’s a privilege. Use it well.

Andrea Hauser is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Edgewood. She is editor in chief of the Daily.