Dear Sir,

Considering that more than half of all comments on your site these days seem to be from the same revolving cast, would you consider requiring real names?

It seems like there are two “teams” online and where there used to be constructive discourse, there no longer is: the same people making inflammatory statements, with the same people taking the bait and trolling them right back.

While there was always some needle in the comments section, the majority of the threads tended to be an actual gauge on the feelings of the population. There are people making ludicrous statements, sometimes knowingly false, and there is no penalty for this.

It is unreasonable to expect you to filter through and moderate these discussions in any useful way, namely calling each lie exactly what it is.

Blocking users or deleting comments only empowers these users even more; forming three accounts where there was one previous is one new tactic.

With an election coming up, major governmental projects and the commission of inquiry, it gets more and more important every day that the major forums for political and cultural discussions clean up their act.

It is within your power to ensure that if there are paid “bloggers” using your site, your customers know them by name.

It is vital that anonymous avatars are not slandering politicians within both the Government and the Opposition — just out of respect as much as anything.

In this day and age, I understand that if there is more controversy on a page, the more clicks (and therefore revenue) it will generate.

However, I truly believe that if you do this, you will regain the commenting audience you have so obviously lost during the past five years.

ALEX, Warwick