I love the Op-Ed section of the paper. I believe we all need to write at least one letter on something we’re passionate about in our lifetime. In saying that, I applaud this reader

‘New to me’ and ‘provocative,’ yes. ‘Clarifying’ and ‘thoughtful,’ no. The beauty of The Post’s old comment system was that it was heartfelt, immediate, self-correcting and real. Comments gave me a timely sense of what and how people in America thought and felt. The conversations were a bit hardscrabble at times, but I never felt insulted by a response to my observations. I liked the give-and-take. It felt like a town square.I never saw anything I would flag to moderators, except an occasional off-topic comment that I would flag — to myself as a waste of time. The new rule of three strikes and you’re out is draconian. It’s akin to a parent throwing their child out of the house because they didn’t measure up three times. We have a very diverse society and a very angry one at present. This new policy is not the way to handle controversy. Yes, The Post should disallow profanity, name-calling and anything off topic. But leave the rest alone. Let people talk. Take the bitter with the sweet. You are placing yourselves in the position of an almighty entity, when in fact you exist only through the power of your subscribers. A newspaper that is no longer connected to its readers in a meaningful way loses its readers.

Mary Ann Skold, Grosse Pointe, Michigan