Police Scotland’s version by our cartoonist Steven Camley

Why are you making commenting on HeraldScotland only available to subscribers?

It should have been a safe space for informed debate, a place for readers to discuss topics related to the most important stories of the day, but all too often the underline comments on most sites are blocked by off-topic discussions and rants.

heraldscotland.com addresses this issue by only allowing subscribers to comment.

We do this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it reduces the ability of trolls and troublemakers who occasionally make their way to our site to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfill its promise as part of Scotland’s conversation with itself.

We’re lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can bring their knowledge and insights to our stories.

This is priceless.

We’re making the change for subscribers only, to support our valued readers who let us know that they don’t want the site to be cluttered with irrelevant comments, untruths, and abuse.

In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect information and distribute it to the audience. Technology means readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com