How to comment on The Independent

Joining the conversation on the biggest stories of the day is one of the benefits of being a registered reader of The Independent. You can view our most commented stories here or via the My Independent hub.

To post comments under articles on The Independent, you will need to register. If you are already a registered reader, make sure you are logged in to the site by clicking ‘Log In’ at the top right corner of the page and entering your username and password. If you have not registered with us before, you can choose to subscribe for Independent Premiumby clicking ‘Subscribe’ at the top of the page.

Commenting is open to everyone and you can also take part for free by clicking the ‘Register’ button when you click ‘Log In’. Or you can create an account, which allows you to sign up to newsletters, comment and attend our virtual events, via our registration page.

Once you have registered, here’s how to start using comments.

To get to the comments section, look out for the speech bubble icon next to ‘Comments’ under the title and byline at the top of the article. Clicking here will take you to the bottom of the article to the comments section. You can also find the comments section by scrolling to the bottom of the article. A reminder; you can find our most commented stories here. Or why not bookmark the My Independent hub for instant access to all your benefits as a registered reader?

Before posting a comment for the first time, you will need to choose a commenting name. Please don’t choose anything rude and we advise you to opt for something that does not identify you. Once you have chosen a commenting name that isn’t already taken, click on ‘Join The Conversation’ to type your comment. If you use an offensive username or try to impersonate others, you will get banned.

If you want to interact with other users, you can reply to their comments by clicking ‘Reply’ underneath their comment. You can also ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ their comment by clicking the thumbs up or thumbs down icons respectively. Remember to be respectful. Make sure you read our updated community guidelines here. We will not tolerate personal attacks and will turn off comments if our authors are being personally attacked. If you do not follow our code of conduct, you will face a ban.

If you see a comment that breaks our community guidelines, you can flag it to moderators. If you misuse the flagging feature, you may also face a ban. If you want to show you dislike a post, please use the thumbs down icon.

Once you’re in the comments section of an article, you can toggle comments by the order they were posted in, or you can find the most engaged comments by selecting most liked or most replies. If you want to keep up-to-date with a particular story, you can select the bell icon, which will add it to your notification tray. You can also choose to follow other users and their activity will also show in your notification tray. You’ll be able to see all the comments you have made in the profile section of your notification tray.

Registering for comments has benefits in addition to having your say on the latest stories from our team around the globe. Once you are registered for comments, you will be able to submit questions for our ‘Ask Me Anything’ events where experts answer reader questions on a number of subjects every week and also you’ll be able to pre-submit questions to our live panel events. It’s also a great way to give us feedback on the issues that matter to you and to help shape what we cover, what events we put on and the polls we run each week.

The Independent’s comments are moderated by Viafoura.

So, make the most of your registered reader benefits by following these step-by-step instructions. And do let us know any thoughts or feedback in the comments below.