We continue to work on the system that powers the comments on our news stories in the hope of turning that feature back on as soon as possible. In the meantime, I want to clear up any misconceptions about why this is happening.

It's a technical problem that needed to be fixed. That is all.

We've received several emails that carried alarmed tones, jumping to one conclusion or another about why we turned the comments off. Here's a sample:

... some readers are interpreting the silence on the message boards as a TNT attempt at squelching dissenting speech. In the absence of an official announcement by TNT, one can expect a variety of conspiracy theories to be offered. An official announcement, posted on the News Tribune's website is (IMHO) in order.

So this post is as "official" as we'll get with an announcement since this is simply a technical problem and not a change in any policy. We're hoping to restore comments in the next day or so. Stay tuned.