We encourage commenting on our stories to give you a chance to express your opinion. Comments may or may not be reviewed before posting to the site. We rely upon the online community to report abuse. To report abuse based on the commenting guidelines, e-mail witn@witn.com. WITN tracks IP addresses. Repeat violators may be banned from posting comments.

Here are the witn.com guidelines for posting comments.

1. Do not post racist comments.

2. Profane or inappropriate comments are not acceptable. Spelling our profane words with dashes or symbols is not acceptable.

3. Do not post inflammatory comments specifically referring to people who are not public figures.

4. Refrain from posting inflammatory comments specifically naming a business, especially when the business is not an integral part of the related story.

5. Do not post comments that accuse a person of a crime in which that person is not charged.

6. Posters should not “call each other out.” No flaming! Posters can reference each other and discuss stories but no name calling or attacks on other posters.

7. “Attack” comments that are incorrect, unsubstantiated or inappropriate are not allowed, even about public figures.

8. No SHOUTING. Please post in upper and lowercase.

9. Comments that suggest or recommend vigilante justice are not allowed, nor are posts that suggest prison violence, assassination or other types of harm.

10. WITN will delete posts that are insensitive to grieving families. WITN will ban posters who deliberately try to antagonize those families.

11. WITN reserves the right to decline all comments on stories that involve sexually-related crimes where minors are involved.

12. WITN reserves the right to change or amend these guidelines at any time.

13. WITN may ban commenters at its discretion.