News.com.au has a fancy, new commenting system

Our new commenting system means you can all have constructive conversations in an environment where people feel welcomed, accepted and safe — with Trish to guide you.

This is Trish, lost in the world of comment moderation. Picture: istock

There's a new gal in town at news.com.au. Her name is Trish and she has been tasked with the seriously enviable task of dealing with all the fun comments you leave at the bottom of our stories.

Trish isn’t a person — though we do wish she was a semi-retired chain-smoking lady with a blue hair rinse who tolerates no horseplay.

Rather, Trish is the name of the fancy new commenting system here at the website. The system’s official name isn’t Trish and no bosses have signed off on it being branded with that name, but calling it Trish makes it more interesting to talk about.

Anyway, the reason Trish has come into play is so you guys can get more involved with the stories when it comes to commenting. Trish is like a moderator — the queen governing the comments section, like Tony Jones on Q&A but with better hair. Her new commenting system means you can all have constructive conversations in an environment where people feel welcomed, accepted and safe to share their original thoughts and ideas.

Trish does have some rules for the commenting section and she went to great effort to detail them in the Commenting Guidelines. They’re basically: Be respectful. Criticise ideas, not people. And keep your language in check.

I know sometimes it’s tempting to break these rules but please don’t. Mainly because Trish will delete your comment from the section and then probably call your mum.

You don’t want to disappoint Trish. Picture: istock

In conjunction with launching the new comments system, the sign up process has also been enhanced so that you now get access to your profile page where you can edit your personal details and view your newsletter preferences. Trish wanted to call it Facebook and still doesn’t understand why we can’t.

This system is still new and fancy which means there might be the occasional freak out or technical problem. Please leave a comment below with any feedback, to report any issues or suggest any features you would like to see in the future.

But remember: be nice. Trish comes off all tough but she can be sensitive.

So, strap on your RSI wrist brace and start frantically bashing out your thoughts. We love the discussion.