You probably know that you can post comments about stories published on the dailies' Web sites. At the end of online articles, you type your comment, signing with your real name or that of your pet cat.

You might think that the online debates, often pitting one anonymous commentator against the next, mostly sink into useless name-calling and repetition. But I don't think so.

I like reading them, especially when they come from more than two alleged people slamming each other.

And even when the name-calling gets ugly, like the stuff we've seen directed at Rocky Mountain News columnist Tina Griego. I think there's a benefit to airing it out, within the ill-defined bounds of decency.

Editors are struggling to find the right technology and policies to maintain civility in online postings, while allowing free-wheeling expression, which can be very fun to read.

New technologies give editors more control and improve the level of discussion, according to Mark Cardwell, The Denver Post's managing editor for digital media.

For example, a new commentator might be allowed only one comment per day until he or she proves not to be a behavior problem. Other technology allows editors to more easily warn people.

"Some people I'm fine with banning right away," said Cardwell. "Others need to be warned."

Cardwell described one system at another newspaper that allows a banned commentator to see his own nasty comments online, but makes them invisible to everyone else, so the banned commentator doesn't realize he's been banned, making him or her less likely to get mad and even nastier.

I wish there were staff to moderate comment boards, by cutting off a debate, booting the bad actors, and asking questions. But this is not realistic.

Readers are a big part of the solution.

Currently, the dailies' Web sites allow users to recommend that a comment be deleted. If you're reading the comments, take advantage of this, as well as the Post's option of rating an individual comment.

We should also have the option of rating the entire comment sections of articles, not just individual comments.

Editors should solicit certain types of comments by adding a standard question at the end of some, but not all, articles. I like this one: "Comment on how you think this problem could be solved."

So, certain stories, selected by editors or reporters, would have both a general comment section and another section seeking solutions to problems presented in the story. Cardwell said this would be technically feasible.

The online comment boards are only going to get better as technology evolves and more people use them. Don't give up just because you've visited once and were disgusted.

Online letters. The Rocky's online page is too unstructured and the Post's is too restrictive.

The Rocky uploads most letters it receives, but some are marked with the disclaimer, "This letter has not been edited." But you have to click on a Rocky letter before you know if it's been edited. The Rocky should group its edited letters together, and upload the rest elsewhere.

The Post uploads only edited letters, so many letters go unpublished. The Post should keep its edited letters grouped together, but add the rest of the letters it receives in a different location.

Traveling columnists. The Post sent a columnist to each NFL conference championship game. The Rocky kept its sports columnists home.

The Post presumably spent thousands of dollars more than the Rocky, and what did it get out of it?

Post columnist Woody Paige covered the Green Bay-New York Giants game, and his column contained almost nothing that a writer sitting in front of a television couldn't have gotten.

Paige cited the "front-page headlines of the local newspaper," as if to prove he was actually in Green Bay, but he could have accessed these headlines online.

He described the cold weather, obvious on a TV screen, and quoted platitudes from Green Bay's Brett Favre.

Writing from Massachusetts, Mark Kizla's column about the New England-San Diego game was much better. His piece focused on a critical tackle by 39-year-old Junior Seau, who is well-known in Denver because he used to play for San Diego.

Without Kizla's on-location interviews with Seau and others, he couldn't have written his column.

Two Rocky columnists, Dave Krieger and Bernie Lincicome, both wrote solid columns about the game from Denver.

Next time, the Post should keep Paige at home, and dedicate the money saved to sending political reporters to cover important news events.

I'd like to see more local political reporters travel to cover the big stories of the day, especially now that fewer newspapers have bureaus in other cities.

I'm glad the dailies have been sending reporters or columnists to cover the presidential primaries, for example. The Rocky's decision to assign M.E. Sprengelmeyer to Iowa for 10 months was especially impressive.

Jason Salzman, president of Cause Communications and board chairman of Rocky Mountain Media Watch, is the author of Making the News: A Guide for Activists and Nonprofits. Reach him at salzmanj@RockyMountainNews.com.