Each day when I wake up, I fight back the glory that is more sleep and push myself to get up and start my day.

To walk into my living room and quickly hop on the Internet helps sharpen my fuzzy mind.

I typically check some of the top news stories, my e-mail and comments on this newspaper’s Web site.

The news of the top stories, the sometimes-boisterous comments and the bright computer screen actually make for a nice way to wake up each day.

If you’re a frequent visitor of The Daily Eastern News’ Web site, DENnews.com, then you are probably aware of its comments section and how it often bustles with dynamic discussions.

These responses range from “Bummer, bro,” by “Matt” on a story about a student’s on-campus arrest, to “I agree, Warren. I also wonder how a driver is supposed to drive AND monitor what is going on up on the second floor at the same time. This was a bus full of adults, not children. It was an accident clear and simple,” said “Dannyboygrr” in a story about a filed lawsuit by the parents of a deceased student.

As you can see, the comments tend to vary, no matter the topic.

Another column, posted on Sept. 30, has 38 comments to date, some of which ask the reporter, Campus Editor Sarah Jean Bresnahan, why she didn’t feel compelled to raise her hand in class or why she hasn’t answered the readers’ general questions about her column.

One might wonder why, 38 comments later, there is still no answer from her or from anyone from The DEN.

Well, there is a reason for that: It is our policy as staff members of The DEN not to comment on stories or comments posted on our Web site.

And the reasoning behind that is simple-We’ve had our say while writing the article, column, editorial or what-have-you and the comments section is set up for the readers to respond, to say their part.

If you the reader feels the need to personally speak to the author of an article on the Web site or in the newspaper, please, by all means do so. We welcome and hope for the chance to have an open dialogue with our readers.

Each article leaves an e-mail address or phone number at the end of it to contact the reporter personally.

And on our Web site, we encourage readers to engage in civil discussions and offer thoughtful comments that might even appear in the print edition on the opinions page.

This semester, we started to add the most thoughtful, interesting comments on the bottom of that page.

We started doing this to elevate discussion and hope it shows readers we are listening to them. However, there are restrictions to comments on our site.

According to our Web site’s commenting policy, we at The DEN “reserve the right to remove comments that are off-topic, malicious, libelous or include excessive foul language.”

So to all readers, I hope you understand why we don’t comment on our Web site and know the ways you can get in touch with each of us.

And put some thought into your comments; you never know who will read them and consider the points you offer.

Tyler Angelo is a senior journalism major and can be reached at 581-7936 or [email protected].