To contributors to "Letters to the Editor: Unfiltered" forum,

After more than a year of allowing unedited access to our "Letters Unfiltered" forum, adn.com has shut down this section of our web site.

While not every post has violated our online rules of conduct, a great majority are in some form of conflict, and we are no longer able to effectively monitor the posts. It's very important that we're able to provide an online meeting place for our readers that is, regardless of the opinions expressed, both civil and condusive to productive conversation and debate. Removing this particular forum is a step in that direction.

Another one of the driving forces behind this decision is that "Letters Unfiltered" still exists on our old commenting system. When we upgrade our forums to the same interface that currently runs our story and blog comments, we will talk about re-activating "Unfiltered." There is currently no target date for this project.

Thank you,

Scott Levin
Online Editor, Anchorage Daily News
slevin@adn.com