Tuesday, March 1, the Whidbey News-Times’ website will get a new front page look and switch to an upgraded commenting system and calendar. Actually, the change will seem familiar as the paper is returning to its original comments partner, Disqus.com.

Here’s what you need to know about the switch to Disqus:

• You will not need to create a new account if you already have a Disqus account.
• Comments from our Konnects-powered comment system will be imported into Disqus.
• You can “claim” your comments at disqus.com if you have or sign up for a Disqus account with the same email address you used for commenting on our site.
• You can continue using your Facebook account to login and comment, or you may use an account with Disqus, Yahoo, Twitter, or OpenID.

If you would like to claim your comments on Disqus.com, please read their support document for additional information. Comments will be available for claim after March 1.

The switch is expected to take a few hours to complete, during which time comments will be unavailable.

This switch will also affect the News-Times’ community calendar, which is switching to the same system used by our sister site, the South Whidbey Record. We are working to ensure that all calendar events migrate to the new calendar. If you already use this calendar on the Record’s site or previously used it on the News-Times’ site in 2009, your account is still active.

Thank you for your participation and your understanding as we make this change.