I read an interesting comment asking why someone would submit a

Avalon - I read an interesting comment asking why someone would submit a new spout instead of making an online comment. There are lots of good reasons; one is certainly the fact that online comments never make it to the print version, which is what Spout Off is all about. This is still a newspaper, or so I thought. The other is not everybody subscribes to social media sites that are required to make online comments. It might be that spouts are general statements, which may address another spout or a comment, but are not intended to be part of an online debate.