Know ye, oh reader, that the comments are not broken. They have been disabled intentionally.
In the past week, traffic to this site has doubled. I am humbled and grateful that so many people are interested in reading what I have to say. I am further grateful that the traffic is distributed across the variety of topics I write about, and that I am no longer seen as a one-trick pony. Thank you. If you are reading this you have, in small ways, had a positive impact on my life, as I hope my writing has in small ways had a positive impact on yours.
With the increased traffic has come an increase in comments. I have held comments for moderation for some time now, partially to catch spam that the filters miss, partially to insure that the comments are relevant to the topic of the post, add something constructive to the conversation, and are respectful to the subject, the readers, the other people leaving comments and yes, to myself.
The criteria for moderation has always been subjective. You have the whole rest of the internet to use as your soap box; this particular space is mine, subject to my own editorial controls. It generally boils down to whether the comment is adding something to the conversation, or whether it might lead to a flame war either immediately or a few comments down the line. That is not the purpose of this site.
So, between the increased time in general it takes to moderate comments, responding to people who feel they’re entitled to know why I have rejected their comments, and answering requests for me to write a concrete, absolute moderation policy, it has become time consuming to the point of not being worth it. Hence, comments are now closed.
That being said…
You can still contact me via email or social media. I am more than happy to have a polite, private, one-on-one conversation with you about this site or any topic or blog post on this site. The caveat, of course, is that I will do that as time allows, and that I still won’t engage in arguments or debates with trolls. If you can’t come prepared to at least meet me half way or to at least agree to disagree, don’t come at all.
