Allow Comments or Not? – Maverick Philosopher

This U. K. reader prefers no comments:

I 'm pleased that your blog no longer publishes readers' comments. Since this has been the case, I read it more assiduously. I usually find something in your daily observations and ruminations from which I can profit. When you used to allow even very well informed people to comment on what you had to say, my concentration withered and I was "turned off" by esoteric discussions of technical problems that interest professional philosophers.

I think all serious bloggers should follow your example and exclude not only the vacuous and insolent wreckers who infest blogs, but also the erudite correspondents who can transform such as Maverick Philosopher into a kind of country club for intellectuals.

This U. S. reader prefers comments:

First of all, your blog is much more instructive than most of my formal education. Thank you for that.

However, recently you linked to your post on use and mention, and I followed the link and read the discussion. Here is what I notice. The educational value of any of your posts is exponentially compounded when there is a dialectic that follows. The reason this is so is that when I can see someone who disagrees with you I can then see what positions they are forced to take in the dialectic. Also because it highlights the distinction between good reasons and bad reasons for holding a position based on your responses.

To borrow an excellent phrase from the U. K. reader, "the vacuous and insolent wreckers who infest blogs," ought to be banned. They should not be given a forum, and if a blogger does, then he encourages their bad behavior. Trouble is, most commenters are of the vacuous and insolent sort. So the easiest method is to allow no comments. The blogger thereby saves himself a lot of trouble and what might be termed 'spiritual pollution.'

If a man's home is his castle, then his blog is his cybercastle. And just as you wouldn't allow just anyone into your castle, I don't allow just anyone into my cybercastle. Part of the problem is the demographics of the 'Net: cyberpunks preponderate. This will change somewhat as more and more Boomers retire, not that the Boomer cohort is free of overgrown adolescents.

The "erudite correspondents," however, are precisely the ones I want, except that they are few and far between. So I disagree with the U. K. reader's second point. He can avoid what for him are profitless technical discussions by simply not entering the ComBox.

The U. S. reader's point about the dialectic is well taken. He is right: good discussion adds considerably, if not "exponentially," to the value of a post. But good discussions are rare. Not to mention the fact that I must not allow blog-related activities to absorb too much of my time. Hours each day can be spent responding to comments.

So for now, comments will be off on most posts, especially the political ones which I presently feel it is my duty to write in order to combat the fiscal irresponsibility and general foolishness of the Obama administration's assault on my country. Such posts are inevitably polemically tinged, which fact brings out the worst species of cyberpunk, the liberal-left cyberpunk. The best way to avoid these disorderly elements and to preserve precious peace of mind is to keep comments OFF.

But I will on occasion open the ComBox, and if anyone has a comment for me on a closed post, he is free to e-mail it to me for possible discussion on the blog.