I’m not sure if there is a trend coming, but I have seen a few bloggers, recently, turn off comments. Why? Well, basically because they don’t want to have to moderate. As a blogger, that can be tedious if you receive a lot of comments to every post. But there’s a downside to eliminating comments as well.

That downside is that there are people that may come to the site to be heard on the topic being blogged. In other words, people may be less likely to visit a particular blog if they cannot comment, as they please, on the current (or past) topic. I personally don’t receive a lot of comments and my policy is simple: I don’t moderate but if I see someone in the comments being intentionally obtuse towards myself or another commenter? That person will be blocked. Period. No appeal.

Every blogger I know of has some similar policy in place. For me, moderating is not a problem but I can understand if you’re a very popular content creator that attracts a lot of visits/reads that you have to do some extra work occasionally, just to keep the kooks away. In today’s environment though, where kooks abound, for some it is just prudent to keep that content off the page.

So, until my comment load becomes ridiculous, I’ll leave commenting on. I like hearing from those that take a minute or two to come by here, read my drivel, and take the time to respond.