I'm fed up with comments that are commercially inspired, and really no better than advertisements. These rarely show up in the very latest posts; often they are placed on older (or even very old) posts - clearly so that I won't immediately notice them. But I do regularly make checks, and will always discover a string of irritating 'comments' that only waste my time, and the time of any serious readers I may have. I delete them ruthlessly.
But I've had enough, and I've stopped all ordinary comments. Henceforth, I will welcome personal emails only. The link for emailing is in my Blog Profile.
This puts commenting entirely on an 'only-you-and-me' basis: nobody else can see our exchange. I'm rather hoping this will encourage a larger number of genuine comments/enquiries/requests than I get at the moment.
At any rate my blog will now be useless for advertisers, unless they intend to target only myself. And if they do, I have the option to block them, or tell Google that their messages are spam.
There was a time when blogs like mine were a lively platform for readers to have their say. So long as the comments remained polite and helpful this was definitely a Good Thing. But I had my experiences early on of people being argumentative or over-assertive with their views, and occasionally having a go at me. I have never forgotten the hornet-nests I sometimes stirred up. I learned not to. I blog for pleasure, not to make lethal enemies.
In any case, I should have realised that by allowing ordinary comments I was creating yet another space for bullies and the bigoted. I should never have given them the opportunity to wade in. If I'd confined them to private emails, they would have lost their audience. They might even have been more civil. And those they frightened off might have felt able to speak to me without fear of being verbally torn to shreds. Not that my blog often turned into a bear pit back in those days; but I do remember some nasty reactions from trolls ready to pounce. It's been a much quieter place in the last dozen years.
