Explanatory Note: Why comments are closed on this blog

I have made the decision to preemptively disallow comments entirely on this blog. Here are my reasons:

Reason 1: I don't want to create a forum for trolls or spammers, and I don't have the time or energy to moderate all comments.

Reason 2: I don't want to become a target for hateful and sexually based verbal abuse and harassment.^{[1],[2],[3],[4], inter alia}. (By the way, no, I have not myself received any such abuse. Like I said, this is preemptive.)

Reason 3: I don't believe that by creating a blog, I am obligated to start a forum at all. The way I see it, the Internet is the forum; blogs are contributions to that forum. If you want to respond to my contribution, you can do so on your own blog, on your social networking profiles, on forums and discussion threads that others have chosen to moderate, or anywhere else.

I understand that not everyone will agree with this decision. You are invited to express your opinion about that too – just not here.