Major Announcement!!

A couple of my favorite blogs don't allow comments. Couple others have so many that, like Yogi Berra said, there's almost no point in leaving one. Here, I get around twenty spam comments for every legitimate one (and, in reference to you-know-who, it can be a pretty fine line...). People tell me once in a while I should switch blog hosts, and it's true that there are things about Blogger that are pretty annoying. Top of the list is its spam filter which, although it does rid me of about half of them without me ever having to see them, and, after enough attempts it will learn when I tell them a particular practitioner or another is spam, it still lets through such obvious stuff as (I un-hotlinked them):

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Or:

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Or:

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Sort of annoying. I removed word verification recently at the request of a reader (who's left about one comment since), and the spam flows now like bad math from Romney and Ryan. So I'm gonna try something new for awhile, or maybe forever: no more comments.

The comments I enjoy the most are the ones that disagree, and do so in a way that invites dialogue. That occurs approximately once a year, and with few exceptions, if I engage with facts that show when they're wrong (I've agreed sometimes, too), they tend to slink away after one or two exchanges. The positive comments are great, of course; and once in a while they've led me to interesting other links or new information. I've always liked that. There are several readers who comment enough that I'll miss them, and one that I probably won't. Other readers email me directly with comments, or suggestions for posts, and I really appreciate that.

My email address is readily available via the just-revised "contact" tab at the top of the blog. Nice thing about it is I can more easily block email than I can prevent spam here. And non-spammers who take the time to email will be gratefully received, almost always hear back.

Like Andrew Sullivan, I'll post selected comments if people email. Pro, and con. Comments already posted will remain. We'll see how it goes. Intimations of my detractors to the contrary, I get several hundred page views a day, even when the comments round off to zero. I don't think that'll change. Whether this new approach will change remains to be discovered.

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