Here's a very helpful fisking of the whole concept. Couldn't agree more. Some have argued that I'm a hypocrite on this because I don't have a comments section for each post. The reason in the past is that I didn't have time to moderate it and I was afraid that it would fill up soon with some of the more charming material I receive by emails. Increasingly, though, I realize that not monitoring a comments section at all may be the only way not to censor it. Which has made me consider adding one. The major drawback from my point of view is that readers may be less inclined to write me their own emails, which are often the highlight of a day's blogging. In a sense, by airing a few emails and selecting them personally and responding to them at times I already have a very tightly managed high-quality comments section. But, strictly speaking, you could do that as well as adding comments for those who see fit. I'm of two minds on this. But if I do decide to add comments, I don't think heavy monitoring is in the cards.