Why Don’t You Have Comments?

I decided against a comments section when I first started this blog; at that time in my life, having an outlet for my own unedited unadulterated voice, and only my voice, was very important to me. Since then, other benefits of comment freedom have dawned on me, or been pointed out by astute readers:

• This is a free space for the voices of fat women and lesbian separatists. You will never read fat-hating, woman-hating, dyke-hating, or separatist-hating stuff here. You won’t read through a post that makes you feel like cheering, only to have your buoyant mood deflated by some dumbass in comments droning mainstream blather you’ve heard a million times.
• Comments are for the lazy. It’s far, far too easy to dash off “Great post!” in comments and move onto the next blog, without really digesting what you’ve read. I put hours, sometimes days, into my longer original pieces, and I’d like to think people spend more than a nanosecond ruminating on what I’ve written. If you really like something I write, I hope you’ll take the time to send me an email.
• The flipside of comments-are-lazy is, it’s far, far too easy to pick a fight with someone in comments. I don’t like arguing, never have; I don’t think it convinces anyone of anything. You’ll like what I write, you’ll disagree but be curious enough to learn more via the copious sources I provide, or you will think I am the devil’s spawn. If the latter, I’ll be glad you’re moving on without leaving a pantload in my comments section for me to read first thing in the a.m. If the former, I’ll be glad to hear from you via email. I’ve made some great friends that way.

I’ve never regretted the decision to be comment-free; and as time goes on, and I see the various problems other bloggers have with their comments sections, I’m more convinced I made the right decision.

And where’s yer blogroll, while we’re at it?

Back in this post, I explain my blogular policy not to have a blogroll, but rather to link to excellent individual posts when they occur. To me, the blogroll came to signify endorsement of everything another blogger says, does, or writes–which naturally never occurs! I also had the unpleasant experience of clicking on a link in someone’s blogroll and then a link in the subsequent blogger’s blogroll and ending up somewhere distressing or offensive, and I realized that feminist reprise could end up being only two clicks away from writing which I would never encourage anyone to read. Hence, no blogroll.

But, if you’re just desperate for good feminist reading and enough of an internet newbie to need guidance, you can peruse the “links” category of my blog for links to many good and interesting feminist posts; many of the authors whose blogs those posts appear on are well worth reading.