To my commenters

First and foremeost, I’d like to say thank you. This blog receives a ridiculous amount of comments, and I enjoy reading them (for the most part). I especially like the comments that really contribute something (often on-topic, even!). Gin, Jing, wulong, JFS, Chris, Prince Roy, Brendan, ÍÐµÄ — you guys are especially good at that, time and again, and I do appreciate it.

Second, I’d like to say I’m sorry. I have been lax in my efforts to create an atmosphere that encourages the kind of comments I want to see and I want to share on my website. I’m going to start being more active in eliminating the trolling.

I’m all for freedom of speech, but I’ve got to draw a line somewhere. I am not trying to single out any one person here; I think the unwarranted negativity comes from multiple sources. But I want to improve the overall quality of my weblog, and the comments are a part of it. I also think there are some commenters out there that might have something worth saying but are afraid to venture into the “fray.” Differing opinions or corrections are always welcome, but my comments shouldn’t be a “fray!”

What has really spurred me to action on this was when I thought about how seldom my own family comments nowadays. And I understand why they don’t. That is not OK.

So that’s it. Civil comments. Starting now.