I think that the presence of these little cyber-thugs is probably discouraging many beginners, people with valuable things to say that are less case-hardened the myself, from blogging

That this does happen more often than many might think was one of the most interesting things I learned from a stint as a moderator on a smaller website similar to this one. We had a private message system, and they would use that instead to communicate thoughts and ideas, and say in the process they'd rather not subject themselves to the public forum because of the bullying or silly gamesmaship or personal attacks or labeling or cliquishness. For example, I imagine a lot of the people sending emails to Josh Marshall, the readers he often quotes with initials, feel the same way. Some people do it because of shyness (it was most suprising to me how the anonymity didn't help them much, they still were fearful of getting personally attacked for their views,) but there are also the very busy grownups who don't see much potential in "sharing" with a bigger audience if it means being subjected to a lot of child's play. I'd be willing to bet many very interesting people continue to lurk here, without participating precisely because they see the type of attacks that you have experienced.

So you will accept no comments at all here and allow only those of which you approve to be published on your blog. Forgive me, but that seems to be dangerously close to censorship. If you wish no dissent, no question and no opposition then so be it. Your right, your choice. But by taking away the voice of those who disagree - even in the most vile of ways - you void the voices of all.

If you wish to be heard by all ears, you must listen to all voices. If not ... then simply shut up.

David -

While I have rarely agreed with you, nay dare I say never agreed with you :) I look forward to your posts - even when I say you have been beating only one drum.

For some, which includes me, it was hard, especially at 60, to get used to the rude, fuck off comments even when not directed at me. I did though and learned to just ignore and pay attention to the comments and posters that made me think and made me laugh.

So on that note, please leave comments on.

Now if this is some ploy to drive traffic up on your blog (snark alert) . . . fuck off ;)

Awesome, David. I think that's a great decision on your part. Recommended.

David. While I still enjoy your posts for their links, I feel as though your own thinking has declined these past couple of months. I suspect others found this as well, and they then comment less, which drops the ratio of those positively engaged to those throwing turds. And I think your credibility also got hurt when you repeatedly trumpeted the Whitey tape, offered to apologize, and then basically blew it off. Some people felt less interested in engaging as a result.

That said, I think some of the turd flingers need to quietly rethink as well. I understand the need to jump on your posts, and shout BAH! And do it myself. What I don't get is the need to do it repeatedly, and then, within the post, do it persistently, and personally. TPM has lost a lot of voices, and if you look close, we've pretty much reached a state where these pages lack any real steel in the debate. Part of it is post-election celebration, and people just not wanting much debate.

But even in day-to-day posts and comments, we see lots of "Just trust Obama, he's done great so far," or "Calm down, it'll all be fine." As though they don't get that thinking for ourselves is kinda central to what Obama's proposed, with his bottom-up, change is us, mantra. The soup's pretty thin, beyond debate about Cabinet appointments folks. Just check the top 15 list, and look for any real independent ideas or or arguments.

So as for you David, do as you wish. I'd recommend some honest rethinking and refuelling, then charge back in when there's something concrete to argue FOR, or substantive case against. And keep comments open when you do, eh?

I have no separate opinion on David's personal decision, or the behavior of his interlocutors. But as a general matter, I don't at all like this idea of giving users at TPM Cafe the option of disabling comments.

There are any number of tools for creating a personal blog on the internet, and one can apply whatever rules one likes to those blogs, including comments or no comments. David himself operates such a site. He exploits the public space of TPM Cafe in the way some of the front page posters do: as a secondary outlet for discourses that are posted on some other primary blog. He thus benefits greatly from the extra eyeballs and readership that are drawn to the site for other reasons.

But TPM Cafe is a group site in which a limited amount of real estate is available in the right-hand column. The individual "blogs" posted are in turn part of the Great Blog which is TPM Cafe. Whenever one post appears, it takes the place of another post which gets pushed off the bottom of the list. It seems to me that a perfectly reasonable toll for using this public information highway, so to speak, should be a willingness to open one's thoughts to comments from the whole community. That's why large communities such as TPM Cafe exist after all, because they offer the opportunity to talk back rather than just be talked to. If they didn't offer this opportunity, David and others wouldn't find nearly so many readers here for his literary-political perambulations.

People who post blogs but disable comments are, it seems to me, free-riding on the benefits of community without sharing in its obligations. They want the privilege of posting their ideas in the limited space on a group blog, but will not accept the rental fee for doing so. Why should the TPM Cafe community confer portions of its limited real estate on people who won't pay the rent? It's like giving a booth in a crowded, in-demand flea market to a guy who won't let people buy his products on site, but demands they go to his store to make their purchases, and who demands his booth should be "special". People who are being good TPM Cafe citizens, and opening themselves up to criticism and abuse in exchange for the privilege of posting, might get their words shoved quickly off the roll of recent posts by prima donnas who demand total control over how their words are framed: namely, they don't want their beautiful words sullied by any nasty, ugly, uncooperative comments.

Responding to a "comments off" poster through another post, rather than in the comments section, which many people will often choose to do if they are frustrated by the inability to comment, is not a viable long-term option. It will only gobble up the limited real estate with posts representing multiple comments on what is in reality a single thread, and which should be compressed under a single post.

I defy you, David Seaton. No one can stop me from commenting on your threads! NO ONE!!!!!!