As most readers have probably noticed, and as many have kindly contributed to, Miriaf.co.uk has a comments' section. So, like all webmasters, I've had to decide what approach to take to comments' moderation, which has been quite the learning curve... Initially, in my blissful naivete (and inability to properly operate WordPress' back end), I didn't moderate comments at all - so, each entry would inevitably be deluged with spam and/or abuse (often very hard to tell the difference, although, depressingly, spambots are often rather more literate than the hate-fans...) So next, I experimented with putting new commentators on moderation, but once they had had their first comment approved (thus confirming they weren't spambots or eminently original "where is your tin foil hat"ters), they had free reign to post what they liked.

This worked fine for a while, whilst I just had a relatively small and trusted community of commentators, but as my audience started to grow, the problems with this approach became more apparent, with some commentators in particular using the comments' section as an alternative to setting up their own site - writing multiple long, link-heavy essays longer than the actual articles, leading one commentator to ask drily whether my site had become "the [name of prolific commentator] show". Meanwhile, some people who'd been polite enough on their first comment, started to get nasty and abusive in subsequent comments, especially if I didn't promptly and personally engage with them.

So I realised I would have to put all comments on moderation, which has led to me spending more and more time going through my comments' section, something which also entails trying to weed out the real comments from the spam, which - as spam bots get ever-cleverer - is getting harder and harder to do. My posts are attracting more and more spam each time (I've actually had to remove some articles from the site, they were getting so much), so I've finally come to the point where I realise it isn't viable for me to continue to have a comments' section, as trying to moderate all the comments (some of which are very long), is simply taking up too much time, and therefore, taking time away from what people kindly support me to do, which is research and write articles. As anyone who's ever tried to moderate a website knows, once your audience become sizeable, moderation becomes a very time-consuming job in itself and you often need to hire someone separate to the content creators to do it, which currently, I'm not in a position to do.

So, to all who enjoy commenting on my site, many of whom have made excellent and highly insightful contributions, thank you for all the valued observations you've made to date, and I hope you understand why I've had to come to this conclusion.

You are still very welcome to comment on my articles via my various social media platforms, where all articles are also posted, including Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube (more platforms coming soon). Although I'm not always able to read all comments across all platforms, I do guarantee to read and respond to all comments / messages left via Patreon and Buy Me A Coffee.

Many thanks for all your understanding and support to date, which is hugely appreciated.

Happy Easter, to those who celebrate, and, to those who don't, happy bonus Saturday night 🙂

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