There’s an email address. That’s something.

There was going to be a subscribe button but I was put off by the idea of there being a “members area,” and a “pay option,” and an “I want to sell you something” option. And none of these are of any interest to me. I don’t want to sell anything. I don’t want some people to pay to read whilst others get less content because they don’t want to pay. I want people to read and you can do that, everyone can do that, by checking in every once in a while and doing so because you want to and not just because you were prompted to.

I know. Crazy.

There was the idea of a Newsletter but I figured that the last thing anyone needs is me writing to them to tell them to read more.

I often feel it’s only the convention of having these things that compels people to provide them. The one thing you definitely won’t see is anywhere to leave comments. I could have just left it alone and left people wondering why I forgot to put a comments section anywhere, but, I actually want to be somewhat vocal about it and promote the idea of a world where a website without a comments section is not something freakish.

Too many comments in comment sections seem like knee jerk reactions, not thought through and often they seem to serve little purpose and sadly don’t produce debate or discussion. Reading comments on anyone’s work can often feel like being in a room of hecklers heckling from the safety of their keyboard. It might be well natured and that would make it a little different to full on trolling, but whatever you call it, I don’t welcome it.

I also think that there’s something terribly wrong about someone reading an article and then reading the comments and being more invested in what they’ve read in short snappy punchy comments than in the article they’ve read. It often seems to be that people believe the comments sections more than the actual main body of text. This might be testament to the quality of a clickbait style of online journalism and it’s fair enough to say that anything that’s lured you in with a flashy headline, only to end up as a nothing story, probably deserves all the trolling it gets.

In short, there’s too much power given to comments and online reviews. Tripadvisor might have ninety five percent of reviews for a hotel being five-star and yet people might be put off by the five percent who gave one-star reviews. One person gets food poisoning and all of a sudden you’re reading a review of how this hotel is the worst hotel ever. Equally, someone may be raving about how great a hotel is because they had a hairdryer in the room and that’s never happened before for them.

Personally, I don’t want to give a forum for trolling, whether it’s well natured or not. Comparitively speaking, I am actually open to the ideas of abusive emails. At least that takes time and effort, and you have to be really invested in what you’ve read, for good or bad, to do that. I’m not sure where and when we collectively got it into our heads that it’s the norm for everyone to be able to comment, to heckle, to troll, like it’s a God given right. The real life equivalent that comes to mind is someone going into the Tate Modern during the Summer exhibition and scribbling underneath any piece of art, “How long did this crap take you?” Or being more positive, “Yay! I like your work.” 

I wish I could bring myself to write all these words and never know where they go or who sees them. I know I will peek every so often or all the time to see if anyone is reading but I want to be able to never need to know if anyone is subscribing or liking. The words, “Don’t forget to subscribe,” sounds too much like, “I need followers. I need vindication. I need to know I’m getting you to click on my site.” Or more emotionally, “I need to know someone is reading this.” They say, “Dance like no one else is watching.” I think there is a writer’s version. “Write like no one else will read it."

How spectacular could the world be when you can write and never know where your writing goes or who it will reach, only to one day put down the laptop and find that you’ve been reaching people all that time? You didn’t need comments, or fan mail and you didn’t even need to know how many subscribers you ever had. You just keep on writing, because you have to write, It’s you and your words and nothing else.

How would you respond? What comments could you possibly have?

Comments:

Too many words man.

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So, do you have a comments section or not?

Comments:

You go girl.

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I don’t like comments either.

Comments:

You make a good point. 

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This page had no pictures. Please add pictures.

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Confucius says comment or don’t comment there is no comment.

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Eastern European women want to meet you.

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There is no spoon.

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I too think the world needs to pay less attention to comments and online reviews.

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My comment is - You suck.

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Your site looks like a collaboration between my Grandpa and my seven year old kid!!!!

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Here, have some happy Emojis to cheer you up. 😁🌈🦄💗🍾🤗💯⭐