I'm not sure Ron Silliman's step to eliminate some of the crapoo from his comments boxes will get the job done. I don't blame him for the low rent commentary that associates itself with his posts. his thoughtfulness (even when he's 'out of it') deserves better. the caustic anonymous comments are loserville, of course, and the smarmy compliments bite the big one. the ones that don't relate to the post in question are annoying. attempts at cleverness are best done on your own patch, maybe? ripostes and repartee represent diminishing return, which the writers of same never realize. folks, please have some sense of the medium in which you are working! alas and alack. Ron's comments field is a faked up community. a network, at best, with too many associated gropers. Ron's a lodestone causing chemical changes in the environment, so that people react in curious fashion. that Ron has maintained a non-low profile despite bearing a big red L on his chest says something positive about him. I can almost understand the attitude Bruce Andrews seems to have, tho maybe he's just an a-hole. Perloff, I surmise, suffers from Head of the Dept. syndrome, but that's just a guess. not to characterize overly but what the heck. Silliman's posts are so definitive that they invite comment, but the weakness of the comments box medium, and the kind of knuckleheads attracted to it, syphons a lot of potential from dialogue. Ron doesn't need the comments box like the commenters largely do.