I ran across an interesting article in last month's Wired titled Mr. Know-It-All: Is it OK to ban someone from posting comments on my blog?

From the article:

A personal blog is pretty much an autocracy, so you're technically free to ban whoever rubs you the wrong way. But going all Joe Stalin on your commenters — even the ones who annoy you with their nit-picking or wacko views — doesn't jibe with the Internet's spirit of openness. The best blogs are supposed to be a conversation. And anyway, if you're going to publish what you write, accept the fact that the responses are going to be neither 100 percent positive nor 100 percent civil. Journalists have known this since the invention of the letter to the editor.

The article goes onto say:

And if a racist, abusive, or otherwise abhorrent guest is putting a damper on your shindig, you're well within your rights to kick the hooligan to the curb.

A blog is supposedly a conversation, right? By censoring your comments its the equivalent of standing in a room, expecting everyone to hang on every word you say, only to plug your ears and scream "I'M NOT LISTENING!" when someone has a response. You open up a forum for people to give their opinion, and when they do, you slam the door in their face if you don't like what they have to say. People will ask themselves "why did my comment get censored?" when they really should be asking "who is this person to even censor my comment...?"

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for removing spam comments, and banning abusive, racist, repeat offenders. But I think a warning should be enacted first or some sort of "3 strikes and you're out" - not turning on "Moderation" and clicking "Reject" to the first person that rubs you the wrong way.

Over time, I would imagine that readership would decline. The amount of comments received in a month, or a week or a day takes a dive. Not because the amount of comments being rejected increases, but because people stop bothering attempting to leave comments. It's a one-sided conversation - if you can even call it that - where the only comments that get approved are in line with the author's views or idea of what a comment should be.

If you're willing to write pieces that draw and attract some sort of response, either positive or negative, but not willing to share those responses - then maybe blogging isn't for you.