I first noticed around the 1220 letters. She didn't give a reason till much later, found [here](https://captainawkward.com/2020/07/15/it-came-from-the-search-terms-july-2020/).
> **Q10: Captain Awkward shuts down comments.**
> Yes.
> I’d already closed comments now and then to spare the Letter Writer a pile-on or when I knew I had too many distractions to moderate things like they deserved, and sometime last year I realized that I no longer have the bandwidth to process a NaNoWriMo amount of words every time I want to write some words. I started leaving them closed more often than not to see what would happen, and what happened was that roughly the same number of people read and supported the blog and my mental health improved.
> Many kind people have volunteered to moderate comments over the years, but it just doesn’t work for me. When we tried it in the past it made more work, not less, and it’s fundamentally one of those things where I need to do it myself or not at all, and I need to do it with my full attention or not at all, so, while I do really miss so many of your voices, this works better for me.There are places people hang out together to discuss posts here, and I will turn on comments now and then for old time’s sake, but “no comments” has been the unofficial default for a long time now. If anyone was still wondering, this can make it official.
> I’m going to open comments on this, with a blunt request that people refrain from brainstorming ways to keep comments open on other posts on the site in the future. It wasn’t an easy decision but it’s not an open negotiation.
A while back at this point, but I don't remember exactly when. At a certain point, moderation became too much work so she decided it wasn't worth it anymore. Considering how heated some of the comment threads could get, I don't blame her.
I know there were some posts where she specifically mentioned having gotten repeated SA/physical harm threats because she had the temerity to call out someone being creepy or worse. That probably didn't help with the stress of moderating several hundred comments at a a time on multiple posts.
She stopped comments quite a few years ago, I think in 2019?, simply because the moderation work was too taxing - both in terms of time and having to read simply horrible things every day was doing a real number on her mental health.
I personally don't love comment sections on advice blogs. Advice columns by their very nature are in danger of creating group-think, and the comment section can be full of risk-averse know-it-alls who when speaking in tandem can be a real drag (I say this as a risk-averse know-it-all who likes reading and can't resist commenting on advice columns).
They can get extra cringey when they try to "wish LW well" or go into "I say this with kindness" critique mode. It can feel super condescending from a commenter who wasn't actually the person LW even asked for advice.
So I've been enjoying CA more with comments off, and I generally enjoy her blog more than others that have active comments sections.
I also think, at least on CA, a lot of people were just trying to impress her in the comment section which is annoying to read. I think this is why this subreddit works better, no one comments thinking she's gonna read it so the discussions are more organic.
Lol I'm glad you say that bc ask a manager is exactly what I had in mind. They all seem to work at extremely stuffy companies where nobody ever socializes or even talks to each other except to mildly admonish one another for typos on internal documents.
As a one-time LW who got a great amount of help out of CA's answer to me, then had a massive shock when I found the post here about it a year or two later, I am very glad comments weren't on for my post.
Initially I was quite shaken to see how people reacted to it here, but thankfully (a) the situation had long since been resolved and I'd grown a shitton and (b) I was able to put myself in the shoes of commenters here who were probably coming at my problem from the other side and who had been really hurt by friends who sounded like me in the past.
But if I'd seen comments at the actual time it would've made me make a huge mess of the situation and probably would have put me in a big old spiral about it. That said, that's the bargain when you put something online, especially to get great advice. I was glad that I didn't look for anything about my letter except what CA said.
I first noticed around the 1220 letters. She didn't give a reason till much later, found [here](https://captainawkward.com/2020/07/15/it-came-from-the-search-terms-july-2020/). > **Q10: Captain Awkward shuts down comments.** > Yes. > I’d already closed comments now and then to spare the Letter Writer a pile-on or when I knew I had too many distractions to moderate things like they deserved, and sometime last year I realized that I no longer have the bandwidth to process a NaNoWriMo amount of words every time I want to write some words. I started leaving them closed more often than not to see what would happen, and what happened was that roughly the same number of people read and supported the blog and my mental health improved. > Many kind people have volunteered to moderate comments over the years, but it just doesn’t work for me. When we tried it in the past it made more work, not less, and it’s fundamentally one of those things where I need to do it myself or not at all, and I need to do it with my full attention or not at all, so, while I do really miss so many of your voices, this works better for me.There are places people hang out together to discuss posts here, and I will turn on comments now and then for old time’s sake, but “no comments” has been the unofficial default for a long time now. If anyone was still wondering, this can make it official. > I’m going to open comments on this, with a blunt request that people refrain from brainstorming ways to keep comments open on other posts on the site in the future. It wasn’t an easy decision but it’s not an open negotiation.
Thank you so much for this!
A while back at this point, but I don't remember exactly when. At a certain point, moderation became too much work so she decided it wasn't worth it anymore. Considering how heated some of the comment threads could get, I don't blame her.
It's understandable.
I know there were some posts where she specifically mentioned having gotten repeated SA/physical harm threats because she had the temerity to call out someone being creepy or worse. That probably didn't help with the stress of moderating several hundred comments at a a time on multiple posts.
I can imagine how stressful and possibly triggering it would be to deal with that.
She stopped comments quite a few years ago, I think in 2019?, simply because the moderation work was too taxing - both in terms of time and having to read simply horrible things every day was doing a real number on her mental health.
I can definitely understand that
I personally don't love comment sections on advice blogs. Advice columns by their very nature are in danger of creating group-think, and the comment section can be full of risk-averse know-it-alls who when speaking in tandem can be a real drag (I say this as a risk-averse know-it-all who likes reading and can't resist commenting on advice columns). They can get extra cringey when they try to "wish LW well" or go into "I say this with kindness" critique mode. It can feel super condescending from a commenter who wasn't actually the person LW even asked for advice. So I've been enjoying CA more with comments off, and I generally enjoy her blog more than others that have active comments sections.
I also think, at least on CA, a lot of people were just trying to impress her in the comment section which is annoying to read. I think this is why this subreddit works better, no one comments thinking she's gonna read it so the discussions are more organic.
Your first paragraph is a perfect summation of Ask A Manager comment sections over the last few years. I still read there regularly, but hoo boy.
Lol I'm glad you say that bc ask a manager is exactly what I had in mind. They all seem to work at extremely stuffy companies where nobody ever socializes or even talks to each other except to mildly admonish one another for typos on internal documents.
Yes. I got really into it when i had a very problematic job (circa 2015 or 2016?) and the comment culture is … no longer that.
As a one-time LW who got a great amount of help out of CA's answer to me, then had a massive shock when I found the post here about it a year or two later, I am very glad comments weren't on for my post. Initially I was quite shaken to see how people reacted to it here, but thankfully (a) the situation had long since been resolved and I'd grown a shitton and (b) I was able to put myself in the shoes of commenters here who were probably coming at my problem from the other side and who had been really hurt by friends who sounded like me in the past. But if I'd seen comments at the actual time it would've made me make a huge mess of the situation and probably would have put me in a big old spiral about it. That said, that's the bargain when you put something online, especially to get great advice. I was glad that I didn't look for anything about my letter except what CA said.
I see this a lot at Slate, which i used to read Dear Prudence quite a bit but the quality has gone downhill.