What IS the deal with closing comments?  I just read this post that was completely obscure to one who doesn't know the inside story (and there are a lot of inside stories on OS), but it apparently ignited such a poop-storm that the writer had to close comments, or never opened comments at all.  Several things strike me as wrong about this.

Possibly the most important problem is that, I (Me, me, me, moi, moi, moi, that would be ME), didn't get a chance to watch the poop-storm develop over the ocean, turn into a tropical storm, then a full blown hurricane! I love to lurk, and watch other people devolve into first-graders, hurling inane insults at each other - "You!",  "No, you!", "You!"  "No, you!", "I'm rubber, you're glue, whatever I say sticks to you!"  "Neener, neener, neeeeener"!  It makes me happy my school bus riding days are over but I can still re-live other people's humiliating behavior right here on OS!  There needs to be a Poop Storm alert that crawls across the bottom of my screen when I'm on some other website (like that ever happens), so I can click right on in! Get on it, Kerry!

Second, unless a commenter posts your name, address and phone number, I think it is your duty, as the writer, to stick by your guns and deal with the poop-storm your article has generated.  Even then, you can always change your name, move, and forward your calls to Kerry! 

Come on, people!   What happened to courage and fortitude, and selective deletion of nasty, ouchy comments?  I've seen it done with impunity by certain bloggers, and it can change the entire context of the comment thread, making monsters out of the innocent, and heroes of our pals.  That requires some imagination, though, and if you're already exhausted it  by writing your poop-storm inspiring post, I guess that won't work. 

Third, if you closed comments because you got so many that your email box has shut down, then you just plain suck, because I'm massively jealous (Me, Me, Me, Moi, Moi, Moi).  I check my email box eleventy-hundred times an hour to see if anyone has commented on my post and you're getting a torrent of comments, and your email provider has called  and said, "Knock it off, already!"  Damn, I alert the press when I get over 10 comments.  You get so overwhelmed, you crawl over to that "Close Comments" button thinking,

"Must...stop...feedback...vision...getting...blurry." 

We're writers here.  Aren't we supposed to be thick-skinned? My Momma used to tell me this story about John McPhee submitting twenty-threedeeleedy artlices to the New Yorker before he finally got one accepted and look where he is today?  What's with this for hauling tail to the hills when the brush fire starts - I am having a BLAST with mixing my metaphors, by the way.  I'll probably get slapped by some Grammar Maven, but I'll tough it out. No closing comments because I mis-placed a comma, or did something nasty with a preposition as if I ever knew what that was.  I come from tougher stock than that!

Suck it up!  Write what you mean, mean what you write, then stand by your work.  People are muderous, according to Freud.  You know who your friends are, and who the people are who just come around to tear you down.  It doesn't matter.  It's your work, own it. 

Or keep a freaking journal so no one can ever disagree with you, ever.