From time to time, someone makes the effort to email me with a question/complaint/request as to why I do not allow readers to submit comments on HEDGEfolios. I know there is a general theory that you need to create a community of users to have a successful blog. You decide if HEDGEfolios is a successful blog.

But in the end, I need to have a few other things to be successful. The first one is time. The fundamental and technical database portion of this site is my priority and it requires a lot of focus. I just do not have the time to deal with reading comments or replying to the stuff that I write. Sorry for that but my blog was never intended to be an interactive dialog with readers - it was meant as a place for me to share my thoughts. If you like them, good. If you don’t, good. If it causes you to think, good. If you have (or want to create) your own blog and comment there about my blog and then turn on your comments, that might be a good solution. For the record, in my life I have left one comment on another person’s blog and that was only because I did not have their email. Otherwise, expect …NO COMMENT.

Sometimes (as a way around the no comment on the blog) people email me and I do not respond. I get emails like “you suck” - NO COMMENT. I get emails like “you are always so negative” - NO COMMENT. I get emails asking me to talk about stuff I don’t find interesting or relevant - NO COMMENT. Sometimes I get a short email which contains an intriguing thought or observation and I may reply to those. But mostly, I don’t spend much time communicating with readers. Note that if a reader also happens to be a subscriber to the database, then I respond.

Secondarily, the scumbags that love to soak up our time by sending spam to emails also love to attack blogs through comment spam (see Barry’s blog today). I have no desire to deal with that. So if you really want me to allow comments, you’d first have to create a world without the threat of viruses and spam. Good luck with that.

And lastly, I need to be in control of what happens on this site. If I open the comments and someone says something wrong or offensive, I would feel responsible for what happens here. I just don’t have the time or desire to control a series of messages. In general, I do not attempt to control things that are not under my control.

Now that I have hopefully resolved this issue with enough of my time, from now on expect “NO COMMENT.”