Patrick Says

Hey everybody. I’ve been a little quiet, but since The Wife came home and the kids are out of school, it’s been really busy. Expect me to get it back on track in the next couple of days. Anyway, I hope you all have a good holiday and I hope you get whatever you wanted, be it cigar deals or whatever…

(See how I worked this post into an animated GIF of the day post?
Nice, right?

A long time ago, I was a firm believer in closing comments after a certain amount of time. Mostly because old posts don’t get comments; they get spam comments. And those are just annoying. Granted, Akismet catches most of them, but nonetheless, it is annoying.

But then last year, I read an article that stressed that you could be stifling conversation on your blog by closing comments. Suppose someone found an interesting article on your blog about chondroitin glucosamine msm (it could happen!) and they wanted to add a comment. But the comments were closed, so they just left. You’d lose that interaction. So, leaving your comments open should, in theory, add conversation.

My experience, since changing my policy, says otherwise. In the last eleven months, I think I’ve gotten zero comments on old posts that were not spam. However, in the last two weeks, I’ve received 2,131 spam comments in my spam folder because all old posts are open.

There you go. Comments close after 90 days.

I don’t know how he makes this noise, but Steak makes this evil grunt that would scare the timid. I can handle it though. Even recorded it. Check it below. By the way, the sound is ALL him. There’s no editing or enhancement. HE makes that noise. Creepy.

Also, note The Oldest in the back trying to be a ham.