Dear Ambiguous Commentator,

Hi there. I don’t think we’ve met, but I appreciate your interest in the blog and I’m flattered that you have taken the time to share your thoughts. However, I read your comment and I am sorry to report that I won’t be publishing it. It’s not that I don’t want to hear from you, or that I don’t think your opinion matters. It’s just that I can’t figure out what you are trying to do. While I welcome criticism (of me, of the posts, of other commentators, etc.), your message has a strange kind of unprovoked obnoxiousness to it, a kind of misdirected insulting tone. Maybe you didn’t realize this; we don’t always know how we come off—believe me, I’ve been there! Or maybe you are having a bad day, or a hard time more generally. I’m sorry about that. It’s too bad, because there seems to be an interesting point in your comment that might be worth bringing to everyone’s attention. I tried emailing you, asking you to check the comments policy and submit a new comment, but for some reason you provided a fake email address. I can’t stop you from doing that, but it does mean that this note here will be your only clue as to why your comment never appeared on the blog. Best of luck with everything, and feel free to try again.

Regards,
Justin