I would like to request that IMCs talk about this option:

What if we set it up so the author of the article could *choose* to have an OPEN OR CLOSED comment area. The *author's choice*, not the IMC editorial's choice. Authors would have to decide open or closed BEFORE comments happened. One shot deal. But if you choose CLOSED comments, all comments will simply be blocked from that article from day one, and permanently the comments will just not happen.

I would be willing to write on IMCs again, (as I want very much to write on IMCs), if this option existed to close the comment area on any article you write that you post on IMCs. This would give me the power, myself, to control the trolls on my articles.

I am not going to describe all the weird shit that has transpired on IMCs re trolling me. But, for instance, this last week, on one IMC in Ca. that posted an article of mine themselves (I did not post it), three comments were posted on an article I wrote about how to accomodate vegans and vegetarians at holiday meals, calling me a hog, and saying I should write a diet book, and that I am too fat to be a vegetarian, etc. I simply do not think that people should be subjected to crap like that to write articles on IMCs. Plain and simple.

What do you think? Is that idea of letting the authors *themselves* choose to block comment areas or not too radical? To me, it seems logical, and an option that does not require that much website tweaking to become reality. It would also cut down on the work of the volunteers at IMCs through less editing...so that more content, etc. could go up instead of trolls purposely wasting our time on rude and inflammatory comments.

I would like to hear constructive comments on this, yet I fear this comment area will fill with hateful trolls again, right off the bat...telling me to lose weight, shut up, get a life, etc. At least by now, I have learned the hard way how not to *feed* the trolls. We will see how this goes. I am posting with high hopes...but this comment area may end up, once again, illustrating why open comment areas can suck, instead of addressing this issue.