New comment policy at KevinMD.com

I appreciate the vigorous discussion that readers bring to KevinMD.com every day.  It’s not uncommon that the conversation is more interesting than the post itself.

As many of you know, seeing patients, writing, editing blog entries and moderating comments stretches my time pretty thin.  And with the significant increase in traffic, the number of comments has grown — often to several hundred a day.

So, I’m going to adopt the New York Times’ Paul Krugman’s 3-inch rule when it comes to comments.  Basically, any comment that roughly stretches more than 3-inches on the screen will be deleted, no matter how good the comment is.  What exactly is 3-inches of screen space? About three healthy paragraphs or so.

For those whom this rubs the wrong way, I’m going to echo Krugman when he says,

this is my blog … I welcome a lively discussion, and don’t edit out hostile comments if they’re brief and free of obscenities. But if you want a soapbox for interminable rants, I have no obligation to provide it; go start your own blog, and find your own readers.

Shorter comments makes it easier for me to moderate, which is a necessity at this point.

And, as always, anything that includes profanity, personal attacks, promotional links, or perseveration from the topic at hand will be deleted.

Thanks for understanding, along with your continued readership.

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