The tone and level of constructive discussion in the comment section of The Daily Cartoonist has degraded in the last few months. I have tried to have a very liberal, open policy (with only three small rules) hoping that the community could police those who became unruly, but the comments are no longer an intelligent conversation but a forum for sniping and belittling the efforts of professionals who deserve a great deal more respect than they receive from many of those who frequent this blog.
This is a blog for professional cartoonists. The keyword is professional. They produce quality work and they act and discuss issues in a professional manner. I will continue to report on their efforts, but as for the comments section I have three choices: close down the comment section entirely, make everyone register for an account before they can comment, or make the comment section only visible and available to the target audience: cartoonists, editors and syndicates.
I haven’t made my decision on which way I’ll go, but in the meantime I have closed down all comments for the next couple of days until a decision is made and any necessary changes to the blog are complete.
I welcome your feedback regarding what I should do. Send it to my email.