There is no automatic commenting system on this Web site. This is for three very simple reasons.

1. It’s a pain and an inconvenience to install, configure and administer.

2. If you want to comment on a blog post, I’d much rather you wrote your own and linked back to mine, dropping me a note to advise me of it via e-mail or via Twitter. This encourages a clearer, more reasoned response from you, and also reduces the number of people who comment simply to troll.

3. Just like the bottom half of a human is usually an unattractive smorgasbord of varicose veins, genitals and crusty toenails, the bottom half of the web is usually a mix of unfunny copy-and-pasted memes, racists and homophobes, spammers and Chris Brown apologists. It should be avoided at all costs.

For these reasons, my policy is as follows:

• If you want to send me a correction, mail me. The contact details are on the About page.

• If you want to write a response to a blog post, write it on your own blog and mail or tweet me a link to it. (If you don’t have a blog, I recommend WordPress.com: it’s an excellent platform for first-time bloggers.)