Plus, your method does have the advantage of actually encouraging me to write on my own blog. ;)

Well, I find that explanation unsatisfactory for two reasons:

1) As you point out, YOU comment on the pictures. Whatever your intent, it has the effect of privileging your interpretation of those works.

Yes, it is absolutely my intended effect to ensure that the content on the site with which I have an intentional and thoughtfully crafted message remains my own. I take great pains to ensure that I do not hinder the ability of someone else to do the same thing, which is why all original Male Submission Art work (typically the text) is licensed under an extremely generous CC-BY license.

2) Commenting is a standard way of communicating on the internet; what’s more, it’s convenient. Of course people can go post elsewhere, reproduce the quote, and post their thoughts. But that creates a significant barrier to a thoughtful exchange of ideas. And while it may mean that you disperse the conversation, it also may make it much harder for the conversation to get started.

Again, you’re absolutely spot-on. There are pros and cons, causes and effects, to every action. I don’t expect people to make the same choices I do, but I do hold them—and myself—to the standard of thinking about actions before they take action that affects others. I don’t view a lack of a comment form as a barrier to a thoughtful exchange of ideas, but rather as raising the bar of thoughtfulness on the exchange of ideas that I want to see happen.

There are many standard ways of communicating. I made a conscious choice to effectively promote the ones that I wanted to see people using in relation to my work, and not others. For example, I also sometimes put up an away message or even sign off of instant messenger programs to avoid getting an IM because I don’t want to be contacted that way at that time. Even though an IM might be more convenient for you than writing an email, would you hold it against me if I chose not to stay online and available 24/7 for your incoming IM messages?

Since I really like a lot of what you say on your blog, I hope to see more of your opinions and thoughts about Male Submission Art there. :)

1) As you point out, YOU comment on the pictures. Whatever your intent, it has the effect of privileging your interpretation of those works.

2) Commenting is a standard way of communicating on the internet; what’s more, it’s convenient. Of course people can go post elsewhere, reproduce the quote, and post their thoughts. But that creates a significant barrier to a thoughtful exchange of ideas. And while it may mean that you disperse the conversation, it also may make it much harder for the conversation to get started.

Imagine you have a speaker at a conference. At the end of the conference, the speaker says, “I COULD have a Q&A period, but I don’t want to confine the discussion of these ideas to those present, because I want others to think about these ideas too. So if you have questions, go home, summarize my talk for your friends, and THEN discuss.”

To me, that would be really, annoyingly, and arrogantly unsatisfying, which is how I feel about the comment policy at MSA.