Alternatively, strike a balance in which you release material publicly but only engage in discussion with those who seem capable of understanding the things you say instead of getting caught up in the way you say them. Which is exactly what the author of this article is doing. Which everyone must do to some degree, considering the one-to-many communication model of the internet is capable of generating massive audiences that are infeasible to engage with on an individual level (as you mentioned). If you respond to any member of that audience on an individual level, you have effectively hand-selected a member of your audience to participate in discussion. edit: i think he goes too far in claiming that public comments are harmful. i would say that public comments simply tend to encourages the kind of response he does not find interesting, and that personal email has a higher signal/noise ratio.