Over the last couple of months I’ve had a handful of people ask me why my Practical Ed Tech videos have commenting disabled. This afternoon someone asked me the same about my blog posts here.

I have comments disabled on my videos because the vast majority of YouTube comments don’t add anything of value to the Internet. There are 100 things in my day that are better uses of my time than moderating comments from Internet trolls.

I disabled comments on FreeTech4Teachers.com about two years ago. I disabled the comments because I was spending a ton of time moderating comments that weren’t genuine. The few genuine comments were usually “how to” questions or questions seeking alternative tools. I found that I was better at answering those questions in email than I was in post comments where the good stuff often got lost in the shuffle. If my blog posts were of a more conversational nature, I would turn on commenting.

The FreeTech4Teachers Facebook page allows comments and I try to answer questions there. I also reply to questions on Twitter (generally during the day and early evening, Eastern Time). You can always email me at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com And if you’re interested in what’s going on my personal life, my Instagram account is full of pictures of my dogs, planes, woods, and other random things.