Blogging: the protocols of posting comments

A flurry of comments from a reader on a topic that obviously hit a nerve, comments that I don't particularly want to post, has got me thinking about two things: the protocols of posting comments, and what Cool Travel Guide is about for me. But first, the protocols of posting. Let me describe the scenario... a reader writes a comment in response to one of my posts, and it's a very detailed comment, which I usually love. I don't agree with what the person has written, but that's fine, because they're the kinds of comments that provoke thought, right? So I respond. And because the comments have got me thinking more about that topic, and another related topic which I blog about a lot, I write a new post. The reader comments again, but this time there's a flurry of lengthy comments from the person to several posts. Now normally I love to receive a bunch of comments on different posts - don't we all? A flurry of posts often come from new readers who've just discovered the blog and are excited by what they read, or readers who haven't checked in for a while and are catching up, and it's wonderful. I do the same, do you? But in this case the posts are negative and somewhat antagonistic. They're on the same subject as the first post, and even repeat some of the same things. Add to that, a couple of comments are insulting to. So, here's where the dilemma lies... if I don't post them, is that an act of censorship? Now I may be a professional travel writer, but this is not a professional product. This is my personal space. I began Cool Travel Guide to write about things I can't write about in the content I get paid to write. It's a place for me to express myself and to engage in dialogue with like-minded people who love travel as much as I do. Which got me thinking about a 'real life' scenario. If I was at a party chatting with a group of people about this topic, and someone joined the conversation... that person expressed their difference of opinion and at first there was some spirited debate which was initially engaging. But then the person continued to make their point, imposing their opinions on others, taking the topic to a place that we really weren't interested in going. It was no longer a dialogue, no longer an exchange of ideas. The person was even a little obnoxious, and somewhat insulting. So it got to the point where I, for one, really couldn't be bothered engaging anymore... what would I do? Well, I'd probably wink at my friends and walk away, hoping my friends would follow and we could continue our conversation in another room. So that's what I decided to do with these posts. Walk away from them. What would you do?