I remember reading columns of Dear Prudence awhile back: after the inital letter-answering by "Prudence"*, there'd be comments from readers and then Pru's replies to those. Sometimes she'd acknowledge overlooking something or making a bad call in her initial reply. That was all really fun to read. That has stopped recently. I seem to remember seeing, in one of the first columns after it stopped, a link here to The Fray's section for Dear P, inviting comments. Not quite the same of course since Prudence doesn't reply to these comments. Bummer. * Prudence used to be a man, you know. The original Prudence was a writer for Slate named Herbert Stein, who lasted just a few months, according to Wikipedia. Next came Margo Lederer, daughter of "Ann Landers" (sorry, no, Ann Landers isn't real either), and apparently now Prudence is Slate staff writer Emily Yoffe, since 2007.

The comments have stopped because the moderator has decided to delete anything that isn't a banal agreement with Prudie. We have gone elsewhere to snark.

Margo didn't stop in here all that often, but yes she did stop in and add comments of her own. She was fun to be around.

Emily never ever comments in here, but she has added notes, from here, to her tuesday night Washington Post "live" answer column. Frequently she will say something like "I was taken to task for advice that I wrote in my Dear Prudence column"... but she never adds comments in here. For the longest time, we all thought that she wasn't even reading us.

For the last couple of weeks though we have had an editor who is exercising his power WAY TOO MUCH. He deletes the most innocuous posts for no reason at all. He must be one of those right wing bible thumpers because he is offended by everything that was ever used as a curse word even [censored].

Responding to comments here would turn this from what is apparently a 3-hour-a-week gig into a full-time job. No wonder Emily doesn't want to have her life sucked away arguing with teh interwebs.

Check out Double X for columnists who write back to their paltry commenters. They are plagued by spammers, unfortunately, but the recent meltdown by the "Friend or Foe" columnist was amusing. She gave terrible advice, got called out by multiple people, and refused to back down. She looked like a total ass, telling people to quit reading if they didn't like her advice.

I could have sworn that I'd read at least some Dear Prudence columns, the actual column itself on the main Slate.com website, that included further "letters" or comments from readers regarding the original letters that Prudence had already answered. In those, Prudence would then respond to that comment,right there in the column. So not here at this forum, but as part of the actual column. It's only very recently that I'm even looking at The Fray at all, so Im' sure I didn't see those here. Anyway, now when I go back to find those columns again, I can't relocate any of them, and can't remember in which week's columns I saw them. Has anyone else seen that? Or did I dream this?

PhysicsGirl:

The comments have stopped because the moderator has decided to delete anything that isn't a banal agreement with Prudie.

Well.... not really.

I sympathize with the dearly departed, but the deletions were due to language and perceived personal attacks, not simple lack of banal agreement.

Of course, you can't link to a post that isn't there anymore, so it's hard to prove what was or was not deleted. But there are many non-banal-agreement posts out there, so clearly there is some other criterion involved.

You're thinking of the "chat room," where Prudie answers live queries on Monday afternoons.

No, you haven't lost your mind. I vaguely recall once upon a time they'd put 2-3 responses on the same page to entice you onto the Fray. My guess is so many people only read those, and never ventured in, that they discontinued doing it. I don't think it lasted long.

They still do that on other pages. Presumably they could do it on the Prudie page, too, but they haven't for a long time.

Physicsgirl is right. I've had a bunch of posts deleted where I very carefully avoided "language" and anything that could possibly be construed as an "attack" (something I don't do often anyway). All I did was disagree with either a poster or the writer of the article and gave reasons why. Every single post was deleted within two hours. No, this is a capricious editing process, and not only is everyone expected to agree at all times with no dissent permitted, certain people are being targeted for deletion. I'm not the only one that's noticed this.

If you would like to see the Moderator's explanation, it is here: <link>

Of course, while you're there, if you would like to join the discussion, that would be a good thing. I have one goal - to get Messy and Schuyler and Neato and Smag and all the rest back here where they were hatched. They were consistently producing the best content on the Fray, and that is the message I think it would be useful to repeat in that thread.

I might also suggest that the more useful model for the thread is "beer in the Rose Garden," rather than, "that was just stupid."

Ron, send me an e-mail. onemessylady@gmail.com . You won't regret it. Seriously.

I may do that, Messy. I probably will. You just have to understand that, as a former denizen of BotF, I have this visceral reaction to sending emails to my Fray Friends (of whom I, presumptuously, count you as one). Fraycentric emails have a very bad history where I come from.

Anyway, if it turns out that I don't email you, I hope you understand that it's because I would really prefer for you and I to make our stand here in the public square. Although I have been proved a fool before, I hold to the hope that we can win this thing.

I've clued them in on the e-mail fiascoes in BotF. There is a promise, cross our hearts, etc. that e-mails will never be discussed in slate. Pinky swear your e-mail is a sacred secret. Messy says trust her, you can.