A more nuanced unfreedom of speech

I've had a bunch of comments recently which have been sincere and thought out and not entirely without merit, but I was really ambivalent about unscreening them since I felt they might be hurtful to some of my readers.

Thinking about it helped crystalize what I was going for from the beginning with this journal: I am not the thought police deciding what is and is not a Valid Statement. I'm just trying to make sure the content here doesn't have a hurtful effect. If a conversation will be hurtful held publically, then I shouldn't make it public, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a Bad Conversation.

So: If you have something to say to me which is a sincere and thoughtful response to what I've said but you're worried it might go against the word or spirit of my comments policy, send it as a private message or email. If you want to discuss it with lots of people, make a post on your own journal and leave a comment with an explanation and link.

If you make a comment which I think deserves a reply but I'm not comfortable making public, I'll leave/make it screened and send you a private message.

Note that I may decide that I don't want to continue a conversation privately either: my spoons are very limited, and if it's hurtful to other people it may also be hurtful to me.