I know they say you should never read the bottom half of the web. This blog has existed in one form or other since 2004. Since then, I’ve approved TWELVE-THOUSAND comments.

Most comments – but by no means all – are delightful. People wanting to share their own stories, add something to the discussion, or politely disagree.

I moderate heavily. If someone is rude or abusive, their comment isn’t published. Unless it’s really funny.

In all the years of running this site, I’ve only had to shaddow-ban one person from commenting. After the 10th(?) pointlessly snipey comment I decided that if they didn’t enjoy what I’d written then I wasn’t obliged to read their criticism.

Yes, there’s a fair bit of spam to wade through. And sometimes it’s hard to tell a genuine compliment from someone seeding a spam link. But I think I’ve mostly got it right.

Along the way, there have been some delightful moments. I documented How to take solar export readings on the Honeywell AS302P smartmeter and now the post is full of people thanking me for teaching them something that their energy provider couldn’t. I wrote a silly post about bad morale boosting gestures and was rewarded with people sharing their own grimly amusing anecdotes.

With a mix of Bridgy and WordPress WebMentions I also get a lot of comments from social media. If someone shares one of my posts online I usually get notified about it. Sadly, Twitter killed the ability to get this data from their API.

I was trying to think what my favourite comment was – but that’s futile; I love them all. I just like chatting to people, hearing their stories and – yes – reading their praise.

So, here’s an objective list of the posts which have received the most comments. I don’t claim t