>And he would interact with his readers deeply on there to talk
>through some of his essays and blog posts. He's mentioned that
>experience as being important to him as a way of interacting
>with people constructively.
>
>Being on Twitter must feel like running around on the prison
>yard with gen pop. You can ignore the silliness all you want
>but you're bound to get roped into something lol.

Exactly what I'm getting at ! "Don't argue with fools" and all that. I understand what people are saying, that it comes off like he's running ... but I just look at it as, he's trying to avoid getting lost in a sea of trolls and as a result potentially maybe responding in kind. Personally I think it'd be a *worse* look for him to ultimately say something he regretted as a result of getting frustrated by the inevitable nonsense that would be coming at him from all angles. A good example of this is Kweli ... he is a *brilliant* guy and I agree with just about every stance he has on issues of race and systemic oppression, and everything he writes about in blogs and on Twitter, etc...but at times I cringe at some of his responses on Twitter to folks cause it *looks* like he's lowering himself to the level of the trolls he's responding to.

Coates dropped the evidence he needed to, and bowed out for a bit. He'll be back.