If I hadn’t seen it I wouldn’t believe it.

Yesterday the Huffington Post ran an opinion piece about communications. Specifically, it was about e-mail and how the impersonal, lacking-in-inflection nature of the medium leaves—even creates— too much room for misundertanding.

I couldn’t agree more. We’re running a little experiment here at Answer Guy Central, and I Hate Texting is based  entirely on the idea that you can’t really communicate without speaking.

So imagine my surprise when I got to the bottom of Ms. O’Leary’s piece, found the spot where every article I’ve ever read on Huffington Post allowed for comments, and saw this:

Umm . . . Really?

Rewind: the lifeblood of Huffington Post—one of the best examples of success in the Internet/New Media age—is reader participation. They moderate comments,  but they always invite them. Why not here? Is the topic too hot to allow people to weigh in? Were they being Ironic? And either way, was the choice made by Huffington Post staff, or Ms. O’Leary?

You can be sure I’ll be asking both Ms. Huffington and Ms. O’Leary these questions. But for now, let’s leave it here: “do as I say, not as I do” may work for your children, but you make a grave error when you apply it in business.

Oh . . . and other than that, Ms. O’Leary is correct: stop e-mailing so much, and pick up the phone.