It's happened before, too. Last month, G&M published a guest column by a 15 year old Canadian girl who lives part-time in Seattle. Her subject: she would not be afraid to speak up against assorted social ills (Among them: bigotry and hatred.) She was, predictably, naive and quite opinionated--also very literate. Lots of comments.  I commented, too. No problem.  

Boy, did she--and often, her parents--take a pummelling from readers. A real "pile on."  Whew.  And I thought, hey, the kid's 15. Give her a break. Then I thought--no, this is a really valuable lesson for the kid; a "growing up" moment. Let 'er roll.  

Maybe G&M decided she'd had quite enough (did her parents contact editors, I wondered?) and closed the comments within 48 hours or so. 

Good?  Bad?  I dunno. But editors make these decisions about us/for us every day. Always have (imagine the "letters to the editor" that never made it to print 30, 40, 50 years or more ago...)