The Best Way to Handle Nasty Blog Comments?
No doubt there will be someone, at some time who will dish up a nasty comment on your blog, how do you handle it? I did think that the best way to handle it was just to leave it there because doing otherwise would be somewhat biased. But now I’ve stated to rethink this after seeing some comments on other blogs.
When I read something really nasty on another blog I feel empathy for the blogger, but I wonder if leaving those comments there might place a damper on their reputation. Should you allow allow your reputation to be compromised in your own publication?
Two Type of Negative Comments
I think there are two types of negative comments. One that offers legitimate push-back to the stance you are taking in your blog post. The other is the Negative Nellie that seems to leave the nasty comment for no good reason other than to stir up controversy.
I wouldn’t suggest removing comments that counter your arguments just because you don’t like what they don’t agree with you – there is great value in this both to you and readers. But what about Negative Nellie?
So should you delete the negative comment? Offer some sort of response?
For example, magazines often publish reader responses to previous articles. A good magazine will publish both positive and negative feedback. But I don’t recall seeing many high quality magazines that publish out and out rants based on unfounded logic.
Liz Strauss told me during our interview that many people have some fear of commenting on blogs because it opens their ideas up to scrutiny.
As a blog publisher, it is your role to set the tone of your blog. If your goal is to provide a positive atmosphere where people feel comfortable leaving comments, this type of negativity in the comments section could dissuade others from participating in the conversation.
If a person who would like to engage in the discussion sees that you allow people to leave nasty comments, could this dissuade them from joining in? As the publisher of the blog, is it our responsibility to set the tone for what is and is not acceptable?
What Other Bloggers are Doing
Marketing Profs Daily Fix
Ignore ‘em or Embrace ‘em? How to Handle Negative Blog Comments
Tech Forward
Negative Blog Comments – Keep Your Focus!
Here’s a funny one (I don’t see myself using this but I think the concept is hilarious for the right blogger):
Young Go Getter
What do you think?
What is the best way to handle those few nasty commenters and why?
October 25 2007 11:11 am | Blogging
Lodewijkvdb on 25 Oct 2007 at 2:30 pm #
I follow the same motto as Liz: Be nice!
If someone is not nice, they get deleted instantly. I welcome feedback and discussion, also when my ideas are challenged. But nasty comments are not nice, so they don’t add to a constructive discussion. It makes the rest shut up, because the bully is reading and commenting along.
Christine on 25 Oct 2007 at 2:36 pm #
I think you summed this up beautifully “It makes the rest shut up, because the bully is reading and commenting along.”
What got me thinking about this was that on Digg comments there are so many more nasty comments than you see anywhere else. I wonder if this is because those comments can’t be deleted. Either the “bully” knows this and uses this as a place to vent, or there really are a lot of nasty comments being said that bloggers are deleting.
Either way, I agree with you – I don’t want someone bullying the readers that I appreciate so much!
Lena L. West on 25 Oct 2007 at 5:39 pm #
Thanks for the trackback to my TechForward blog.
I really like your rule of thumb – as long as the conversation is productive, I’m willing to entertain it. If not, it’s gotta go.
Thanks again,
Lena
Living off Dividends on 25 Oct 2007 at 6:45 pm #
as you can see in this post, i get people who like to argue about stuff they’re not experts on.
http://www.livingoffdividends.com/2007/07/26/countrywide-down-finally/
after this banter he replied privately saying that he didn’t want continue reading my blog. I felt that was preferable because morons like him aren’t my target audience anyway.
I’ve started deleting senseless rants too.
Christine on 29 Oct 2007 at 8:19 am #
That discussion is just hilarious! Thank you for sharing this link for an example. Gave me a good laugh!
Christine on 29 Oct 2007 at 8:21 am #
Absolutely. I find it humorous too that in a majority of cases, the ranter never leaves a link back to their own site. That’s a good indication that they never intended to start a productive discussion.