It’s inevitable. If you put yourself out there on the web, you will eventually be the recipient of negative comments on your blog posts. Usually when you are least expecting it. So why allow negative comments on your blog post? A recent #Journchat discussion on Twitter had me really considering this issue.
Here are five things to think over before automatically clicking “delete” on a less-than-supportive comment:
1. Are they right? Do they have a valid point? Sure, you may not appreciate their tone or the way in which they said it, but sometimes a negative commenter may be making a logical point. Reexamine your blog post – did you leave something out? If so, thank the commenter for pointing out what you missed.
2. Can you Start a Conversation? I had an experience early on in the life of this blog where a commenter left a semi-rude negative comment. I did not delete it, but left it to stand and asked a few other writers what they thought. Wow! Did the conversation start!
3. What is the Potential for Engaging the Commenter? I have successfully turned negative comments into a guest post on the commenter’s blog by engaging them in a conversation. Sometimes that means following up with them on your response to their comment.
4. Does the Comment Add to the Post or to Your Blog? If someone leaves a comment on my blog and I feel it contributes something of value, then I will leave it. Even if I disagree with their particular decision.
5. Do you Need to Respond or Can you Leave it? Sometimes you make a stronger statement by allowing a negative comment just stand. Without a lot of knee-jerk response by you. It shows your confidence in your own point of view, and also allows your other readers to “come to your defense”. Much more effective than you seeming defensive.
Having said that, I don’t want anyone to think that this means I allow every comment submitted to my blog to stand. Far from it. Anonymous, porn, vulgar or profane comments are simply deleted without a second thought.
But negative comments? Well, I hover my curser over that delete button just a little longer and take a good, hard look at whether it’s really worth deleting or not. Sometimes even negative comments are of huge value to a blogger.
Stopping by from Twitter– I saw this post and HAD to read what you had to say!
I’ve had two negative comments left on my blog. Both basically personally attacked me– I’m fairly certain they were left by somebody I know in real life, but who didn’t have the courage to talk to my face. After the first negative comment, I wrote this post. After the second negative comment, I disabled anonymous commenting on my blog. I love a good debate– I *wish* people would debate more on my blog– but I don’t like being personally attacked or misconstrued based on my beliefs or words.
~Elizabeth
http://confessionsfromaworkingmom.blogspot.com
I do think there is a huge difference between a negative comment that is “Agreeing to disagree” and someone trolling just to be mean. Personally I despise anonymous comments. Like my dad says – if you’re going to say something, stand behind what you say. Usually the only good reason to remain anonymous is because you KNOW you should not be saying what you are saying. LOL!
I’d say you definitely handled things well. You turned a negative comment into first, a great post (read the link she included you guys…it’s well written!) and then secondly, a call to action. You realized you needed to protect yourself from the stupidity on your personal site and disabled anonymous comments. I’m glad you did. I think that allowing anonymous comments makes it easier for trolls. Something else entirely from a simply different point of view. 😉
Angela <
I love that you call them “trolls”– I use that word a lot to describe mean-hearted people too. My first reaction to the first negative comment was NOT a carefully-worded rebuttal. It was very abrasive and emotional, and not at all the tone I wanted for my blog. I left it up for about 3 minutes, then took it down, and really gave some thought to how I wanted to respond. Thanks for taking the time to read!
~Elizabeth
I had my most negative comment on my blog post about “Nipples on Barbie”…of course they were anonymous, no one has balls to say who they really are when they want to rant online…
Here’s the post Lia is referring to – http://liamack.blogspot.com/2009/03/drawing-nipples-on-barbie.html
I love that you turned the negative post into a way to further educate parents and caregivers of young children about warning signs to be aware of. I agree with you – in our family we answer all questions honestly. 🙂
Angela <
Reason #5 is why I left some recent negative comments made re: nursing in public. One of the comments made me email the person and ask if they were making light of the discussion, but I let it stay. Honestly, a lot of negative comments reflect much more poorly on the commenter than they do on the blogger 😉
All great points. When that happens to me, I will remember this!
I really like what you said about maybe engaging with the person. The only semi-negative comment I ever received was someone said my blog is all over the place and not about anything. At the time, I was pretty much writing what I wanted to write. I didn’t have a laser-like focus and that was just a style choice. I do remember thanking the person for their comment. I did take another look at my blog and it does have a little more focus now without painting me in a corner where I have to write about one certain topic.
Saw you stopped by #blogchat the other night too. Hope to talk with you again!