Over the past few weeks we’ve had some unprecedented levels of dink-behavior in the form of people attempting to leave threatening or slanderous or hateful comments. Here are some thoughts on how to deal with this problem.
Img: TorleyBLOGS ARE REALLY just points of entry for conversations. Even the simplest post can lead to comments that build on one another and go in unexpected directions. Something as innocuous as a landscape photo essay can transform into a religious debate.
It’s a stoke to see (and moderate) the evolution of comments around a post when this happens. But when a piece either gets popular enough, or if it’s thought-provoking enough, or even if you get one person with hurt feelings (or someone just plain out of control) in the mix, the whole conversation can devolve into a shitstorm. People begin attacking each other or the author personally. Some take the ultimate ‘weak-ass’ route and threaten to sue. It’s ugly and tedious to deal with, but it’s also something you can take a kind of pride in dealing with–you know you’re being read.
With that in mind, here are some thoughts our whole team had on dealing with comments:
Have a stated moderation policy.
As Andy Hayes notes, “There is precedent for bloggers being successfully sued for comments on their blog, so clearly reserve your right to remove or edit libelous, profane or otherwise unacceptable content.”
For commenters: How not to sound like a dink:
1. Don’t use ALL CAPS to show you’re pissed.
2. Don’t say “sweetie”, “honey”, or “dear”.
3. Don’t imply “you think this because you are a [woman, man, from this country, dog-
lover, etc.]”
4. Address the ideas and the writing, not the writer.
5. If you’re angry about a piece or a comment, take half an hour or longer, then go back and re-read it. Often, the material will come off in a different way. Then respond.
At Matador we have a liberal policy towards letting voices be heard. We let most comments stand unless they’re outright hateful or spam.
As Julie Schwietert notes, there’s a distinction between censorship and fostering good conversation. “I don’t view deleting inflammatory, hostile, or non-productive comments in the back end as censorship, especially when those comments are made by someone who wants to hide behind the relative anonymity that the Internet can provide.”
Shut down comments if necessary.
If it’s your site, then it’s your territory. Some people may view this as censorship, but it’s still your right to take down comments if a conversation has devolved completely. A good idea is to simply leave a note stating what happened as clearly and transparently as possible.
Address mistakes or issues that people bring up.
Make a mistake in the article? Fix it. Were you wrong? Admit it. Everybody makes mistakes, so take it constructively (even if the commenter is less than professional about it).
Community connection
How do you deal with out of control comments on your blog while still trying to maintain and promote good conversation? Let us know in the comments.
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Haha, that’s the best idea I’ve ever heard, Candice. That’s the beauty of hatred – learning how to transform it into something positive & constructive.
And Josh – thanks for making me almost spit chai out my nose for laughing so hard. That was a great comment to read.
I sometimes delete haterade on my blog, but sometimes I leave it and either ignore it or respond to it in the most positive, loving manner I can muster. Usually the folks posting that stuff are looking to dig & push buttons & cause a negative reaction and I’ve found if I nip it in the bud quickly and tell them something great about themselves to shift the conversation, I have less work to do later. Though my blog thankfully usually attracts positive folks, I’ve still had a few people telling me I’m a freeloader for having a donate button on my page, or I’m lazy for traveling instead of having a “real job”, or that I give hippies a bad name. Haha. It’s all pretty funny to me.
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Censorship? Fuck that. Blogs are privately owned websites and the author(s) have every right to control what is published there, as tightly or as loosely as they want. If you have a party at home, your friends come, friends of friends come, some random people may crash it and that’s all good and fun as long as they remember it’s your house. If they start snorting vodka off your dog and destroying your couch, kicking them out is not censorship, it’s common sense. There’s no freedom of expression in private spaces – but the users of these spaces have the liberty to go express themselves elsewhere.
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For some reason, I have a feeling that you’ve actually had vodka snorted off your dog. Is this true?
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Negative comments could be a good thing, but they can get out of control. Watch out for the ones that are offensive and hurtful. Not everyone will agree with your blog posting which is a good thing. Negative and positive comments can help your blog ranking…people are reading it!
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wheweeee! You want hate? Have a Youtube channel! The hate comments are amazing, truly. People insult my facial hair, my kitchen, my wife…and I let it all stand.
Bridget gets far more hits than me on her channel and sometimes we laugh reading hideous comments about face-raping and throat slitting. She erases these comments, and sometimes there are literally hundreds for a single video.
It makes me think that we are monsters seething beneath our patina of humanity.The internet brings out our best and our most obscene.
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I can’t wait for the day that my blog has enough passionate readers that it stirs up some emotions
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@Candice. That’s awesome she did that with her blog. Way to be.
@Abbie. Ditto
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Josy-
You’re right– YouTube not only has the most asinine, violent commenters, it also has the dumbest ones. Reading comments–always inadvertently–makes me fear for humanity.
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And these are the majority of people who are breeding…double ack. Have you seen Idiocracy with Luke Wilson? Extremely stupid movie and a complete waste of time, but the premise is right on.
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Err… yes, sorry about all those comments.
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The bottom line is, if some twat leaves a comment on my blog, which I find offensive or is full of crap, I will delete it. The sad little fucker can go and annoy one of millions of other bloggers out there….
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How timely! I just had a woman post some somewhat hostile comments on my blog. It really riled me, but now seems like not so much of a big deal.
I wrote a whole post about it on my non-personal Matador blog (it feels so warm and safe on Matador). Basically, for me, it comes down to what an editor told me a long time ago, when my very first article provoked some seriously nasty feedback: “It’s better to stir up controversy than nothing at all.”
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There will always be haters out there, armchair buffoons with a chip on their shoulder. They will always feel compelled to say something, from third world politics (though clearly they haven’t been to one) to how light photons react in a vacuum (though they are not a scientist). Yes, I believe in dialogue, in intellectual exchange but that entails accommodating, even at least for a while, someone else’s point of view, examining it in the light of one’s own convictions. Not doing so is simply a form of fascism clothed in a term called personal opinion. If the comments get nasty, then just delete–they will not contribute any thing to the discussion, much less to the world.
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