The way I feel about it is this: my blog is like my living room. I don’t tolerate rude, inconsiderate people in my home. Why should I tolerate them in my blog?

Keep in mind that I don’t delete differing viewpoints. I just delete the posts that make me feel bad or could make others feel bad.

Thanks for the great post and great advice.

I totally agree about “stat watching” being a “self-sabotaging method.” When I blog (which I do a lot of with 16 blogs!) I write as though I’m writing to one person. I honestly don’t want to know how many are or aren’t on the other side of my words.

As for comments, that one used to kind of get me down. People, for the most part, just don’t leave a lot of comments. Then I checked the comments on a few of my own favorite blogs and saw there weren’t many there either! That, combined with the fact that I seldom leave comments, myself, convinced me it was a concern blown out of proportion.

In fact, some of my favorite posts send me off to think or jot something down, so I don’t have time for commenting. PLUS, with captcha’s and whatnot, we’re often too busy to stop and chat.

As for negative comments, my husband actually seeks them out on his blogs! He’ll ruffle feathers wherever he finds them because it stimulates the conversation and gets everyone thinking outside of the box. I’m more like the lady you mentioned in the post – my psyche gets wounded. Once, on my music blog, some Taylor Hicks fans nearly destroyed my psyche altogether. Most of them still come to the blog, though, so it’s all good!

Thanks for a great post, I’m sure we all needed it – I know I did.

What is common sense for one person isn’t for another. What does it hurt?

And many people find your “comment name” inappropriate. Do you email everyone who deletes your comment or changes your name in their comments?

Ken: I’m always glad to help. And no matter how “famous” you get, any part of this process can get you down, maybe even more for the popular bloggers. They don’t get one or five nasty comments. They can get dozens a week.

I’ve been doing this for over a decade and just last week, I got a comment that gave me a headache and stomach ache. After a couple days, I deleted it and felt much better. Why suffer?

Bottom line – I do not need a written policy guideline to advise me to delete stuff on my blog that is questionable. I will do it without thinking. Isn’t that common sense?

If you intend to comment on an article you must use a personal, non-commercial URL or leave the URL field blank. Your URL should help us get to know who YOU are. Commercial URLs are unwelcome, give us no information about you, and are considered a form of Spam called Comment Spam.

.. I get the total opposite effect of what’s intended. I have no desire to comment on his blog now that I’ve read that.

I feel strange and keep wondering if a problogger (higher level than an amateur me) would still get these kind of ‘humiliations’ from their reader or not. Is me alone that feel this kind of pain?

Lorelle, do you know that you have opened my eye ‘big and wide’?

I was in a big maze, and you come to me by breaking all the walls and pull me out from there.

I’m going to wait for your article about regaining energy. Thanks for everything, Lorelle!

But isn’t it amazing how good it feels to know you are not alone? So many of us go through this, but we think we’re the only one. Knowing we have company helps us work together through this, not alone.

try 10 blogs 100 comments or more from hecklers and fanboys that don’t like my opinions.

I should be tired.

Negative comments have become my regular ‘visitor’ because of my language problem. adding a comment policy will help me much to let my reader know my current situation.

Thanks for your precious information, Lorelle. I will soon publish my own comment policy to decrease some unwanted batch of negative comments.