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How to Deal with Negative Blog Comments

How to Deal with Negative Blog Comments

Blog Comments

Blog comments are welcomed by all, and give us an opportunity to create a discussion, further building a community in the process. Most of the time, they’re cool and collective, sometimes disagreeing with what you have to say, which is great. If we all agreed on everything, conversations would get pretty boring, pretty fast. However, things can go south, and the bigger your blog is or the more popular you are, the more you have to deal with “haters.”

Haters have no better way to spend their time than to spew nonsense, and not add any value to the conversation whatsoever. They move beyond criticism, and can get personal by calling you names. They are an unfortunate part of life, and really seem to enjoy spending a lot of time on YouTube. Haters have one simple goal: to get a rise out of you, and to get attention.

Understanding The Mindset

Haters are simply broken human beings, and usually going through some sort of problems in their own life. Just like a school bully, they unnecessarily take things out on other people. It is easy to get upset over blog comments that are uncalled for, and wanting to lash out. However, when you start to realize that the person spewing such hate is broken, and probably needs to be hugged more often, it kinda starts to get sad.

Dealing With The Hate

You really have one of two options. You can either ignore the blog comments or respond to them. The majority of the time, it is best to simply ignore it. By responding, you are only fueling the fire, and if there is one thing that rings true with all haters, it is that they always have to have the last word. No matter how good your response is, they will always and I mean always come back with something else. Sooner or later, you will realize just how much time you have wasted, time that could have been better spent towards working on something far more productive.

If you find the same person is routinely posting bad things on your blog, your best course of action would be to block them. Whenever someone leaves a comment, their IP address is included. If you use WordPress, login to your dashboard, select “Settings,” and then “Discussion.” Scroll down to where it says “Comment Blacklist,” and add their IP address. Now, whenever they leave a comment, it will automatically go to the spam folder.

To go even further, you can have your blog appear to not load for someone, blocking them completely. Simply check with your web hosting provider to figure out how to do so.

Distinguishing Hate And Criticism

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Just because someone leaves blog comments criticizing you and/or your work, does not necessarily make them a hater. This is a big misunderstanding, and many chalk up criticism as hate. However, criticism can be a good thing. Nobody wants to hear the bad or what’s wrong with something, especially after they have potentially put hours upon hours, and hard work into it. But, criticism helps you to become better. If you are constantly being told how great you or something you did is, a bubble starts to form.

Many stop improving, and start to become too comfortable. Criticism keeps you on your toes, and it helps to keep you humble. You know that you are not the greatest, and can see that there is more room for improvement. If more people were simply honest, and didn’t lie because they were afraid to hurt people’s feelings, the world would be a far better place.

How do you manage negative blog comments?

Photo credit: Lotus Carroll

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