and what do we do about them.
It’s interesting to me having observed, from afar, the discussion about someone who had an interesting experience and then mentioned it on her blog. In her twitter stream she commented that she was getting some criticism, but she also commented that she deletes those comments from her blog.
And that’s certainly her right to do as it is her blog, but I have to wonder how she would have reacted if I had the same reaction to negative posts on my blog when it was a blog post of mine that she took exception to and proceeded to rip me a new one about.
So, now I wonder . . . what do people do in the face of overwhelming negativity in the comments section of their blogs. Do you delete? Do let them through? Do you respond? How do you handle it?
Adjunctmom's Blog 
I try to take the high road. Usually when a person’s comments are caustic, everyone knows it. Easier to just respond nicely and ignore.
Course then I go to Twitter and blast them a hole (anonymously of course) just to blow off steam. 😉
On the rare occasions that criticism is personal, offensive and misrepresents me (usually by making a knee-jerk response to the post because they got angry and didn’t read it carefully enough), I delete.
I may choose to post a considered response. On one occasion the commenter then made a more rational, still critical, response that I was happy to publish.
my blog is almost exclusively visited by people i know in real life, so i don’t have this issue. i think i would only delete ugly comments if they were about my kids. but i can’t say for sure. sorry for bad punctuation – typing with left hand – new baby in the other
It depends. I have deleted one comment, once, which I felt had no redeeming merit. I had posted about one of my craft projects. Not controversial at all. Someone who had never commented came along many weeks (and posts) later, and said, “My first thoughts when I saw this were ‘cheap’ and ‘tacky’. Sorry, but you can do better.”
That comment was a personal attack, and did not add to the discussion. It was clearly some random troll, and I saw no need to give this random troll an outlet to hurt my feelings.
I have had negative comments, which addressed my ideas. That is fair. You do not have to agree with me, as long as you can do so respectfully. I have had comments that attacked my ideas and then delved into personal attacks and name-calling. In that situation, I have responded and said that I will not tolerate personal attacks, and if they continue I will delete them. They have never continued.
I have responded to respectfully-worded differing opinions, thanking the commenter for sharing their views. For me, the difference is whether someone is trying to contribute to the discussion, or just trying to get a reaction or vent. I am not obligated to provide a sounding board for your hate, or to be your punching bag. But I am cool if you have a different perspective to offer or a divergent political opinion.
I haven’t generally had negativity on my blog comments. The only time I have, it was my estranged father coming & insulting me & my mother, which clearly served no purpose other than to attempt to get attention for himself… so I set those comments to ‘pending’. That takes them out of the public’s view, but I have them tucked away in case I need them in the future.
If someone disagrees with something I post, that’s fine, I won’t delete their comment. I blog because I want an open dialogue, and I feel like excessive comment moderation doesn’t encourage that. However, if someone were to come to my blog and be like “you’re a dumb shit and your kid is ugly”, well, I’d delete their comment & block their IP address without a second thought.
I think everyone sets their filters differently. For example, I have a lot of irl friends that I don’t accept on facebook. I can’t manage too much cross-posting, so I keep them irl. I have bulletin board friends I don’t follow on twitter. So if someone’s filter set-up is “This blog is a happy space, not accepting criticism at this window” I figure they probably get criticism elsewhere. 😉
Most of us find critics SOMEWHERE, after all. :p