Talk Back: Should You Lay The Smack Down On Comment Trolls?
I’ve had some interesting experiences with comments lately.
First came this post, impacting as it did comments in the two blogs which were the focus on that post, which also prompted some comments of its own. Then, at one of my other blogs, I posted a “debate” style series of posts about the use of online applications by lawyers, which attracted a comment by someone associated with a particular online app (judging solely from the URL the commenter provided). That comment prompted me to write my first-ever comments policy, found here (scroll down to the second H3 tag, “Comments Policy.”
That got me thinking about comments and comment trolls - you know, the commenters who post a comment to your post designed, it would appear, solely to poke, tease, prod, and provoke an emotional response. The old wisdom is “don’t feed the trolls.” In other words, if you ignore them, they’ll go away. But more and more I find people are actually taking more proactive steps to remove such comments. In my case, I even attempted to “legislate” them away with my comments policy, for which I’m sure I’ll get some criticism by those “open access” fans who would consider such restrictions akin to censorship.
Did I take a correct or worthy approach? Or is it doomed to failure, either by killing comments altogether or proving impossible to enforce fairly? What is a good, fair comments policy nowadays, post-Kathy Sierra?
Talk back!
comments policy on blogs, kathy sierra, comment trolls
August 16th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
I write on a subject, astrology, that can come up with a bit of criticism on its on. Do I defend it. No, it is a waste of time. Do I respond to negative responses? Only in the vein of “Everyone has the right to their opinion.” If the post is augumentative, and makes personal attacks on individuals, I’d delete it. Why? The purpose of my blog is to entertain and hopefully educate, not promote personal attacks.
If there is a philosophical debate, I’d leave it and maybe make a thoughtful response. But as far as the above ‘referenced post’ went, frankly, it was an argument that could have been duked out in personal emails if that is what they wanted to do.
October 1st, 2007 at 6:01 am
[...] with online bullies. If they have a blog you can help monitor it for hurtful comments and set up a comment policy, but is that [...]