How to Handle Negative Comments

The proliferation of self-published content on the Internet and the ability to comment on it brings out the best in some people and the worst in others. On a daily basis bloggers, content providers, businesses and people writing in forums have to handle the negative comments made about their ideas or work. Maybe it's because of the anonymity provided by forums and blogs, maybe it's jealousy of well-written content, maybe it's just plain meanness, or maybe--just maybe--it's warranted. Whatever the reason, when you're faced with criticism, rudeness or belligerence in the form of negative comments, it's important to handle them well. Read on to learn how to handle negative comments.

Instructions

1. Moderate your blog comments. Many blog templates offer the owner the option of seeing comments before they are published. Certainly moderating comments is one way to avoid negative comments. Just don't publish them, especially if they are clearly SPAM or blatantly vulgar. There are some downsides to moderation, though. It can slow down the interactive process of a blog post--a potentially hot topic can get cold very fast if people have to wait to see what others are saying. Not to mention you may lose a few readers if you moderate out anything you consider to be negative since your blog may end up one-sided and dull.

2. Report offensive comments on a community site (like eHow or a forum) to the moderator or owner. Many sites allow readers to "Flag" a comment thought to be inappropriate. Flagging a comment or sending a private message (PM) to the forum moderator mentioning your concern allows you to express your displeasure without directly confronting the author of the negative comment.

3. Read the comment carefully, try not to jump to conclusions and approach negative comments with a neutral attitude. Not everyone is an articulate and eloquent writer, but that doesn't mean the point isn't valid. Look for constructive criticism in what you read and evaluate its validity before getting angry.

4. Respond to well-intentioned negative comments or those that disagree with a specific point in non-confrontational manner. How you choose to do this is up to you and will probably depend on whether the negative comment was personal ("You have no idea what you're talking about") or content-oriented ("The formula you used isn't correct. It should be..."). Personal comments should probably be dealt with via PM first, while others can probably be handled via a reply to the original comment.

5. Ignore "flamers" or "trolls." The names may vary, but the attitude is the same. These are people raring for a fight and will make any type of negative statement to start one. Frequently, a troll will hijack a forum thread or make negative and challenging statements to a number of different people. It's best just to understand that this is probably a person with a whole lot of time on his hands and who enjoys watching the fray he creates, especially other people's anger.

6. Handle negative comments with maturity. Be the bigger person by explaining your position politely and leaving out nasty language. Or, if you can't do that, at least be witty in your comebacks. "You suck" or "You're just mean" really doesn't have a lot of punch to it. Try something along the lines of "Wow, you even spelled all the expletives correctly. Well done!" or "Did you mean to say @!%$? Because it's actually spelled with a '&'."

Tips & Warnings

• Try not to take negative comments personally. If you stress out about everybody who disagrees with what you have to say, you're going to be one stressed-out person. Remember the Internet is a big place and reaches lot of people. Those you hear from are a minority of the readers out there.

• <br>Tamp your ego down a notch. Sure, it's your blog and you have the right to say whatever you want. But so do other people. Just because you write and publish something on the Web doesn't mean it's always correct or the only opinion out there.