Don’t Feed The Trolls: How to Stop Haters from Infiltrating Your Blog
As your blog demands attention, everybody will take heed of your posts. This not only includes your target audience, but also trolls, who by far as the worst kind of people to interact with on your blog. You don’t even have to attract them – if trolls see something they can feast on your blog, they’ll do so without hesitation.
They take part in your blog by offering inane and useless vitriol for the sake of commenting on your posts. While most of your readers will deliver constructive criticism if they disagree with any of your ideas or thoughts, trolls will pounce on you using sweeping generalizations, poor sentence construction, and f-bombs that would make a sailor proud.
The psychology of trolls is traced to the sense of disinhibition they possess at the moment. Because their real identities are hidden behind an ambiguous username, they feel the compulsion to let go of social inhibitions and just unleash their true, inarticulate feelings against a blog.
It’s easy to give in and stoop down to their level especially when trolling comments come in droves. But before doing anything rash, below are some things that you should keep in mind to counter against these pesky online users.
Don’t do anything
Trolls thrive of banter and interaction. The more you reply to their, the more you’ll hear their inanity. Therefore, the best way to get back at them is to simply ignore or block their comments from appearing on your posts. Regarding blocking comments…
Don’t block comments if the hate is legitimate and grounded on reason and proof
Not all negative comments are troll comments. As mentioned earlier, there are those who will offer constructive criticism to point out why the points you raised on your blog post are incorrect.
As a blogger, your responsibility is to answer to this kind of comments to help validate the claims you made on your posts. This is done to restore the integrity of your blog post and engage in productive conservation with your audience.
If the comment raised by one of your readers is correct, you can turn this negative incident into a positive one. You can edit the post in question to align with the correct information provided by the comment or you can write a brand new post acknowledging your mistake. After all, it’s not always important to be correct – sometimes you need to admit your shortcomings and build off them to create a better blog.
If you feel the need to say something, say it without sounding like a troll as well
It’s easy to get suckered into replying back to trolls out of rage or spite. In the process, however, you risk sounding like a troll yourself. Take a step back from the computer, gather your thoughts, and type out your retort. Approach writing your comment like you would your blog posts. Dropping expletives and language that compromises your tone of voice may compromise your entire blog as well.
Diffuse the situation, never escalate the issue
Similar with the point mentioned above, you need to approach trolls with the intention of shutting down the issue instead o aggravating them. Aside from deleting their comments, you can include in your Disclaimer page that you hold the right to delete comments that do not add value to the discussion, which should be perceived as troll comments. Also, if you mistakenly removed a comment that you thought came from a troll, give them the opportunity to reach out to you through email or a sign-up form to discuss the matter.
If things get out of hand…
You can always ban the IP addresses of trolls who pester your blog. Follow how you can ban them by reading this post and refer to the section about editing your .htaccess file. Keep in mind that you should follow the directions carefully – not doing so would also ban some of your earnest readers.
Final thoughts: Fighting off spam or troll comments from your blog can be a challenge, but it’s not an impossible feat. However, the most important thing to remember here is to not let their comments affect you. Always maintain a positive mindset when blogging about your thoughts and ideas. As one of the inspirational quotes mentioned by William James. “Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.”
More on how to stop haters:
How to Deal with Negative Blog Comments
Understanding WordPress Community Fanaticism
