Dave Walker

Blogging can bring out the best and worst in a community. Commenting on blogs is the fundamental way to create conversation and build community, and legitimate commenters can extend and enhance the conversation. Unfortunately, open comments attract people “who make it their business to criticize anything written and the people who wrote it, in some sort of sad attempt at self validation by being nasty towards others for the sake of it.” (Duncan Riley, “Comment Trolling Has A Psychological Explanation” on TechCrunch).

Certain posts tend to bring out the trolls, especially any post slamming Apple, so it seems. Rob Hyndman went through this experience recently when he blogged about the difficulties he had upgrading to MacOS Leopard (an upgrade that’s gaining some notoriety).

My favourite comments from the Comment Trolls:

• “So what you are saying is you didn’t understand the install proccess, and then finally did an archive and install and yet didn’t understand how that worked either? Why would you be using some idiotic, 3rd party password file when Apple builds this functionality into both Tiger and Leopard? What other obscure software have you installed? My 12 year old understands this stuff far better than you do.”
• “I sure hope no-one ever follows your advice.”
• “wow rob, you are a dummy.”
• “buddy, you deserve a typewriter for being such a retard. along many here who added likewise zero computer knowledge.”

Comments like these add nothing to the conversation, and, for a novice blogger (which Rob certainly is not), can be quite difficult to manage. Andy Wibbels writes: “A big fear among newbie bloggers is how to handle things when a rogue commenter starts using your blog’s comments as their own private graffiti board - especially if they start hurling abusive language at you or other commenters.”

So, what can you do when a rogue commenter shows up? Here are 8 strategies:

1. Ignore it. If the post is getting a lot of comments, often the commenting community will chastise the troll. It may not stop the troll, but it may add a new dimension to the conversation. However, if this is not the tone you want to set for your community, you need to take action.
2. Step into a flame war. If a member of your commenting community (regular or casual) gets into a flame war with a troll, step in and tell them you won’t stand for this kind of discussion, and block them if necessary. This is your blog and unless you encourage this kind of aggression, it will poison the community.
3. Delete the comments. This won’t stop the comments coming, but it will remove the offensive material from the site.
4. Block the troll’s IP address. There are tools on the administration side where you can block the address from where a troll is coming. Persistent trolls can switch IP addresses, but they’d have to be pretty dedicated. Check the help forums for your blog tools to find out how to do this.
5. Moderate your comments. Moderating comments doesn’t allow for spontaneous conversation, but you can preview comments before they are posted. Be sure to moderate new comments promptly.
6. Use a comment spam filter. Spam filters can catch comments based on language (usually a list of offensive words); this can prevent some of the more offensive comments from being posted. Try the Akismet plug-in; it’s been good for me.
7. Review what you write. Some types of blogs seem to bring out the trolls. If you want to bring out the Comment Trolls, try slamming a Mac product. This will bring out the evangelists.
8. Don’t fight them. The Comment Trolls aren’t looking for debate or discussion. Responding to the comments will invite further flaming - any response is often what they are looking for. Ignore them, and hopefully they will go away.

Blogging is about putting your ideas out to the public. Everyone has different ideas, and you must expect some controversy once in a while. The majority of comments are usually well-reasoned and extend the conversation, but the trolls can sour the experience. Just remember, it’s about them, not about you.

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