Mindanao Blogging Summit Planning (Session 2)
The second meeting for the organizers of the Mindanao Blogging Summit happened at Karl’s Coffee corner in SM Mall Davao.
Blogie, Dom, Me, Ria, Andrew and Migs
One of the interesting topics touched upon the meeting, that had nothing to do with the Mindanao Blog Summit, was how to handle Negative comments on your blog. Should you be confrontational? Paternalistic? Maniacally defensive?, etc etc.
While skimming through some popular blogs I found a great answer to that dilemma. It was from John Chow’s: Make Money Online With John Chow dot Com Ebook.
The best way to handle a negative comment is to thank the reader for making it then address his concerns. Never flame the reader even if he flames you. That makes you look extremely unprofessional. While you can edit a negative comment for profanity, you should never delete it. A comment is the same as content and content drives traffic. The next time you read a few negative comments on your blog, don’t look at it as a bad thing. Instead, its a sign that your blog is growing and you’re doing something right. If you never get a negative comment on your blog, you’re doing it wrong.
Makes perfect sense. I guess the primary worry of the blog owner is the burning inferno that might ensue when you have an unruly commentor on your blog. Who will basically quarrel with everybody and cause a ruckus. Touching on this, based from what I’ve seen in some popular community forums, its the moderator that’s the primary reason why people get turned off from joining. I’ve seen quite a few popular forums that got razed to the ground when moderators started throwing their weight around. Moderators who don’t realize that its the masses that makes the forum and not them. Same applies with blogging.
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Tags: Negative Comments, John Chow
shucks…i’m trying to remember if I received a negative comment before..i gotta have a negative comment! lol
hey thanks for this quote, marc! i remember we eventually concurred that we shouldn’t delete negative comments, but for all our reasons, john chow summarizes it for us succinctly.
Hi,
Thanks for this. This is a timely post on coping with negative comments. I’m glad gauging from what you quoted that I did the right thing by thanking the blogger for registering her take on my post on “A Chevy among Davao’s taxi cabs.”
But I felt guilty towards the end because I qouted the bloggers tag: “a way to appreciate the beauty of Life” brushing on her unruly and uncalled for comment.
The whole thing, however, reminded me of two things I learned on blogging: that I have to be more careful about what I post; and that I really cannot please everybody.
again, thanks for this.
:)
@verns,
Want me to be the first? *kidding*
@Blogie
No problem Dude!
@Waltzib
You’re welcome! And Thanks for the comment and for dropping by
sure! bring it on…lol
I already have one or two negative comments. I have topics about discrimination in the Philippines, and in my posts i figuratively let the bullies of discrimination face in the mirror to see their own dirt.
Though i did not personally attack the bullies, i still got a negative feedback from a few immature readers.
Surprisingly, i did what John Chow have talked about in responding a negative comment.