It is my personal opinion that bloggers need a thick skin. I got a few personal-insult comments since I started the blog. I deleted them permanently and was done.
However, I differentiate between strong words and insult. Insult is if I think that the other person wanted to insult me. Strong words are if they just did not care too much about my feelings.
Strong words are ok. I, too, sometimes use them by accident, because I want to concentrate on the topic and not on foreseeing the others feelings.
Example: If somebody says "Nils focus on immersion in MMOs is soo stupid!", I would not feel offended. It is just his opinion and strong words.
Now, if somebody comments on my blog to mock me, ignoring the topic, I delete his comments.
I also believe in strong moderation to manage comments/forums. Thus, I might delete the above example if it is the whole comment and adds nothing to the discussion.
A strong moderation has nothing to do with "censorship", by the way. People in my country are free to state any opinion they want. They are not free to do it wherever they want. And they are certainly not free to shout loud enough for me to hear them in my house, let alone to post any comments they like on my blog.
I don't think I entirely agree you need a thick skin, or at least not all that thick.
ReplyDeleteYou can delete comments. You can disable anonymous comments. You can probably ban people both by user name and by IP although I haven't figured out to do it and it may require that you own the domain.
So while you are putting yourself out there I don't think it compares with some of the other things I've tried online such as leading a raid guild.
To support my case two of the best WoW bloggers (Larisa and Tobold) are rather thin-skinned.
That is actually a good point, Stabs.
ReplyDeleteLarisa and Tobold are both carebears :)
ReplyDeleteI personally think people in general need thicker skin. People in the west are pampered and "nice" -e.g. they will lie straight to your face with a smile instead of being sincere.
Then they are surprised when they get online and get told what people really think about them
You can always put people on ignore. The only real problem imho are spammers ,not trolls so much
Max,
ReplyDeletewhen I think about "people in the east", that is Asia and 'losing face', I think the problem is much greater ;)
Otherwise I agree that people should first think about why the other said what he said before they judge them.
Most people are no dickheads - really. They are quite rational from their point of view.
Some commenters forget that they are a guest on a blog - they act rudely in someone else's "house" thinking they are entitled to anything, well they are not. as a blogger i don't think it's asked too much that a commenter treats me with the same respect i treat him and if he doesn't, then he sure as hell can fuck off.
ReplyDeletetrolls are not there to discuss content with you or merely leave their opinion: they are there to make you look bad or "win" the argument, no matter what.
I don't give room to such people on our blog and they have no freedom of speech if that equals freedom of insult. a grown-up audience can debate without that.
but it's usually anonymous posters that act like that anyway, or spam you with WoTs as if they were the most important commenter on a topic.