This little Viking may be cute, but he does come armed. Social misfits do too and they're ready to slice and dice your site!

At some point in your long tenure as a blogger, you’ll come across a handful of people who really want to do you some harm. No, they aren’t people you’re likely to meet in some dark alley nor will you cross paths with them at a convention. Lucky for you, your only dealings with this person will be online where they can sling their barbs, argue with other commentators or undermine your work from a distance – such as on their own site.

I call these people social misfits although the common term used is trolls.

Most people who invade your blog are spammers who are looking to leave links to their porn, pharma or game site. Others are a bit more sophisticated and actually leave behind an on-topic message, but their screen name “Big Pharma” or “Hot Chiczz” demonstrates that they are still trying to entice your readers to leave your site for theirs.

Dispensing Linky Love

I have no problem with passing along a link to someone who offers a solid comment and uses their real name. I assume that these folks are legitimate in what they are selling or advocating, so I usually leave them alone. How someone enters or leaves my site is their business, yet I may extinguish a link if I find something is amiss.

What I don’t appreciate is when people stop by with the sole purpose of trashing my site or undermining my business. I had my share of this back in the day when I managed a niche forum where a small group of jealous, angry and vindictive people established an opposing community in a bid to destroy my work. They didn’t succeed as I took extraordinary measures to shut their site down.

Three “Es” On Handling Trolls

If you have the type of blog where visitors routinely leave comments and subscribe to your RSS feed, you’ll eventually counter resistance from trolls. In most cases, I don’t recommend responding directly to their attacks as doing so will simply embolden them.

Instead, consider doing the following:

• Establish a comment or user’s policy outlining the rules of the game. Include that link within your site’s menu so that it is easy to find. Notify your faithful followers (via a blog article) of your change, supplying a link to the policy page.

• Enforce your policy as you see fit. Admittedly, in my early days of running a forum, I allowed “free speech” to have its way. After all, what’s wrong with advocating a long-held constitutional right? Plenty, actually. You can still get rid of troll comments while allowing this person to say whatever they want. But on their site, not yours. You’re the manager, therefore you’re not only responsible for setting policy, but enforcing it. Besides, your loyal regulars will be pleased as they’re your real supporters, not the trolls.

• Engage as necessary. While responding to social misfits may only embolden them, there are times when someone has a legitimate point, but their delivery is awful. Provided that their intent is reasonable (you’re jury and judge, therefore you get to decide), you could leave the comment in place along with a warning. Delete subsequent comments and ban this person if they follow up with abusive replies.

Be Not Afraid

Some bloggers act as if they are afraid of losing a “valued customer” when weighing whether to silence a critic or not. Differentiate between constructive and destructive criticism by supporting the former while giving no place to the latter.

Ultimately, you’re in charge of your blog, website, forum or other online venture which means you can set and maintain policy as you see fit. You’ve put too much work into your site to allow it to be taken over by those who are bent on trolling for trouble.

Allow them carry out their dark deeds…elsewhere!

See Also — Pitch Me A Perfect Story!

Photo Credit: Samuel Rosa