Dealing With Blog Criticism
Published July 16, 2010 | 
Regardless of the niche of a blog, all bloggers face the potential for situations in which others do not approve of their blog. Although this type of reaction is popular with blogs focused on political or controversial issues, bloggers who maintain a personal blog may also face disapproval from those who do not approve of the bloggers choices in life or the colorful language they employ. This article will discuss subjects such as dealing with negative comments on a blog, dealing with criticism from friends and family members and will touch upon situations in which blogging can cause legal problems for the blogger.
Dealing with Negative Comments on Your Blog
Negative comments posted on a blog are one of the most common forms of disapproval a blog may receive. These comments may be posted in response to a specific blog posting or may be posted as an objection to the blog in general. These negative comments may be very troubling to the blogger but fortunately there are some methods for dealing with these comments.
Bloggers who are concerned that negative comments may influence other blog readers have a few options for dealing with these negative comments. One way to do this is to set the blog to not allow comments. This will effectively eliminate the comments but it will also eliminate comments from supporters of the blog as well.
Another option a blogger has is to simply delete the negative comments as he finds them. This is not a very effective method because other readers may have time to read the comments before they are deleted. Bloggers who are online often and are not concerned about negative comments appearing on the blog for a short period of time may utilize this method.
With WordPress and most other blogging platforms, you can choose to moderate all comments. Using this method the readers comments will not appear until they have been approved by the blogger.
Another method of dealing with negative comments includes rebutting these comments on the blog. Finally, bloggers often have the opportunity to ban visitors who are leaving negative comments from making future comments.
Dealing with Criticism from Friends and Family Members
Bloggers may also face criticism from friends and family members for the content of their blogs. Friends and family members may not use the comment section to express their disapproval but may express their concerns directly to the blogger in person, via telephone or via email. This can be a difficult situation for bloggers because they may be torn between maintaining the blog according to their vision and keeping their friends and family happy.
In many cases, friends and family members may object to a blog because they believe it can be potentially harmful to the blogger or because they are concerned about how the blog will reflect on them. In these delicate situations the blogger has the option to either delete or modify the blog or to speak to the friends and family members to explain his feelings without making changes to the blog.
Of course, you can always choose to ignore your family. If you do not feel that your ideas and beliefs expressed on your blog are not that far outside the realm of normal, then they will probably come around in time. I can still remember a freelance story that I wrote for a humor magazine twenty or so years ago that had kind of a sexual theme to it and then finding out that my mom had read it and having to deal with her disapproval… My dad thought it was hilarious.
When Blogging can Cause Legal Problems
Bloggers should be aware there are some situations in which their blog can cause legal problems. Making statements about another person which are untrue and defamatory can result in the subject of the blog seeking retribution for libel. Other blog postings can also be found to be illegal for a wide variety of other reasons.
Bloggers may assume freedom of speech laws protect them fully but there may be situations in which the statements in a blog are not protected under freedom of speech laws and the blogger faces legal ramifications for his postings. Blogging which violates the copyright laws of another can also cause legal problems. Plain and simple… Do not publish someone’s content without their permission.
Disapproval can be a bit of a downer, especially when you are just starting out. The key is to not let it bother you. If a little criticism is going to bother you, then you are probably not in the right business. Take the constructive critique and use it to better your site. The disapproval that comes from the haters and those jealous of your success, should just be ignored.
Related Blogs
- How To Set Your Intentions | Personal Development Blog
- “Objection…Relevance?”
- Personal Development Mastery » Blog Archive » Positive thinking on negativity
- Disapproval Ratings | Edith-Marie Roper
- Talking Philosophy | New Blogger
- In thankfulness for my readers and their comments « BetterThanSacrifice.org
- How To Bulldoze Objections Using These Objection Handling Tips | MLM Success Online – "Success with MLM"|"Network Marketing Success Tips"
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Regarding negative comments: yeah, you don’t EVER just want to turn comments off because that obviates the social interaction that is the whole POINT of a blog, not to mention the SEO juice that goes along with that. I personally favor moderation in conjunction with the option for rebuttal or banning.
However, this DOES bring two other things to mind:
1. The possibility of using word filters, if they exist, to screen for
posts containing profanity, individual’s names or personal info, or
other information that one might prefer to keep off of their blog.
2. The possibility of doing an anonymous blog that can’t be traced to
you, but what little info is out there on this seems outdated or
subject to pitfalls. This isn’t *quite* as easy as falling off a
log, but it CAN be done and *might* be a good topic for a future
post (hint hint).
Regarding touchy subject matter, remember the words of Guy Kawasaki:
“If you’re not pissing people off, you’re not doing anything interesting.”
To that I say: it’s YOUR blog, YOUR voice, so do what YOU want – within legal bounds – and to hell with what everyone else thinks!
You *should* derive more comments and higher rankings by doing so.
Regarding your mom’s reaction to that “sexy” piece you wrote, at least you aren’t the poor sap on SavageLove.net whose feminist mother discovered a $6000 RealDoll sitting in his closet. Ohhh, to be a fly on the wall for THAT conversation…. my oh my…. and no word on what his father thought about it. LOL
Anonymous blogging on touchy topics – IF you can pull it off – is an EXCELLENT solution for the issue of friend/family criticism, and regarding legal issues may also shield you to some small extent.
I am stating this to make a point, but I think the following is more trouble that it’s worth and do not advocate doing this: even in blatant cases of libel, slander, or copyright violation – i.e., sheer stupidity in ANY case – the best that one might hope for is simply to have their account shut down, depending on how well-protected and set up you were. If you can’t be found or identified, attempting to prosecute you probably isn’t worth it, but consider yourself warned!
As far as the story for the humor magazine goes, I got paid for it at a time when I really needed the cash (I was in the process of moving a few hundred miles away) and it was funny as hell… My mother just doesn’t have a sense of humor.
… My moving is how she happened to get to read the article, as I had my mail going to my parents house while I was relocating and the magazine sent my check along with a copy of the article there and she just happened to open it… You know… Like mothers do… 
Anonymous blogging isn’t that hard, but at the same time, a pain in the butt. To be anonymous, you’ll need to use proxy servers to route all of your activity through, which (if you have ever used them) can slow your connection speeds to a crawl. I have a 6mb DSL connection and by the time it passes through all of the servers along the way to make the anonymous connection, makes me feel like the old days on a bulletin board with a 9200 baud modem selling sportscards. Yes I have been doing business “online” for that long… I better be careful or everyone is going to think I’m an old geezer… I just started young… LOL
I’ll need to do a bit of research on that subject… Its been a couple of years or more since I tried to do anything anonymously online.
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