Troll Management

If you have a blog, you’ve probably already experienced a troll. If not, here’s my definition of a troll.

A troll is someone who:

a) Has nothing better to do than to read blogs and make negative comments. I think they’re independently wealthy. How else do they find the time to read all of your blog posts and respond critically to each one?

b) Never agrees with anything you have to say ever. They pick apart your words and conjure up inane, unlikely scenarios to ‘prove’ that your expert theories won’t hold water.

In fact, many business vets whom I know won’t start blogs because of this brand of cyber bully.

So, how do you deal with trolls?

Always deal with trolls publically. Never have a private email conversation with them. This can quickly turn into a case of “your word against theirs.”

Be nice. People are watching how you deal with this person through your blog. You might want to get a low-caliber zing (see my reply to Rafael) in but, make sure it’s not too assertive. Never reduce yourself to a troll’s level.

Feel free to ignore them. After you’ve addressed a few of their comments, feel free to totally ignore any of their future comments.

Trolls are like annoying flies, the more you swat at them, the more they nose-dive at your head.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 28th, 2007 at 11:32 am and is filed under Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.