How do you handle nasty comments?

I haven't gotten any bad comments yet, but I would probably leave them up, as long as they weren't obscene or extremely offensive. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Quoting sunshine5705:

I haven't gotten any bad comments yet, but I would probably leave them up, as long as they weren't obscene or extremely offensive. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

I'm gonna agree with this. It amazes me that some people have nothing better to do with their time then to be nasty to other people. However, they are entitled to their opinion. I think that if they're just being rude to be rude, people will see through that. Be the better person and ignore it. :)

I haven't been blogging long enough to get comments beyond family and friends. This may come out of the fact that my subject matter has the potential to be controversial: law, politics, crime, Christianity. Except for the occasional tech observation, this is pretty much my focus. I feel that I am occupying a spot that is also occupied by newspaper opinionists and columnists. So I feel I should abide by their rules of a free press. Unless someone is slandering SOMEONE ELSE severely enough that I could be opening me up to slander charges from another party: I feel that to delete a nasty comment is to engage in censorship. Now if I was blogging about my family or personal life or had a craft blog, I would feel that it was just totally out of line to come in and comment that you think my kids are ugly or something. I think more personal blogs probably could and should be more subject to deleting nasty comments. Or blogs that are to support people dealing with some issue like infertility or chronic disease. There is no purpose in letting comments stand like that. Obviously some people might have a valid criticism cloaked in nastiness; so maybe this is just me, but I would look at even a nasty comment to see that if they have a valid point; but just could have phrased it in a better way. Sometimes if you see that and tell the nasty poster that you know, they have a point, but you wish they had put it in a less antagonistic way, you can turn a potential problem into a good part of the discussion. My observation is that when blog hosts try and play armchair psychologist and tell the nasty poster how troubled they are, how pathetic or call them a "troll", they just fan the flames and escalate what might have been defused. Just my two cents anyway. A lot depends on what your blogs' subject matter is.

Liz: come see me online!!!

every once in a great while i get a comment from someone who is really mean.  nasty comments amuse me, but then im irish and i enjoy a good brawl.  :)

 what i do usually is call them out on it, especially if the person left the comment anonymously.  ive been known to devote whole blogs to answering the nasty comment.   the most recent i can recall is someone who objected to the way i talked about my mean old grandmother who died just a couple months ago at the ripe old age of 95.   i never censor nasty comments, however... i allow them to stand so others can enjoy their foolishness.  

I believe in keeping comments up regardless if they're rude or not . Any comment is better than no comments (unless they contain foul language). I don't think people would want to come back if they see that they're not allowed to speak their mind.

Quoting 1vida:

I believe in keeping comments up regardless if they're rude or not . Any comment is better than no comments (unless they contain foul language). I don't think people would want to come back if they see that they're not allowed to speak their mind.

I am totally with you. I have left comments on blogs where it was obvious that any commenters who weren't willing to be "converted" to the bloggers point of view were deleted. I have also seen blogs where it was fine for people who shared the opinions of the blogger to completely rip on a person with dissenting opinions, but if that person said the slightest thing out of line they were mocked, ridiculed and called a troll.

Quoting anniekelleher:

every once in a great while i get a comment from someone who is really mean. nasty comments amuse me, but then im irish and i enjoy a good brawl. :)

what i do usually is call them out on it, especially if the person left the comment anonymously. ive been known to devote whole blogs to answering the nasty comment. the most recent i can recall is someone who objected to the way i talked about my mean old grandmother who died just a couple months ago at the ripe old age of 95. i never censor nasty comments, however... i allow them to stand so others can enjoy their foolishness.

I have done this also!  I have written quite a few blogs based on comments left on previous posts.  My current blogs are too new though, and they don't have much of a following yet, so I don't get a whole lot of comments.

Quoting larakelian:

Quoting 1vida:

I believe in keeping comments up regardless if they're rude or not . Any comment is better than no comments (unless they contain foul language). I don't think people would want to come back if they see that they're not allowed to speak their mind.

I am totally with you. I have left comments on blogs where it was obvious that any commenters who weren't willing to be "converted" to the bloggers point of view were deleted. I have also seen blogs where it was fine for people who shared the opinions of the blogger to completely rip on a person with dissenting opinions, but if that person said the slightest thing out of line they were mocked, ridiculed and called a troll.

Some people just need to take their blinders off...  So unwilling to acknowledge a differing point of view.  :(