6 Tips for “Civilizing” Your Comments Section

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One of the reasons blogs have become so popular is because of their social nature. The ability for people to leave comments and get replies from the author is precisely why blogs won out over static websites. It’s also why everyone from mainstream newspapers to the small corner store uses some form of website that allows comments.  T

While the social angle of a comments section can be great to draw a crowd, there’s the slight problem of the anonymity the internet provides. In other words, people are more than willing to make statements that they never would in real life, but it’s as if the anonymity they have online allows them to spew hatred and vitriolic comments with little regard to how those comments might affect others.

The problem is that when your comments section turns into the staging ground for World War 3, it will have a negative impact on your website, not least of which is people hitting the back button just to get away from the negativity. So, what can we do? Are we stuck dealing with people’s darker sides or can we find a way to all just get along?

1 ) Write a Comment Policy

Having a comment policy is critical because then no one can complain they didn’t know what they could or couldn’t post. Remember, it’s your website and you can decide the rules people have to follow. But make sure to spell everything out in clear, easy-to-understand language.

Now, this will not necessarily be a deterrent, but it can help you when it comes to removing comments.

2 ) Allow Users to Report Posts

This ties in with having a comment policy. If you have a loyal audience, they can be quite adept at policing themselves. And this becomes a lot easier when you have a comment policy in place.

You’ll find that people will be quick to report comments that are nasty for the sake of it. Funnily enough, most people are good human beings. Unfortunately, it’s the trolls that holler the loudest. But you’d be surprised at the power of a loyal community.

3) Reply to People’s Comments

If you want to build a loyal audience, then you need to show them you respect them. And the best way to do that is to respond to people’s comments. Yes, you’ll have to reply to each and every one. And you need to do it quickly – at least within one business day, if not faster.

Engaging in conversations with your readers will help you build powerful relationships with them. Think of it this way. What site would you rather visit? One where your comments are ignored or one where the writer of the article you were reading takes the time to respond to your comment, even if it was just a simple “great article”? You’d visit the latter, wouldn’t you?

By taking this approach, you are building that all important loyalty that will help you keep your comments section civilized. Your loyal audience will make sure it stays that way. After all, they don’t want some troll ruining a site where they feel safe and comfortable in sharing their opinions and where they feel valued.

4) Require Facebook or Google+ Sign-In to Post Comments

The idea is to get people to use their real name to leave comments. Though this doesn’t guarantee they won’t be argumentative for the sake of it, people are less likely to throw out racist, sexist or any other –ist comments if their real names are attached to them.

This approach doesn’t mean you won’t receive negative comments at all – some people don’t mind posting vitriolic remarks even under their own names – but it will certainly reduce their volume.

5) Use Their Pride against Them

Instituting an up- and down- vote system will certainly help. You’d be surprised by how many of these trolls really care about their comments being down-voted. It’s a massive case of pride. Their goal is to provoke a reaction, which they often do, causing flame wars that are beyond ridiculous. However, when they’re comments are down-voted, their pride is seriously injured and they often slink away into the night.

This system also reduces the likelihood of people posting unpleasant comments in general. Remember, the goal isn’t to deter differing opinions. It’s just to make sure people express them in a respectful way.

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6) Human Moderation of Comments

Human moderation is the end-all and be-all of whipping your comments section into shape. Word filters and giving people the ability to report other users’ comments are nowhere near as effective as having someone read each and every comment before posting it. It might take quite a bit of effort and time, but it’s well-worth it, if you want a comments section where your audience feels safe and comfortable discussing their opinions.

However, you need to be careful when moderating comments, especially if you are doing it yourself, as the writer. You don’t want to remove every comment that offers a different opinion than yours or that criticizes your work – if it’s done tastefully, of course. This is why it’s often a good idea to get someone who can be impartial to do the moderating.

If you simply don’t have time or the funds to moderate each and every comment, another option is to allow comments from trusted readers to go through without moderation. If someone has been posting regularly on your site under a certain account and their comments have been respectful, there’s no reason not to allow them to go through without moderation. It’s not as if that person will suddenly turn into a hate-filled bigot.

Careful, though, because moderating the first comment from a new account isn’t as effective, especially if it’s something you publicize. Someone can very well write a respectful comment to get their account through the moderation process, only to turn into a very unpleasant person afterwards.

Unfortunately, the only really effective way to make sure your comments section stays clean and civilized is with human moderation. Of course, there’s always the option of turning comments off completely. Though it will harm your site to a certain degree, the benefits might be greater, especially if your content tends to spark unpleasant debates.

However, as previously stated, the goal isn’t to deter differing opinions or even to stop heated debates, it’s to make sure people do it in a civilized fashion.

Whatever you do, though, don’t feed the fire. If some of these less than pleasant comments make it through, just ignore them or, preferably, delete them. Don’t rise to the bait, because that’s what most of these people want. It’s what makes them feel important.   So, just ignore them and your life will be so much simpler.

In the digital age, a well-done blog can be a launching platform for a lucrative career.  The reality is, engagement is a step along the way, so don’t let a band of internet trolls divert your path with their pseudo-intellectual garbage.  Implement these 6 tips, and hopefully your blog will remain civil, sane, and scalable to boot!

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