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Comment Etiquette and Moderation – Bad Comments

Unfortunately, you are not able to directly talk with your audience through the computer screen. Art without feedback never evolves and never improves. Businesses without reviews never adapt and struggle to earn regular customers. So how do you get this feedback for your content, with comments of course! Comments are somewhat of a 4 letter word to content creators. Many of them are very scared of what commenters will say to them. However, especially early on, comments are your best friend and are integral to improving as a creator. Comments are integral for building a relationship and repertoire with your audience as well as fielding feedback and taking criticism on what you need to change. However, not all comments are created equally. There are several types of comments that you should not take seriously or respond to. Today I’d like to discuss common types of problematic comments.
The most egregious of which are bullying and hate speech. If a comment is bullying you saying slurs threatening someone or otherwise breaking the terms of service of most platforms there is no reason to not delete it and to take it not seriously as criticism. This is just a hate comment as some refer to it and will not improve your content it will just make you feel uncomfortable unsafe or Unwanted. Very few people, and no viewers worth having, will criticize you for deleting and moderating threats, hate speech, harassment, or leaked personal data.
Another comment you should delete on-sight is Spam. Self-promotion, bots, or suspicious links – whether it seems like it’s from a human or an AI – you should take the need to clear out any kind of Spam scam or shady business practice in your comments very seriously. Your viewers are here for you, not for any other business not for any other creator. Protect your audience. This goes triple for any famous creators who may be impersonated by Spam accounts that use their name and face to lure audiences into scams.
The last type of problematic comment is different because I do not believe you should delete it in many cases. Parasocial comments are a problematic type of comment in which the viewer expresses a desire to be your friend on a personal level, a perception of personal friendship, or a dump of someone’s personal information towards you and the audience as if you are friends having a conversation. Unless the comment makes very personal, embarrassing, or dangerous comments that are making you or the commenter unsafe, these should not necessarily be deleted. Deleting this may upset the commenter, possibly driving them away from your content, as well as making people have the perception that you don’t care about the fans, even though this is a bad kind of comment. You should, however, ignore these comments. Do not pay attention and do not respond to them, especially as if you are their friend or family member. Far too many creators say “I love you” to their fans or other things like that that encourage these parasocial relationships. The best thing to do is to tell them that they don’t know you but you appreciate their support for your content.
If you learned anything in today’s post or enjoyed what you read, please subscribe to my blog and share it with a friend who may find it interesting! Now that you know what to spot in a bad comment, what do you hope to see in GOOD comments? Leave a GOOD comment below letting me know! As always, thanks for reading!
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