View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
September 3, 2007

Feedback and backchat – how to deal with online comments

By Press Gazette

I’m an ignorant Socialist whose brood is robbing taxpayers of their hard-earned cash. And I write lazy, boring, pointless rubbish.

These are two of the choicer comments that blogging has brought me.

The first was on a guest post on Conservative blogger Ellee Seymour’s website (elleeseymour.com) and the second, The Guardian’s arts blog (blogs.guardian.co.uk/arts).

What fun. I laughed and joined the debate, telling both respondents that, guess what? I didn’t quite agree.

For regular contributor to The Guardian’s Comment is Free (commentisfree.guardian.co.uk), Ellie Levenson, who also lectures in journalism and runs her own consultancy, such barbs are an expected, and partly accepted, irritation. 

She says: ‘If writers worried about this kind of feedback, we’d never write. We should be more worried when there is no response at all.

‘The internet allows people to give instant and often ill-considered responses which can be aggressive and offensive. I operate a ‘don’t engage’ policy, though I’m always interested in considered comments – whether they agree with me or not.”

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

Levenson says that, often, people may not realise how they come across.

‘Tone is notoriously difficult to get on email and I think it’s the same for online comments.”

Unlike Levenson, Shiny Media’s DollyMix (www.dollymix.tv) editor Cate Sevilla admits that she has found offensive comments stressful.

‘I used to take it personally, and feel the need to reiterate my point to the commenters, and defend myself, over and over again,’she says.

‘I’ve since learned to not worry about it so much, and that worrying about some crappy comment is a waste of energy.”

Sevilla differentiates between comments that disagree with her and those that are more personal. ‘If it’s a comment debating my logic or opinions, that’s fine. But most of the negative comments I get are either really positive, or nasty troll comments.”

‘If it’s personal, I tend to just brush it off. If you’re online, a woman, and talking about controversial stuff, it comes with the territory. I’ve been told a few hundred times to ‘go back to my own country’ and that I ‘need to get laid’, so I ignore those.’

But while acknowledging debate as a ‘huge’part of blogging, Sevilla says she controls what she publishes: ‘I know there are some bloggers who turn off commenting, which I respect. However, I just reserve the right to delete, or block the really disrespectful comments and commenters. Debate is wonderful, but there’s a big difference between debate, arguing for the sake of arguing, and general harassment.”

Overall, comments are a welcome part of Sevilla’s blogging experience. ‘Even when it’s negative feedback, or people who I’ve pissed off, it’s best to just take it on the chin and realise that what I’m writing and blogging is getting out there, and that’s what’s important to me,’she says.

For journalism student Dave Lee (www.dave-lee.org), feedback through his blog has helped him ‘tighten’ his writing.

‘I check, double check and triple check for mistakes and inaccuracies,’he says. ‘Getting told behind the scenes by an editor that you’ve made a boo-boo is one thing, but as soon as a comment points out a mistake in full view, integrity is thrown out the window.

‘It’s easy to see what works from the type of feedback you get. I find if I know there is ample opportunity for readers to add comments it makes me consider my audience a little more.”

Linda Jones is a freelance journalist

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network