I guess I’ve been lucky, I don’t get too many harsh, mean, angry comments on my blog. But this week I’ve gotten two, and so it got me to thinking about how blogging might necessitate having a bit of a thick skin.

It probably depends on whether you blog about controversial issues or not. But then again, who would have thought small business web design and related topics were hot buttons. Whenever you put your ideas or thoughts out there, I suppose you risk having someone disagree, or call you stupid and incompetent. Seriously, this happened twice in the past week. Ouch!

The question is, what do you do with these comments? Do you approve them in the spirit of carrying forward the conversation? Do you delete them because they make you angry? When does a comment cross the line and become verbally abusive?

The nice thing about blogging, is that you’re in control. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. If you don’t think a comment adds anything to the conversation you’re trying to have, delete it. But I’d say really challenge yourself to approve everything but the abusive - because blogging is all about getting your opinions out there and starting a conversation.

Now I admit, that sometimes if the commenter is really argumentative - and I’m done fighting, I simply will add a comment after their comment telling them I’m done with this discussion. Or perhaps if someone has insulted me, I’ll simply add a comment after theirs that states that. Being unprofessional and rude rarely helps get your point across, whatever it is. I expect my commenters to be polite, even when they disagree, and if they have crossed the line and are rude, I’ll tell them so.

Since people can post comments anonymously, they can be pretty fearless - and certainly some of my meanest comments were from folks who submitted fake email addresses. Brave folks to be sure.

Remember it’s your blog - so you can always have the last word. Keep the conversation going as much as you can, maybe count to ten before deciding whether to approve or delete a negative comment - but remember, it’s your blog - and you don’t have to approve any comments that cross the line into verbal abuse.

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