Trolls and their Stupid Comments
05/18/08
What is it that makes someone think they can visit a blog, leave a stupid, sarcastic comment, leave no website url, and think that’s gonna ride. It won’t ride here.
I’ve never made a comment policy, or even felt the need to. But lately, I’ve been getting comments from trolls, and that’s why comments automatically go into moderation for someone who’s never commented here before.
Here are a few points that outline what I think is and is not acceptable.
- First of all, I do like to get comments on the blog. I think they add life to a blog, and contribute new ideas and knowledge to the given subject.
- I retain the right to edit or delete any comment.
- Spam will be removed. Hopefully, the tools I have in place will continue to catch the far majority of automated spam, however if any slips through, it will be removed immediately.
- Rude comments, profanity, and comments that are unrelated to the post will be deleted.
- I will edit out links in comments that are unrelated to the post. Links pointing to related content are OK.
- Comments that disagree with something I say, but are written in a respectful and helpful manner are welcome. I’m always open to you teaching me something I don’t know……just don’t be a jerk about it.
That’s it, I doubt this will change anything though, because I’m sure trolls don’t read my posts anyway. They just like to stir up trouble and leave their links.
Well, I guess I’m a newbie to this blogging thing and I don’t know all the ins and outs of it, but it seems to me that all your rules would stand to reason. I can’t imagine how anyone could leave a rude comment or a comment full of profanity and expect it to stay on the blog.
By the way, I like those WordPress themes you’ve got. I don’t think I can use on having a blog on wordpress.com, but if I ever get my own domain, you’ve got some nice looking ones.
This is definitely a pet peeve of mine as well. Not too long ago someone left a comment on one of my posts basically trashing my design skills saying I had no talent whatsoever and shouldn’t be giving tips.
After making those comments they couldn’t even leave their url so I could see how much better their site was. I’m always up for some constructive criticism but if you expect it to get approved on my blog then you need to use some tact with your comments.
Oh well some people just don’t have anything better to do I guess.
I have just logged on to our blog and found 7 comments.
2 coming from a site called HAYDEN which is designed by you.
However the comments were just an excert of the post and then had a link to a similare post on the hayden site..
I don’t know if you are aware that one of your sites or clents are spamming blogs.
@Travis – You’re right, and being a “newbie” has nothing to do with it. Common courtesy and tact should always be used when leaving a comment on another’s blog. Thanks for complimenting the themes. You can’t use them on WordPress.com, but they do have a lot to choose from these days.
@Clarke – Sounds like you get some of the same ones I do
@ Peter – I’ve actually run into this quite a few times. Let me make sure something is understood…
These are NOT clients of mine, nor do I know who these people are. They are simply using one of my free WordPress themes on their spam blog. Unfortunately, there’s nothing I can do about this.
No Problem, Antony,
Just thought you would like to know.
I like your “unwritten” comment policy though – it’s similar to mine.
Trolls have always been around on-line, they are intelligent enough to change with the times in some cases and their spiteful ways move on to blogs and social networking sites after they have been banned by forum/mesage board moderators, I expect.
On youtube some people seem to engage in conversation with these “haters” – I tend to go with the view that “broken windows attract more stones” and require approval by me, even from friends – I mean cesar had friends didn’t he,…and how many knives he he have in his back again!
most friends understand my stance.
People eat other people if they get hungry enough or they feel threatened, a hater/troll falls into that catagory with me, we nicer, folk look like a roast chicken and potatos to them maybe ?
I noticed I’m getting troll comments on my site as well. Linking to my site without any reference or cause. The troll comments came from sites designed by you.
Maybe you should either look into who are using your designs.
@Zara – I agree with most everything you said, and I think most trolls do what they do just to try and get a rise out of you.
@Darrin – I find it interesting that you think I should “look into” who’s using my designs/themes. Your site shows that you have MySpace layouts available. Are you responsible for everyone that uses a MySpace layout from your site? The fact is, when you have something up for FREE download, you don’t really have control over who uses it or for what purpose.
Thank you both for your input.
I wish I could get some of that troll spray! Not just for my blogs but for other situations, too. Let me know when you start marketing it
I think you’re commenting policy is a good one 
It’s good to post it too because a lot of people do not even realize they are doing it.
Anthony,
I just experienced something similar to Peter. One thought is that in your “themes” that you are making available to other is that is says “Theme designed by” or “Theme by” rather than “Design by”, that may clarify some confusion…Just a thought.
Obviously any change you make now will not propagate to those already using your themes, but it would be on all “new” uses of your themes.
On the flipside, one time I went to someone else’s blog and respectfully disagreed with their article. They were amazingly mean when they didn’t get the requisite “hey, that’s great” from my comment. The troll spray should also be for bloggers who only expect awesome comments from everyone who visits their site. For me, I love a little back and forth exchange. Otherwise, my blog is worthless, right?
@Mike – Networker is the only one of my themes that the footer link was worded that way. I didn’t put much thought into that at the time, but looking back, I wish it was worded different.
@Kim – I would have to agree with you. If you can’t handle someone disagreeing with you from time to time, you should close comments on the blog. As stated before, I don’t have a problem with someone disagreeing. I have a problem with someone coming on my site and trying to insult or stir up trouble, though.
Peter Brodie, same case here. i got two comments from a site claiming to be designed by this guy. The funny part is that the whole site was white with absolutely no design on it. But it still retained a link to this blog, which is how I got here.
My guess is, that you guys are getting trackbacks rather than comments……..which simply lets you know they linked to you. It’s a total bummer to me, seeing a theme by me being used in a way it wasn’t intended. I know for a fact that I’m not the only theme author who has had a headache over this issue. Unfortunately, anything freely available gets exploited.
Nice site. Actually I don’t recalled exactly how I found your site. I was googleing something and stumble upon it.
I like the last rule. May I copy it?
Trolls are a nuisance and are responsible for wasting thousands of hours of other peoples time. They infest blogs, forums and social communities with their abuse and negativity.
I applaud your action to prevent them from posting their drivel yo your blog. It’s just a pity we have to inconvenience the real visitors because of these idiots.
John
P.S. Where do I get the troll spray?
I don’t agree with the deleteing comments, I personally feel that if a statment by a commenter is stupid enough, it should be left in all it’s glory for everyone to see. However personal attacks I have little time for, and they will be deleted. (Maybe I half agree)
A little extra that I would include would be that “I reserve the right to nofollow your URL’s at my descretion”
Well, I respect your opinion, but I see no reason to leave these comments on my site to clutter legitimate comments.
your spot on here. I go through and remove tons of comments from our site and blog on a regular basis. My favorites are the ones that are just left by software programs.
Or the people who leave their keyword as their name. There is a plugin that allows you to delink authors – I use that.
I may have to check out that plugin.
Yeah, I seem to get a lot of “software generated” comments. I know these people are just trying to build links, but they need to find a better way.
Its funny how people always want comments on their blog but get mad when they get commented on
Well, Jimmy, I’m really not following your point….? I’ve never had a problem with a legitimate comment. It’s the vulgar and rude comments that seem to only be left to try and start an argument, or the comments full of spam links. For instance, as I approved your comment, I deleted about 8 or 9 that said something like “Nice article, very interesting” and of course they left about 5 links to various sites. Now tell me, how is that responding to the post or adding any thoughts?
Could not agree more; I have considered writing blogs or articles in the past and although I would love the idea that people can contribute to or express their interest in the topic – hell, even constructive criticism I’d be overjoyed with – but I know for certain that anything I write would attract derision and/or abuse. Not for the fact that my opinions are stupid or badly thought out, but just for the fact that people will hide behind the veil of anonymity to publicly bash others without recourse.
I think these people are the biggest plague on the internet (since viruses and spam are easily stamped out, by comparison) and I salute your attempts to rid the world of their mindless jabberings.
You gottta license that Troll Spray stuff, LOL
I’ve found that some will go to all the effort to e-mail their puerile thoughts to me, so I can enjoy them with my morning coffee as well.
Comments are always welcome, but like you said, not all of them. It must be difficult moderating so many of them though.
Man, I commented about Trolls on another blog, and I described them like this;
“They come to places that welcome them in, and then they sh*t on the rug.”
Specifically liberal trolls.
Like your Troll spray . . . I don’t usually have a lot of problems with trolls, they probably figure there’s no reason to bother.
And I agree, the ones that leave a compliment and drop a few links are not adding any value to the page and are a waste of space. I see no reason to leave them there. That’s the only reason to allow comments anyway – to add value to the readers. (At least that’s my opinion.)
Your comment policy sounds perfectly sound to me. I’ve been using Askimet as a spam filter but some still sneak through. Has anyone tried the wordpress “invisible capture” plugin – I’d like to give it a go as I think it’s unfair to punish my readers with a capture form, just because of comment trolls. All the description says is “it just works” – which I don’t trust at all. So any feedback from someone who’s used it would be gratefully received.
Thanks
Dan
I just had to drop by and comment. I was reading a blog about “batch uploads” (or whatever), and the only comment to a useful article was: “Can I use this to get higher results to my site in web search?” (Had to improve the spelling, btw), so I searched for the following sentece, just to know what other people think about this topic:
why do people make stupid or unrelated comments in blog posts?
I’m not that blog-savvy to understand the profit on leaving unrelated comments. As fot the stupid ones I guess, like you do, there’s people with plenty of time on their hands.
Thanks for your comment policy (I hope I do get through, lol), and the troll spray is nice as well.
Hi Len,
This post is old, but still very much applies. I regularly get unrelated comments as well as outright spam. The far majority of comments on blogs that seem completely unrelated are not actually left by a person coming on the blog, reading the article, then commenting. Most are placed by software. There are programs out there that will automate the process of leaving comments on thousands of blogs with the idea of driving traffic to whatever site they are trying to market…..it’s all about links. Getting a link placed on the blog pointing at whatever site they want to add exposure to. Is this effective? It probably is to a point, but it’s very annoying to blog owners.