Difficult Readers

I try to keep my blog a positive environment for all readers, but I think this post is necessary because some readers seem to be having problems with their blogs in terms of their own readers from time to time.

There are all different types of audiences that can be tracked through to your blog. That said, I get emails every now an then from readers asking about how to deal with certain types of readers that might be a pain, a troll, a spammer, etc. There are always possibilities for your blog to be targeted by some random person that might disagree with what you say, might not like your style, or just might be against everything you say and cause trouble. This doesn't just happen to small bloggers, it happens to EVERYONE. A-list bloggers run into this issue big time. Many people are jealous or against what some have to say and want to just be a pain and cause annoyance. Personally, I always welcome people who disagree with what I say, to disagree, and I don't mind that, but sometimes people just want to be annoying and keep emailing you or spamming your comment field just because they don't like how you think. In other cases, sometimes two or more readers can have a conflict on your blog, in which case you would want to immediately control the situation.

How can you deal with these type of "readers?"

-Moderate comments - For the time being, you might want to consider moderating your comments just so your other readers are not annoying by the person trying to ruin the experience and usefulness of the comment field.

-Block their emails - If the "reader" is trying to bring you down as a blogger, you don't need to listen to that, so sometimes you may wish to block their emails.

-Ban their IP from your blog - I would consider this being a last resort, but sometimes banning people becomes necessary to keep your blog clean. Like I said, I welcome everyone to my blog, but if the scene gets destroyed by one individual, I would consider banning them.

-Tell them to lay off - Sometimes people want attention. People can be judgmental, rude, or annoying just because they are jealous of you. Just send them an email and ask them if they can stop spamming or being rude on your blog or to you.

-Dealing with readers who have issues- Like I mentioned previously, sometimes readers get in a feud with each other. In this case you might consider deleting comments of direct insults, etc. or even tell both the readers to keep it clean.

Have you ever had problems with readers on your blog?