Comments on: Personal advice – Abusive members

By: Mr Data

Mr Data — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:46:56 +0000

“Can you imagine the potential damage to the BBC�s reputation if offensive and abusive messages were posted?”

Yeah like speaking against policies on Global Warming that will take away liberty/freedom for something we have very little history of. OH MY GOSH LIKE BBC WILL COLLAPSE AT A DISAGREEMENT ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING OR BANNING GUNZ!!

Seriously though Moderating comments even on news sites will seriously make people turn away as they don’t want to take the chance of spam being sent to their email box or viruses being sent. :p

Plus BBC is known to be biased and delete comments that disagree with them.

I know of a Google Earth blog where EVERY comment is moderated which is funny/ironic because there are almost ZERO comments to begin with.

The blog has been around several years and I am surprised the blog owner doesn’t realize the lack of comments.

By: Martin Reed - Blog Author

Martin Reed - Blog Author — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 15:58:57 +0000

Eric Martindale – Thanks for your comment. Is there any other course of action you would recommend for this situation, other than what I have already mentioned?

By: Eric Martindale

Eric Martindale — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:45:18 +0000

Great points. I think there’s an essential course of action in dealing with abusive members, and you’ve hit most of the points I’d cover.

By: Martin Reed

Martin Reed — Sat, 26 May 2007 15:34:03 +0000

Hi Ian. Welcome to the blog, and thanks for your comment. I definitely agree that dialogue should always be the first step. You are bang on the money when you say it is easy to forget that each online persona is a real, live human being!

By: Ian

Ian — Sat, 26 May 2007 14:57:55 +0000

Good advice Martin.

I’ve found that when I get abusive comments it’s best to start a dialogue. In my experience abusive commenters like the anonymity the internet affords them. “Speaking” to them makes them realise that there is a person on the other end of their comments.

I like your writing style. Cheers.

By: Martin Reed

Martin Reed — Sat, 26 May 2007 08:05:31 +0000

I think when it comes to newsrooms, all comments do need to be monitored. I know the BBC website often opens stories up to comment, but with all comments moderated.

Can you imagine the potential damage to the BBC’s reputation if offensive and abusive messages were posted?

By: Chicago 2016

Chicago 2016 — Fri, 25 May 2007 23:42:26 +0000

It’s a big issue in newsrooms, too. Should people be monitored and edited? Who knows?

By: Martin Reed

Martin Reed — Fri, 25 May 2007 23:04:41 +0000

Thanks for the link, Daniel. I think this issue is extremely relevant in this day and age as more sites are interacting with their readers.

By: Chicago 2016

Chicago 2016 — Fri, 25 May 2007 22:59:42 +0000

Interesting point. This may be an interesting article for you folks.

By: Martin Reed

Martin Reed — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:41:21 +0000

Good luck with this Biddy – perhaps some other readers will offer further advice by posting a comment.

Let me know how you get on.