Satisfaction isn’t enough. Like sales, a genuinely loyal reader is one who values something about your blog so highly that he or she stops shopping for better deals. If you have any readers/customers like that, the overwhelming likelihood is that the thing they treasure so highly is the relationship.

‘Loyalty’ implies a relationship. Who must build it? You, the blogger.

How can bloggers become so valuable that their readers turn a deaf ear to competitors? I believe there are three roles that every successful blogger must play.

Orchestrator: This role has to do with leveraging resources and coordinating activities in ways that demonstrate how the blogger’s relationships and his or her company’s resources can provide valuable solutions to the reader. For instance, the blogger might bring in a technical expert to help a reader think through a problem.

Consultant: Like a doctor diagnosing an illness, the blogger asks questions-that effectively uncover the reader’s most important problems. Then the blogger recommends solutions specifically targeted to those concerns.

Relationship Builder: The consultant role is essentially reactive. As a relationship builder, the blogger moves beyond “asking where it hurts.” The blogger takes an active interest in helping the reader improve, becoming a trusted and valued partner in the reader’s life or business. In the relationship-builder role, the blogger serves a universal need that does not go away—the reader’s need to keep getting better at what they do.

Another term for relationship builder is loyalty builder. Relatively few are able to shine in this most advanced role without additional guidance and practice. Those who do become black-belts—masters of loyalty. To their readers and/or their employers, such masters are worth their weight-in-gold.

Well, where were we? There really isn’t much left to say, as we seem to agree on the basics of it; “Deleting comments is a touchy subject because it’s hard for the person in power to remain neutral, however to combat trolls some sort of moderation is needed”..

Interesting notion: while writing this a thought lightbulbed up; I think we might have discovered the conversation that led to that +/- rating system that hides comments based on their rating. That will let the masses decide what is and is not worth a read. It will automagically fight trolls by making it easy for people to burry the comment, and it will still give the author/creator the power to delete a comment, however render that function near obsolete, since it’s more gratifying to see a negative review scorn than forgotten.

Thanks for replying too. Well, I admit that I can’t be 100% objective in determining whether a post is considered trolling or just a comment, but I feel that ultimately it is still my own page and I guess I have the right to moderate whichever comments that I would want in my page, yes, even if it does impinge on freedom of speech. Just my own opinion :)

For me, I’ve a blog that no one visits, so no trouble there, but I do post some videos on youtube. I don’t read all comments but if I do get some that I don’t like I may delete them; it’s to my pleasure to decide which will be deleted – but I have only deleted 2 so far, so I guess I”m still rather tolerant. I think comments like “I don’t like it”, or “it’s really bad” are ok, even if they don’t really come under the definition of really constructive negative comments. “That is the most atrocious cr!p i’ve ever seen!” would be pushing the boundaries.

Some time back I’ve received one that said “you suck, that is really sh~t”. I admitted that I was tempted to delete the comment immediately after seeing that, and upon viewing his other comments in other websites, that go something like “you f#gg##! b****! ****! *****!! **** ** ****! *** *** **** **** *****!!! .. hope you are run over by a bus in traffic.”, I became quite sure he’s a troll, or at best an extremely unpleasant person, so I deleted the comment. Hence, for me, politeness and, more importantly, intent also play a part in whether I should leave a comment or not. But of course, it’s only just my opinion, and I’m mostly wrong. :)

First of all, thank you for responding to my comment, I was beginning to think that those five cleverly crafted, well-worded and somewhat lengthy paragraphs were lost on the Internet.

To the point: I agree with your whole “note the difference between trolling and arguing” theme, however, when it’s left to a person that is emotionally invested and has the power to tilt the playing field by blocking or deleting comments, it’s a bit too easy for it to become biased censuring.

I’m not saying abandon comment-monitoring all together, I’m all for deleting, let’s say, racist comments without an afterthought, however, I do actually believe that deleting a comment that says “this article was shit, you suck!” is, lacking a better word, wrong. Granted, the “you suck” argument isn’t very articulate and would be defined as trolling, however it does comment on the content and, according to me, should not be deleted.

As it has been stated, there is a difference between negative comments like yours, and one that simply says “your post is sh~~, you suck” or somewhere along that line. While you are speaking your mind, the latter is just trying to troll.

I personally would allow negative constructive comments, like yours, but would not hesitate to delete the pointless ones. While I admit that these flaming comments do hurt me, the main reason why I choose to delete them is because I want to discourage trolling. Leaving the comments alone does nothing to stop them from doing what they do.

Secondly, you have to look at the source of traffic to see where the first-time-commenter comes from. Digg, SU and other social media networks generate a lot of traffic, however this traffic doesn’t last more than 2 or 3 pageviews, therefore a lot of people who comment on your blog aren’t familiar with it, and are commenting from a first-read perspective.

Item no. 3: This is just my opinion so feel free to disregard it, but saying “have no mercy! Delete their comment” just because it’s a negative comment is bullshit. Why bother having a comment form at all, if it’s just gonna be biased bullshit pandering to the authors fragile ego? Name it a kiss-ass-board and word-filter every word you don’t like to something you do like, that way you truly will have it your way. Oh, and i don’t believe in asking people for their opinion and censuring them just because it doesn’t match the authors.

I don’t know if this comment is going to be posted, because it can be seen as negative and I am a first-time reader sent from a social networking site and will be viewed upon as an outsider looking to troll, but I thought I might as well write some of this stuff down.

Oh finally, this has nothing to do about content and is kind of a silly thing really, but putting the comment form above the comments might be a good idea. If an article gets a few dozens comments the form gets buried under a heap of text. Just a usability thought.

Make a Fan site for your Troll friend! Troll the Troll. LOL

Just remember it is a game, and do not become abusive, but use irony!

I call it Parody site!

Maybe the Troll will get the hint and move on.

Anyway, wanted to thank you for this blog/article. You have a great way of speaking and just a nice demeanor. Your kindness comes through in your words and you seem like a SANE and decent person.

Thought I would spread a little love and try to get through my day of hatred and noxious, loathing words. Thank you!

He knows where I live. I reported it to the police but because he has not made a physical threat there is not much they can do. I circulated a photo of him in my neighborhood…. A human resources expert that our company brought in seems to think the culprit is passive aggressive and won’t cross the line, will eventually get bored– or get a job — and move on. As long as we don’t respond.

It is wearing on a person to get this kind of consistent barrage of negativity. And for a creative person like myself, it makes me feel constrained- like I can’t express myself. When the HR consultant suggested not blogging for a while, I said that’s like telling me not to breathe. I hate that someone else can affect me that way.

I blocked his IP address from seeing my website. Actually I redirected him to a Job Search page on Yahoo jobs. I couldn’t help poking the tiger a bit.

Given the choice to do it again, I would still block his IP address but refrain from the redirect. He has moved on, but to my Flickr account and to my friends’ blogs.

Also, note that blogger doesn’t track the IP address of the commenter. Wordpress does. Not sure about other content management tools. I actually switched my blog so that I could better document these comments.