How to handle tricky comments, trolls and tirades

It’s exciting to create a community where you and your readers connect. . . until the conversation goes south. May I share something with you?

It’s going to happen.

The larger the platform, the more vulnerable you are to trolls, tricky comments and tirades. A troll is a person who has one personality in real life and another online. Their words on social media are far from filtered. In fact, they are designed to instigate a good fight.

Tricky comments are those bigger than you know how to handle. Perhaps it’s a person who latches on. You are offering encouragement and it’s exactly what they want, except you are the focus rather than Jesus. They either need more from you than you can give, or they get angry when you try to help and it’s not what they want you to say.

Tricky comments can be those that mock your faith, mock you or even those you love the most. For example, one blogger recently received a public comment that suggested that she was not suitable to blog because of a mistake her grown child had made.

A tirade? It’s exactly what it suggests. Someone is angry and you (or your ministry) are the target of their very public anger. It may be on your site. It may be on theirs.

In today’s Tuesday Tip, we share 4 ways we can deal with trolls, tricky comments, and tirades.

1. Delete

You may want to defend your statement or your ministry. You feel that if you engage the troller they will come to your way of thinking.

Hit the delete key.

Without reservation or hesitation, let them go. It’s not that your opinion doesn’t matter, but it’s not your job to make every person who disagrees with you see it the way you do. Not only that, a true troll is itching for a fight. Don’t give them the opportunity.

2. Don’t run away

Tricky comments, trolls, and tirades are nothing new. If the hurtful comment makes you want to run away from social media or blogging, think again. Consider the crowds that followed Jesus. Some hung on every word. Others knelt at his feet in adoration. Some had questions and some where there to mock him. There were even people who followed him just to catch him in a mistake.

Why should we expect any different?

Not everyone is going to like what we say. Not everyone is going to fall at our feet (and we don’t want that anyway). Not everyone is going to have the best of intentions in their comments. It’s the privilege of ministry, walking like Jesus did. The crowds led Jesus to prayer, for that is where he filled back up.

Let these lead you in the same direction to refuel for ministry.

3. Don’t miss your assignment

Sometimes you will respond. There will be rare assignments among the tirades, tricky comments, and trolls. Last year I received a private message. A woman was angered because of something she read in my book.

She let me have it. As I read her message, I knew this was an assignment. I prayed and wrote a reply. I let it sit for 24 hours before hitting send. This woman and I corresponded for several weeks.

Her original words were harsh, but they weren’t a personal attack but rather anger over her feelings that God had abandoned her. We still stay in touch. About once a month, she shares how she is doing. She’s growing in her faith exponentially. I love that.

If you feel that tug that says, “This one is for you,” then prayerfully respond. If not, pray for them and move on.