Today I learnt that when you establish an online presence and people begin to notice you, you also attract a number of critics, even personal attacks. Today, one of the readers on a page I manage went to my personal Facebook page and criticised me quite heavily for something that he thinks I didn't do. I had several options:
1. Delete his messages
2. Ignore him
3. State my case
4. Fight back
I'd like to think that I chose with wisdom by stating my case, but even now, I'm still not sure. My friend Gaynor, who also manages a Facebook group, says she deleted the critic's post when she had to deal with a similar situation. But I felt that deleting his message would be like closing the barn after the horse escaped, because who knows how many people read his post before I saw it? Also, deleting the message made me feel like a victim and for me, I didn't like the feeling.
What do you think? How would you/do you deal with personal attacks?
Update: Today, I also learnt the value of a heart-felt apology. The critic above wrote me directly to say that he is sorry, acknowledged that his behaviour was rude and uncalled for. It made me feel better about the situation, so I'm going to delete his message.
3 comments:
It depends. So far the only comments I've deleted are ones that are clearly spam: home loans and credit card nonsense.
I tend to lean towards leaving them up. And if replying, trying to stay classy about it (so much easier to do in theory). Really, if you keep your head, they are the ones who look ridiculous.
If somebody repeatedly started posting comments that are unproductive: "You f--- b--- you are nothing but a wh---..." the delete key might best.
Personal attacks I delete!
If you want to disagree with me thats fine. Argue with me constructively. Do not attack me!
The second people cross over to that I delete!
I haven't encoutered this yet, but I think I would leave it up because it only reflects badly on the person who wrote it. And argument has no call for personal attacks, that is fallacial and incorrect arguing and weak too.
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