How to Handle Annoying Forum Members
I want to help you with handling the folks you thought were uncontrollable via your user forums. Now some might say that this doesn’t have much to do with the Web hosting world or the Web hosting industry in general. I beg to differ though! Just about every popular Web host I know has a set of user forums, so knowing how to handle the jerks and trolls is a necessity.
Now I know you know these guys because they are on just about every forum out there. They are not just a decoration on regular message boards, oh no. Web hosting forums have to deal with the folks as well. They cause trouble. They want fights. They create spam. They are a pain the rear. Most people would say, “Why not block them and kick them off?”. Well you could do that - but here are my full list of suggestions on how to handle these folks.
Ditch the Forum Trouble Makers
Yes, it is true you could just block these guys once they start making trouble. This is probably the easiest way of dealing with these people. Unless they just really want to bug you, they will go away after that. Some of them though will try to find ways around your blocks and keep on coming. Also, you have to worry about getting bad feedback on external sources via this guy on other places on the Internet.
Web hosts reputations are very important to them so this might be something to take into consideration.
Give the Trouble Makers Something To Do
Feel like these folks have way too much time on their hands? Well, it could be they are just looking for attention. What is one of the things you could do about or for them? Give them the attention they want. If they continue on and on about a topic - ask them to write you up a few articles on the topic.
Give them something to do and make them feel like they are helping the community. Sometimes this can cure the trouble makers because now they feel like they belong.
Kill Them With Kindness
The worst thing you can do with trouble makers is giving them a reason to come back and argue with you more. A lot of these jerks just post something crazy to get a reaction out of people. After he gets that negative attention, he feeds off it and needs more. One more way of handling your forum trouble makers would be to be extremely nice to them.
Tell them thanks for sharing their opinions. Tell them that you appreciate their point of view. Some folks will have no idea how to handle this. They will either turn around and become a positive member of the forums or they will leave. Both results would be welcomed over the previous results you were getting.
So as you can see there is more than one way to skin a cat and there is more than one way to deal with these jerks that make their homes on all forums you find out there. If one has made his or her way to your Web hosting forums, you now have at least a little help on how to deal with them.
The key thing to remember is that most of these people are just craving attention - so it is up to you on how you deal with feeding their needs.
+ Check Out the Podcast This Was From! Listen to the Web Hosting Show, Episode 91!
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I have a problem with a particular member on a website that I work on as a Moderator.
This particular person is quite stubborn and has a bad attitude a lot of the times and is prone to arguments. Frankly, I don’t like her, but a lot of the popular members are friends with her.
We have done all of the above - given her something to do and “kill them with kindness”. But it doesn’t work and the member has not shaped up.
I was thinking about banning her IP, but noticed that she does use other computers (eg friends computers) to access the website. Thus banning her IP would be quite fruitless. I have thought of banning her email, except that she could just register another email and use that one.
What would you suggest I do?
Well, you might try just being honest with her. Tell here that you feel that she is bringing down the forums with her attitude, and she may be blocked if she doesn’t shape up.
Actually I don’t think that will work as we’ve already given one warning and have told her of the consequences.
I don’t know whether she has a static or dynamic IP but in any case, we don’t want to ban IP’s now. Besides, she goes onto other peoples’ computers to log on, so banning all IP’s in her history would be fruitless.
Any other ideas?
Well, I think you might have to go through the ugly trouble of keeping an eye on them till they get bored with the experience and move on to bug somebody else’s forums.