In our “About Us” section, we have wanted to take some time to address how we handle negative comments on our social media. We are pretty controversial and many of our posts, articles, videos, etc. draw negative comments from folks who disagree with us, disagree with our movement, or disagree with how we’ve said something.
It’s okay! We love making mistakes and learning from them. In fact, our CEO, Christopher Salute has said publically:
“It’s important that I am corrected in a public manner when I say something I shouldn’t. How else will the rest of the world learn?”
However, trolls and people who spew hatred are not trying to educate in a polite and intelligent way. They are being harmful. So, we decided to ask you what we should to about trolls. Here’s what we found out:
- 76% of you think we shouldn’t respond to trolls
- 62% of you think we should block them
- We received 11 messages in our DMs telling us that they ignore trolls
- We received 4 messages in our DMs telling us that they block trolls
- We received 3 messages in our DMs telling us that they do not ignore trolls, they leave their comments up
- We received 2 messages in our DMs telling us how they respond
Here’s what we have decided:
It is our responsibility to provide a safe environment at Bold Magazine and Bold Media for the plus positive population to thrive. So, we do plan to delete comments and block trolls IF:
- We feel that the comments are extremely detrimental
- Comments are racist, sexist, threatening, etc.
- Comments continue and said trolls harass our community members.
However, there is an opportunity to learn what is being said. So, we are going to really try to leave non-threatening comments up on our feeds. Please understand that we:
- Don’t agree with these comments
- Don’t encourage these comments
- Don’t like trolls
You will see some variations in how we handle comments. We are not trying to be inconsistent. We are simply trying to expose hateful people to the degree that we can before it becomes unsafe. We will try to be consistent in our approach. And, we appreciate you telling us when something makes you uncomfortable. BE BOLD!
