The Lowlife of the Internet

Dealing with extreme feedback

[Dayo_UK]

Ok, I posted in Foo but it might belong somewhere else.

I operate a number of sites, most try to provide useful information to the visitors - a lot of the sites have feedback forms for follow up questions, comments etc.

Every once in a while the feedback I get is basically swearing, abusive and pointless - sometimes I get upset by this - after all it takes a lot of work to get the websites up and running - and I get demotivated.

So what do people think when they get this type of feedback?

Do you really think - Gosh, my site(s) really are that bad - what is the point in me even trying! or do you just put it down to some people having nothing better to do than being abusive sc*m?

[ritualcoffee]

I laugh because when I personally answer it with helpful solutions, I usually getting a gushing email back thanking me. A number of times people use those forms as a sounding board and don't realize that real people read it and not just an automated response all the time.

I'd say don't take it personally because in most cases it isn't meant that way.

[hannamyluv]

Gee, our customers love to point out how to fix our site, sometimes in not so polite ways. Most of the time I just laugh at them, once in awhile I rant, but only b/c the person is so stupid, like the woman who claimed she had a site that got 100,00 unique visits a day (which qualified her to tell us how bad the site was) and then gave a webtv email address. Umm, sure. 100,000. NOT!

Most people who send feedback like that have no clue how to create a site or they just created a dandy little personal page and wish to spout off to the world their expertise. They are idiots and should be ignored.

Tip: if you really want to piss them off, send them a nice form response. Thank you for your feedback we will forward it to the appropriate party who will consider your suggestions... blah, blah, blah.

[Dayo_UK]

My Feedback forms do tend to be anonymous - I just was really annoyed with the one I got today.

Basically saying what a rubbish* site I had. (Funny thing was the search term that led him to my site got me thinking he probably does not know the first thing about the topic he was interested in!)

Dont know why I get more upset by bad feedback than I get happy about good feedback.

*Swearing Removed

[chadmg]

Just realize that your site effected somebody enough to have them spend time writing you. They actually deemed it important to communicate their feelings towards you. Lots of people are just abusive <snip>, but I just look at it as a person who came to my site stayed long enough to write to me. Who cares what they say? IT may be a 12 year old with nothing better to do.

95% of the people in this world are idiots. Some of them own computers and know how to type decently enough to communicate. Good for them.

[edited by: lawman at 9:47 pm (utc) on Jan. 13, 2004]
[edit reason] Delete "camo" word that otherwise wouldn't make it past the filters [/edit]

[iamlost]

Put the abusive comments in perspective. Think of your site in the WWW as a street corner in a big city and you are asking passersby for directions: some people are helpful, some are rude. In my experience the rude ones are either hormone-high adolescents egging each other on to disaster or grumpy ignoramuses. Treat the replies with the respect they deserve (and don't!).

[AAnnAArchy]

My partner and I share those nasty emails, rant a bit about them and then remind each other how many really nice emails we get. Of course, we also privately rip apart the grammar and spelling of said nasty emails. :)

Luckily, my partner, who has more email patience than I do, answers those emails. She's incredibly nice to those people and invariably gets very very nice emails back from them. Sometimes when you run a site that looks to an outsider like it's run by a big company, they feel more free to abuse you. When you tell them you have 8000 users and you're running the (FREE!) site by yourself basically, they usually back off.

Kill them with kindness. You'll be the bigger person and won't have to sink to their level. And, you can come here and gripe about it to people who understand. Believe me, we *do* understand.

[troels nybo nielsen]

I get very limited negative feedback:

I have been threatened with police once (for website A). There seems to have been no substance in that threat. The threat was signed with two names, one of them not very common, and the name of a town. Most likely this would have been enough to identify those people.

I have been called an idiot and told how digusting the fundamental idea for one of my websites (website A) was. Anonymously. This is the only time that there have been dirty words in a comment.

The fundament of a couple of my websites (websites B and C) was ridiculed and my personal honesty was questioned in an anonymous message.

I once wrote a nice and friendly email to another webmaster. He answered by commenting on one of my websites (website A). His comments might be condensed to one statement: That I am a cheat.

I have used the negative comments as basis for articles. :)

[Reflect]

The genre we are in gets a lot of religious people, which is cool. However we get flamed pretty much each day for the beliefs/content that we have.

I just shake my head.

I actually have someone at where I work who is heavily religious. He feels the need to flame us in conversations but does it jokingly. I bite my tongue every time he asks a web related question and offer help. I feel I am better for it.

Brian

[volatilegx]

What I hate is when the feedback is really a brilliant idea that will add so much more to your site, but it's just too much work and I'm too lazy to do it, and then I have to come up with a resonable-sounding excuse as to why I won't implement their idea :)

[andy_boyd]

I don't get negative feedback very often, just once or twice a day! ;-) But when it does come through it is always nice to turn the situation around and resolve it quickly, that way the customer / visitor goes away happy and tells others to come and visit ... at least I think that's what they do!

[eWhisper]

Due to email being anonymous, people give much more negative feedback than they would via the phone or in person.

I've sent my share of negative feedback, and in the cases when I get a nice letter, actually written by someone at the company, it can often change my opinion.

It's when you don't get any responsse or an autoresponder that one doesn't ever return to that site.

[rcjordan]

>What I hate is when the feedback is really a brilliant idea that will add so much more to your site, but it's just too much work and I'm too lazy to do it

You too, vgx? Except I'm too lazy to answer them.

>and I get demotivated.

Now that is a problem. Put a javascript swear filter on your forms.

[HarryM]

My feedback form has the option to include the sender's email address if they so wish. I have found that the people who send abusive feedback are often so irrationally irate that they get their address wrong as well. Which is unfortunate as I try to reply to all feedback, even the bad stuff. So no chance of pouring oil on troubled waters.

However it's all good fun! I find I can usually learn something even from the abusive feedback - something on my site pulled their chatty ring.

Slightly off topic, but I am considering adding a page to the site where previous feedback can be browsed. The site is an information site, and I think this may encourage more sensible feedback. In effect a sort of up-market visitor's book. The feedback would be added manually, so spamming would be impossible. All names would be omitted.

I intend to add a tick box (default=yes) so the person giving the feedback can prevent its publication if they wish, but am unsure if there would be problems including feedback that was sent prior to the opportunity to prevent its publication. Has anyone tried anything like this?

Harry