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Attack of the trolls - managing your online reputation

beevolve.com

11–14 of 14 posts

Re: Attack of the trolls - managing your online reputation

#11

Why is this being upvoted? The entire article boils down to "People say nasty things about your business online. Products like ours help you find when they do that" There's a story to illustrate this, but then -- and this is the kicker -- we never find out who the guy is or what his beef was . If we had, it would have been an acceptable story. But as it is, I can't see what people will get of value from spending thei…

We do have some clues on who he represents but realized that finger-pointing is not going to help. I hope whoever was behind this got the message and stops messing from now onwards.

Yes but you're wasting my time as the reader.

I'm not saying you have to call out folks or be mean to them. I'm saying that if you write a story it should have a plot. A point. Some dramatic tension. A Thesis. Something. This story did not seem to have that.

I'm sure it will work wonders for your purpose -- which I take it to be making sure he got the message -- but as a reader I'm really not very interested in your purpose. Sorry. If it makes you feel any better, people don't give a hoot about the purpose of my stories either -- except as a way to entertain them.

Like I said, the critique was meant in the spirit of friendship. From the large number of votes, it appears some people found real value in your story, but I'm just at a loss to see what it was. That's all.

Re: Attack of the trolls - managing your online reputation

#12
post #9

These aren't "attacks", they're just the exercise of free speech on the internet. No matter what, some people are always going to say bad stuff about you and if you take an adult attitude towards these things then you just have to live with criticism - even if it seems unfair or unpleasant to you.

But what if this 'unfair' criticisms turn away your potential customers from you. If you are running a big company, it probably doesn't affect you that much. But for startups, there is much to lose by losing even a few customers to these 'unfair' criticisms.

Re: Attack of the trolls - managing your online reputation

#13
post #6

Corporate reputation is one thing, private reputations are far more fragile I think and the trolls have lots of tools at their disposal to make your life hell. I'm currently hip-deep in tracking a guy that has been harassing some of the users of my website in ways that defy they imagination (and I thought I'd seen it all), and with every layer of dirt that gets peeled back more is revealed. Really, if someone has it…

> I'm currently hip-deep in tracking a guy that has been harassing some of the users of my website in ways that defy they imagination (and I thought I'd seen it all), and with every layer of dirt that gets peeled back more is revealed.

Care to explain further? You'll help many more people by disclosing what happened (and leaving out personal details).

Please do not limit yourself to a comment and write an article if needed.

Re: Attack of the trolls - managing your online reputation

#14
post #13
post #6

Corporate reputation is one thing, private reputations are far more fragile I think and the trolls have lots of tools at their disposal to make your life hell. I'm currently hip-deep in tracking a guy that has been harassing some of the users of my website in ways that defy they imagination (and I thought I'd seen it all), and with every layer of dirt that gets peeled back more is revealed. Really, if someone has it…

> I'm currently hip-deep in tracking a guy that has been harassing some of the users of my website in ways that defy they imagination (and I thought I'd seen it all), and with every layer of dirt that gets peeled back more is revealed. Care to explain further? You'll help many more people by disclosing what happened (and leaving out personal details). Please do not limit yourself to a comment and write an article if…

I'm working together with law enforcement on this one and I don't think it would help one bit if I gave out any information at this point but I will do a very detailed write-up when it is all over, you can count on it.
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