About a month ago I wrote an article titled “5 Ways to Appreciate Readers.” Today I would like to talk about 5 ways to disrespect your readers. By knowing some things that tend to result in your readers being disrespected by you, I think you can focus on making your blog and your communication methods better in ways that result in your readers being appreciated more, or at least not disrespected. Or, if you really want to disrespect your readers, follow the 5 points below!

5 Ways to Disrespect Readers

As before, before I proceed, I would like to thank Ronald for writing some great articles recently which prompted me to come up with this list. I would also like to thank Vivien who, along with Ronald, have so far commented very nicely to my articles and thus have prompted me to write this list of things to avoid when dealing with your readers. Following are 5 ways to disrespect your site readers:

1. Respond to most commentors, but not all

   Many bloggers tend to respond to readers who leave flattering comments. If you ignore a commentor for any reason or if a commentor feels left out of a conversation, you are probably disrespecting the commentor. You can read a bit more on Ronald’s excellent post, “Being Lost in the Conversation?“, which gave me more ideas for this very point.

2. Act moody or serious to some readers while acting friendlier or happier with others

   I notice this trend on blogs where some commentors disagree with a blogger about something. Usually, the blogger, instead of discussing the issue with the commentor, responds to the commentor rudely or in a very serious tone. At the same time and usually for the same post, the same blogger responds in a cheerful and friendly manner to other commentors who agree with the blogger.

3. Take sides when commentors attack each other

   This is a tricky one, and probably requires a book of its own. If two of your commentors are attacking or arguing with each over about something, you may feel inclined to take the side of the person who is your friend, or someone who usually takes your side during arguments. This is a big mistake; try not to take sides unless the commentor you will be arguing against, in order to take another commentor’s side, is completely wrong and deserves a good harsh treatment. Usually, many commentors do not deserve such treatment.

4. Not credit readers who give you ideas for something you do or something write about

   Many prominent bloggers these days keep asking their users ideas for posts. I have noticed many bloggers take the opinions of their readers and use them to write more posts or even use the ideas at seminars to make money, without giving credit to any of the readers. How would you feel if I kept asking you for your opinion every day, while every night I went to seminars and made money from your comments by presenting them to others as my own?

5. Treat commentors with less respect and friendliness when you meet them

   This may sound strange, but I think if you treat a commentor with respect online, you should also treat them with respect when you meet them in person. I know some bloggers who claim to love their commentors, but when they meet them at a seminar or something, they simply try their best to get away, as appreciating people online makes some bloggers money, while appreciating commentors in person only “wastes” time for such bloggers. If you respect someone online, maintain the same respect and courtesy in person so that you can continue developing the relationship with the commentor in person even further. I would myself love to meet many of the commentors and bloggers I know in person and continue the same way of treatment, or even better, that I have maintained throughout my interaction with those people.

In my view and experience, those are 5 important ways to disrespect someone. Respecting someone everyday and doing the above things at the same time may cancel out the positive things you do for someone.

What do you think of this list? Do you have any point I should add here? Please leave a comment below with any comments or suggestions, or leave a link to your blog post where you talk about something similar or something related to this post. I would really appreciate it. Thank you for reading.

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