Dealing effectively with abuse on a wordpress blog

• 

  calliopeiris · Member · Mar 22, 2010 at 4:24 am

  • Copy link
  • Add topic to favorites

  Hello there,

  In the past few days, I have been the recipient of a completely unprovoked attack on a wordpress blog where I have been posting comments on and off over the years. When I post those comments, I am not logged in- just mentioning it though I don’t think it makes a difference. What are the steps one can take to deal with such issues effectively and with this specific one?

  I want to look into the possibility of legal action because even though I tried to turn the other cheek, this person continued. Now beyond the legal action, what can wordpress do about it?

  Thank you in advance

  Calliope Iris

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

• 

  tellyworth · Staff · Mar 22, 2010 at 4:39 am

  • Copy link

  http://en.wordpress.com/abuse/

  Instead of asking us to suspend such a blog, please consider either responding in the blog’s comments or on your own blog/site to set the record straight, by simply ignoring the issue (blogs that use insults and bad language tend to have low credibility and low traffic in the first place), or by seeking a court order against the blog.

• 

  calliopeiris · Member · Mar 22, 2010 at 4:42 am

  • Copy link

  A court order against the blog? Why against the blog if it is just people on this blog- not the owner- who post the offensive comments?

• 

  calliopeiris · Member · Mar 22, 2010 at 5:00 am

  • Copy link

  Anyway, even if I do seek a court order, I would have to do that through a legal team… right?

• 

  tellyworth · Staff · Mar 22, 2010 at 5:03 am

  • Copy link

  Yes.

  Please try to contact the blog owner and find a way to resolve the problem before resorting to complaints or legal action.

• 

  calliopeiris · Member · Mar 22, 2010 at 5:26 am

  • Copy link

  Tellyworth, the problem is that the blog owner has allowed this abuse to go on for years, it is like he is silently giving the people his full support! Otherwise, he would have deleted the relevant comments.

  And anyway, even if I were to contact the blog owner, how can I do that privately? There is no email address on the blog.

  By the way, is wordpress based in the UK?

• 

  tellyworth · Staff · Mar 22, 2010 at 5:37 am

  • Copy link

  No, California, USA. Please follow the advice here:

  http://en.wordpress.com/abuse/

• 

  raincoaster · Member · Mar 22, 2010 at 7:19 am

  • Copy link

  I generally leave abusive comments up, because I assume that if they matter to the person being abused, they’ll fight back. If they don’t fight back, I assume that’s because they’re taking the high road and just rising above it. The blog owner has no way to know you’re upset if you don’t tell him/her, so do that.