Rant: My old boss told me to just "ignore the trolls" on our community page

Back in 2019, my property manager boss at a complex in Austin said to never block or hide comments on our Facebook page, even the nasty ones. He insisted it looked more 'authentic' and would blow over. Well, after 3 months, a few angry posts about laundry room fees turned into a full-blown mob with local news picking it up. The company finally stepped in and made us delete the whole page. Has anyone else been told to just let hateful comments sit there, only for it to backfire?

2 comments

2 Comments

tyler1764d ago

Respectfully, letting people vent can sometimes defuse tension faster than blocking them.

brooke714d ago

I read a study last year that said ignoring trolls actually makes 73% of them more likely to escalate because they feel like they're winning when they don't get blocked. Your situation sounds exactly like that - those laundry room fee complaints probably started small but grew when people saw they could pile on without consequences. A lot of community managers I've talked to swear by a strict "block and hide" policy for repeat offenders, especially if they're being nasty about things like fees or policies. It's wild that your boss thought letting that fester was a good idea - authenticity doesn't mean letting a mob take over your page.