How to Handle WordPress Criticism Online

When you put out your thoughts and opinions online, you’re bound to eventually get opposing views in reply. But what do you do when your professional reputation is tied up in those exchanges? In this episode of Press the Issue, Teron Bullock and Allie Nimmons explore how to navigate negative criticism online.

Episode Transcript

Monet Davenport: Welcome to Press the Issue, a podcast from MasterWP, your source for industry insights for WordPress professionals. Get show notes, transcripts, and more information about the show at Masterwp.com/presstheissue.

Monet Davenport: When you put out your thoughts and opinions online, you’re bound to eventually get opposing views and reply. But what do you do when your professional reputation is tied up in those exchanges? In this episode of Press the Issue, Teron Bullock and Allie Nimmons explore how to navigate negative criticism online.

Teron Bullock: Hi, Allie, how are you doing today?

Allie Nimmons: Hi, Teron, I’m good, how are you?

Teron Bullock: I am well. I know today we have a great conversation in hand. We’re going to talk about criticism on social media and how do you respond properly if you respond at all. So I just want to send this question directly to you. We’re going to get started. And so I guess the first question is, how do you respond to social media criticism if you respond at all?

Allie Nimmons: Yeah. It’s complex, right? Because it depends on a lot of factors. I’ve definitely criticized people on social media and I’ve definitely been criticized. And I think that if you are responding to something that is criticism and not an attack or inflammatory, that’s going to change how you’re going to respond. And I think that somebody is really being nasty or mean or cruel or those kinds of things, I tend to try not to even engage at all with those sorts of things because that’s not... I’m not entering into a conversation, I’m going to be entering into a fight. And a fight is not about let’s get to a resolution, a fight is about who’s going to win. And especially on social media, I don’t think that that’s useful. But if it’s criticism where somebody is saying this was not the strongest choice, or why did you do this this way, or whatever the case may be, that is usually more of something I will try to respond to.

Allie Nimmons: And I mean that happened to me literally today. I was posting about the BlackPress Slack group, I said, “This is a group for Brown/Black people.” And someone was like, “You say that this is for Black people, but then you just used Brown in the tweet, well, what’s the deal?” And they criticized my word choices. And my response was like, “Yeah. No, that’s a great question, and thank you for identifying that.” And I went into detail of more of what I meant and we understood each other. And I was embarrassed because I kind of got called out for not using the correct words to describe people, but I could tell they were coming from a good place. So the criticism was easier for me to respond to and clarify what I was talking about.

Allie Nimmons: But that’s not always the case, right? People get really heated and up in arms and then things can get complicated. And so I think that, if you’re responding to criticism and you’re taking it as that, it’s important to understand where is this person coming from. What are they trying to achieve? Are they just trying to understand me better? Are they unhappy with the choice that I’ve made? Are they hurt? Have they directly been affected by something I’ve done? Does this warrant an apology? I think it’s most important to come at it looking at the other person’s perspective first and then saying, okay, well, what did I mean? How can I bridge that gap and find the resolution? And that’s not always possible in a single tweet. Sometimes it’s a thread. Sometimes it has to go into a DM, but it should start with looking at, how is this person feeling and how can I meet them where they’re at.

Teron Bullock: Absolutely. Let’s pull the layer back a little bit. So when you first received the tweet, you said that you have to make the determination between whether this is criticism or if this is something that’s more harsh. How do you first gauge yourself? Because criticism can hurt just as much as something that is more harsh, and how do you take the emotions out of it to be able to determine which one it is?

Allie Nimmons: Yeah. That’s a good question. I mean, a lot of the times, it’s two things, right? To me, at least. It’s word choice and it’s tone. The person I just talked about in that example, their word choice was very neutral. They were asking me a question, right? It wasn’t like, oh great, this idiot doesn’t even know what they’re talking about. Once it starts to being insults and that kind of stuff, that sets it over the top. And then the tone, which can be really hard on social media. But a lot of times when people will come wit...