#deleting this later i'm done with this dumb discourse

[bixels]

a drawing of miku by a white person wearing a hoodie is not indicative of culture

they think i'm white, chat.

[takaraphoenix]

I just got my first bad comment. Do you have any advice for how to deal with it?

Well, first of all, I'm sorry you have to go through that. I always hate when that happens.

Now, how to deal with it... depends on what type of person you are and what type of comment it is.

Personally, I like to mock the living shit outta them if they are stupid dumb bad comments (you can find them under my Dear Anonymous Shitheads tag!). Because some are just so, so, so stupid in their badness that it's hilarious to me.

I still delete them though. That's an important thing for me, personally, and I'd advise you to do the same. Don't give haters a voice. Your comment section is your space and it is your right to curate it however you want. Don't give them a platform, don't allow them the smugness of feeling like they "got you". Delete them and it's like they were never even there.

It also depends on whether we're talking AO3 or FFNet. FFNet has the wonderful function of blocking users. So if this was a logged in comment, block them! Mark it as spam so it gets removed and block the person. If it was on anon, just delete it. If it's AO3, I'm afraid it's a bit more complicated, because you can't block users on AO3.

Again, it depends on what kind of person you are. Me, I'm a confrontational idiot so I tend to reply to them. If you don't like confrontations or hearing more bad things; just delete their comment. You can do it and it will be gone without a trace! If you engage with them though and later on decide to delete their comments, it'll leave a "scar" - a message telling that the previous comment was deleted. I don't like that because it reminds me that There Was Discourse Here Once.

The most important part is to not let it get to you. Which, I KNOW is easier said than done. But you have to consider that fandom nowadays... thrives from discourse and from being mean to each other. Some people literally just exist in their online presence to be mean to others. That has nothing to do with you. And beyond that fandom mentality, you also have to remember that tastes differ. There will always be someone who will hate the very thing someone else loves. Just because you have haters doesn't mean you don't have anyone who loves your work too!

Try focusing on those who love your work. Especially after I get a bad comment, I like to reread positive comments to remind myself that no, this person is in the minority and it was just their prickish entitlement that made them feel the need to share their negativity in public.

So, that's my best advise I have for you:

1. If the site allows it, block the other person.

2. ONLY engage them if you have the mental space for it!

3. Delete the comment.

4. Try not to let it get to you.

5. Focus on the positive instead!