OK, this is a totally unscientific post about trolling on guitar-related websites.  I used the 10 sites that I read most frequently, not the 10 most popular sites.  I did a super small sampling – I looked at the comments for the most popular video on each channel.  If the most popular video had comments off, I went to the next most popular video.  As a result, I have three groups for you – Few Trolls, Trolls Present, and Much Trolling.

Few Trolls:

  • Tim Pierce
  • Wampler Pedals
  • frettedamericana

This doesn’t mean there are no trolls on those sites.  It means that if you go there and read the comments, you will in general not see a ton of trolling.

Trolls Present:

  • Guitar Nerds
  • Rob Chapman
  • Guitar Interactive

You’re likely to see trolling in the comments of these sites.  Remember, don’t feed the trolls!  It only encourages them to keep typing.  Every time you encourage a troll, Jimi Hendrix breaks a string in heaven.

Much Trolling:

  • Dave’s World of Fun Stuff
  • Guitar World
  • Guitarist
  • Premier Guitar

You read a thread, you’ll see trolls.  Lots of trolls.  They ruin the comment sections and make them unreadable.  Trolling is an interesting behavior.  Trolls are unhappy people who personalize everything because they have few or no friends.  Therefore they dislike people who do not agree with them.

Everyone says stupid things in comment sections once in a while.  Giving people a voice on a web page with your content means you run the risk of people coming in and painting swear words on your wall.  Most web content creators seem to feel this is a cost of doing business, that if you don’t allow comments you won’t get as many hits.  Longtime readers of this site know my take – who cares!  The most widely-read blog about Apple is Daring Fireball by John Gruber.  John has never allowed comments.  And he’s the top Apple blogger.  Guess it didn’t hurt his business too much.  Thousands of people read Budget Guitarist each month.  Part of the draw is that there are no trolls here.

So if you hate trolls and negativity, it’s very simple – don’t read comments.  Easy to say.  I still sometimes read them.  I often leave them myself.  The positive side of comments is that they make people feel like they’re part of the process.  But they’re not.  Most of the popular YouTube channels don’t read their own comments, so you’re mostly commenting for other people to read.

What a weird medium the web is.