Although I’ve been in the travel writing business for over eight years now, I’m new to BoardingArea as of October 2024. Writing for BoardingArea was, and is, a dream for me. Although I loved my time writing for NerdWallet, BoardingArea gives me the chance to connect directly with readers, write about anything that I want, and reach a broader audience.
That said, one thing that’s been new about writing for BoardingArea is the comments section, which we didn’t have at NerdWallet. While the vast majority of the comments I’ve received have been positive and/or civil, some of the comments I’ve received have been anything but. For example, a few days ago I wrote a pretty innocent blog post called “How getting a dog has changed the way I travel” and was surprised yesterday to see the following comment come through:
I’ve got a thick skin and don’t take myself too seriously, so I laughed when this came through. But I have a number of friends who are in the travel industry (either as bloggers or influencers) who have also been personally attacked either in comments or through direct messages, and I wanted to stand up for them.
I’m not going to go as far as One Mile at a Time and post comment rules and guidelines, but I do applaud his efforts here. I also fully recognize that the people who most need to see this have probably already stopped reading by now; but even if I’m shouting into the wind, I decided it’s worth me at least trying to create a better BoardingArea for us all.
Negative comments are okay
To start, I want to make it clear — it’s okay to post something negative! A few days ago, I published an article about how you can use the $200 airline fee credit on the Amex Business Platinum card to fund your United TravelBank and received a few comments about how I’ve “ruined” this by readers who view this “hack” as a secret that they don’t want Amex to learn about.
I totally appreciate their concerns and allowed all of their comments, and even responded to most (if not all) of them.
I completely understand that I might write articles that other people disagree with and want to comment on, and I’m open to and actually welcome that dialogue. I’m not perfect and may get things wrong and should be called out if I do, and would also love to hear if you have a different perspective.
Personal attacks are not okay
While disagreeing with something I’ve written (or that another travel writer or influencer has said) is one thing, turning the disagreement into a personal attack — like “you’re stupid” or “your dog is ugly” — is not. This also applies to responding to other readers in the comments section.
We can disagree without being disagreeable.
Remember: you never know what the person on the other side of the screen is going through
When the commenter decided to call me “another gay with a stupid ugly ass dog,” I doubt he knew that I had to evacuate my home because of the LA fires and that I’m going through one of the hardest and most stressful experiences of my life. To be honest, I’m not even sure he’d care.
To be clear, even if everything in my life was perfect right now, that type of comment was still not okay — but the fact remains that you really never know what battles someone else is facing. Even if you disagree strongly with someone, you can get your point across without personally attacking them.
Bottom line
I think we’d all benefit from making online discourse more civil. At the end of the day, remember that this site is focused on helping people — all of us writers are trying to keep you updated on travel news, help you save money and pick the right hotels and flights, and share our collective wisdom and experiences to help enhance your travel. Disagreeing with a post is fine, but personal attacks are not.
7 comments
Very sorry to hear about those negative comments Josh, to say the least!! I have been ready your articles and they are very helpful. Your dog experience is also something I am experiencing too. I have two dogs and I have lost 4 dogs and it is extremely difficult loosing one dog! I guess other travelers wait for moderation before post comments and now we know why.
Keep up the great work!!!
I started the mile system 7+ years ago and have now taken 5 international flights in biz (JAL/Delta One/Condor) & first (ANA/JAL). This new hobby is my passion and is the reason I now have biz booked for this June to Portugal (BA a350-900/VS a350-1000).
Thanks so much! And I’m sorry to hear about you losing your pups (they’re family members, and people who don’t have pets sometimes don’t understand that). Sounds like you’ve had some really cool flight experiences already! What has your favorite one been so far, if you had to pick? Portugal will be amazing and I hope you keep at it.
When I was much younger, I had someone in a political realm tell me that “we can disagree without being disagreeable.” I have remembered that statement and attempt to apply it to my life. I’m not always successful, but I know where I need to improve.
I’m not a dog person but your dog looks just fine to me.
On the gay front, I had no idea about your orientation or identity. Nor do I care. The people who fixate on such things tend to have some ponderous questions they should be asking themselves about their sexual leanings rather than lashing out at other people. Jealousy can be an ugly beast.
Regarding negativity as a whole, I’m afraid that’s going to be part and parcel with our country for the next four plus years. When Facebook is killing off fact checking and blocking hate speech that’s a bad sign of things to come but is a pretty blatant harbinger.
Try to keep your chin up and as my Latin teacher in high school once said: Illegitimi non carborundum.
I appreciate that, Christian! To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I ever even wrote about my sexual orientation on here, but I probably have once or twice (I know NerdWallet asked me to write a few posts about Pride events — so I guess whoever made that comment is, at least, an avid reader!). And don’t worry, my head is up. Like I mentioned, I have a thick skin and actually laughed at the comment and feel sad for the person who wrote it — what’s wrong in their life that they would take the time to say something hateful on an innocent blog post? But I decided to write this post after a travel industry colleague shared some truly awful comments she was receiving. It’s unlikely this post will have much effect, but I had to try. I really appreciate your readership and hope to keep putting out content that you enjoy and find helpful!
I agree with Christian.
People can be mean in comments, as there are many crazy people with too much time on their hands. Many are just looking for attention.
I’ve been a daily Boarding Area blog reader for more than 10 years, guessing 15+ and my best advice is to keep on target. If you are a travel blogger, write about travel. We don’t want top 10 Amazon travel products, we don’t want some personal financial rant, we don’t care about your “partner” or sexual orientation (just like you don’t care about mine). Just keep it straightforward, don’t give bad advice for your own financial gain and you will see more long-term success.
You are free to do what you want, it’s your blog but you will get less negative comments if you stay on task. Then again, people like Gary Leff live on traffic they create by posting radical opinions in the travel space. One Mile at a Time has it’s LGBT loyalist.
Appreciate that advice, Dan! I will definitely keep my “eye on the prize.” The one thing I might write about that it sounds like you won’t love is the convergence of personal finance and travel (coming from NerdWallet, it was one of my specialties — like I have an article in the works on basically “How to travel the world while still reaching your financial goals”). But definitely feel free to skip those articles, which will be very few and far between from my articles about travel itself, points, and miles.