How do you deal with hate comments about your product?
As someone who manages social media, I also have to manage what happens in the comments section.
Sometimes it's constructive criticism. Other times it's pure hate.
People often say that once your product starts becoming successful, more people notice it, and some will criticise it simply out of jealousy.
This is my POV on how I handle that:
On social media, we (or I) remove abusive or hateful comments immediately for two reasons:
They can put your account at risk of moderation or platform restrictions.
They create a bandwagon effect – once one person starts insulting your product, others often join in, and one community manager can't keep up.
We encourage constructive criticism to go through our customer support email instead. There, we can properly understand the issue, help the customer, and resolve it internally.
The toughest situation is dealing with negative reviews on platforms you don't fully control, such as G2 or Trustpilot. Those reviews are much harder to manage and have a longer-lasting impact.
In general, we remove non-constructive hate because it often comes from people who are simply looking for attention online. (Probably they are bored on the internet.) 🙂
Constructive criticism is different – we respond, educate, and use it to improve the product.
How does your company handle negative comments and reviews?
Replies
Silence kills products faster than critics do... The trap is treating every angry comment as noise when some of your loudest haters are just frustrated users who'd stay if you fixed one thing.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@aidan_codefox Of course, but we seek constructive feedback and some people are like "It is a sh!it" and so on :D without any proper explanation :D
Dial
@Nika ha, fair point, fake reviews cut both ways. I guess the honest answer is there's no clean fix either direction, just steady real engagement so a handful of bad-faith reviews don't define the picture.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@omri_ben_shoham1 Of course, but it still good to have good comments (which protects your product a bit) :)
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@marcelo_coelho1 I really didn't try to make content from a bad comment (because I do not want to give more attention to those people), but it is maybe worth considering :)
Haven't dealt with much hate yet, still early with FounderFlow, but the review-outnumbering point matches what I've seen elsewhere. The quiet version of this problem is founders not noticing a bad review or a churn signal until it's already snowballed, which is closer to what I'm building for.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@stacywycof83995 I hope that you will not have to face any grumpy people. There are many good ones :)
This is such an important topic, especially for anyone putting their work out into the world for the first time.
As someone who literally just launched their first product today (a free party game on PH), I'm bracing myself for this exact scenario. Here's how I'm planning to handle it:
🛡️ The "24-hour rule" — Never respond to a negative comment in the heat of the moment. If something stings, screenshot it, close the tab, and come back tomorrow. 9 times out of 10, it reads differently after you've slept on it.
🔍 Separate signal from noise — Not all criticism is "hate." I categorize feedback into three buckets:
- Constructive → Act on it (even if it hurts)
- Subjective preference → Acknowledge it, don't change your vision
- Pure toxicity → Mute, block, move on
💬 Respond publicly when appropriate — Sometimes a calm, professional response to a harsh comment actually wins you MORE supporters than the original post. People respect grace under pressure. "Thanks for the feedback, I can see why you'd feel that way. Here's what we're doing about X..."
🧠 Reframe it as proof of traction — If nobody cares enough to criticize, maybe nobody cares at all. Hate comments mean you've reached beyond your echo chamber. That's uncomfortable but it's also growth.
❌ What NOT to do:
- Don't argue in public (take DMs if needed)
- Don't delete unless it's genuinely abusive/harassing
- Don't let one voice drown out 100 positive ones
- Don't take it personally (they're criticizing a product, not YOU)
The hardest part is emotional, not strategic. Building resilience is part of being a founder. Every creator who's made something meaningful has been through this — you're not alone. 💪
Great question to bring up. How have others here navigated this?
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@youliqn Thank you for the summary, I need to say that mostly I am sticking to these rules as well :)
Dial
@busmark_w_nika true, and honestly it's the cheapest insurance there is, a thin cushion of real positive feedback means one bad-faith review doesn't get to set the tone for anyone landing on the page for the first time
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@omri_ben_shoham1 Currently have 3 positive reviews :D that is only the beginning :)
Dial
3 positive already is a solid start, momentum builds faster than it feels like it will at the beginning. good luck with the rest.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@omri_ben_shoham1 That's why I am trying to ask satisfied users for reviewing my solution :D
the test i use: does the comment reference something specific about the product or is it a general vibe attack. specific = criticism, engage even if delivered rudely. general = hate, ignore or remove. 'this feature is broken because X' is a gift no matter the tone. 'this product is stupid' has zero info density and only exists to hurt.
second test: does the commenter still use the product. angry-and-still-using is your most valuable user. angry-and-never-tried is noise.
remove noise, engage the signal. the mistake founders make is removing the criticism because it stung. thats how you lose the signal that would have saved you from a bigger mistake later.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@thenameisarian Honestly, there are (on X) very few constructive comments, mostly, they are hate, so I delete them :D
I’d separate constructive criticism from emotion. “This product is terrible” gives you nothing, while “this failed during onboarding” may be useful even when the tone is unnecessarily aggressive.