Facebook’s “General Chat” feature allows users to have public conversations in the comments of posts. While some find it useful, others may want to remove General Chat from their Facebook experience for various reasons. Luckily, Facebook provides options to disable General Chat at both the individual post level and across your entire Facebook account.
Disabling General Chat on a Single Facebook Post
If you only want to remove General Chat from a specific post on your Facebook page or profile, it’s easy to disable the feature for that single post. Here’s how:
- Go to the Facebook post you want to disable General Chat for.
- Click on the three dots in the upper right hand corner of the post.
- Select “Turn off commenting” from the dropdown menu.
This will completely turn off the ability for anyone to comment on that post. While it disables all commenting and not just General Chat, it’s the only option if you want to remove General Chat on a per post basis.
Disabling General Chat for Your Entire Facebook Account
If you want to completely remove the General Chat feature from your Facebook experience, you can disable it at the account level. Doing so will turn off General Chat on all posts and prevent it from appearing anywhere on your Facebook page or profile. Here is how to disable General Chat network-wide:
- Click on the down arrow in the top right corner of any Facebook page.
- Select “Settings & Privacy” from the dropdown menu.
- Click on “Settings” in the left sidebar.
- Select “Community Standards” from the list of settings.
- Under the “Community Standards” section, turn off the toggle next to “Show General Chat on posts”.
Toggling off this setting will persistently disable General Chat everywhere on your Facebook account. You won’t have to turn it off ever again on a per post basis.
Using Facebook’s Moderation Tools
In addition to completely disabling General Chat, Facebook does provide some moderation tools to help control the conversations happening in public comment threads:
- Keyword blocking – You can block certain keywords from being posted in comments on your public posts. This can be useful to filter out offensive language.
- Restricted word lists – Similar to keyword blocking, but you can create lists of words to block instead of adding them one by one.
- Comment review – You can enable a setting where all comments left by people you’re not friends with require your approval before they appear publicly. This gives you a chance to review and delete inappropriate comments.
- Comment filtering – This uses AI to automatically detect and hide offensive comments so you don’t have to review as many manually.
While these don’t eliminate General Chat entirely, they do provide some helpful tools for keeping your comment threads clean. You can access these moderation settings from the same “Community Standards” section of your Facebook Settings where you disable General Chat.
The Pros and Cons of General Chat
Before completely disabling General Chat everywhere, it’s worth considering some of the pros and cons of keeping the feature enabled:
Pros
- Allows for more natural conversations and community building between your followers.
- Gives you real-time feedback and responses on the content you post.
- Increases engagement on your page which can help increase your reach.
Cons
- Opens up your posts to unwanted or offensive comments from strangers.
- Creates more work moderating and cleaning up comment threads.
- Discussion can veer off topic from your original post.
- Too many irrelevant comments may decrease value for your core audience.
As you can see there are decent arguments on both sides. Consider your own social media goals, engagement needs, and capacity to moderate conversations. That will help determine if you should keep or remove General Chat.
Alternatives to General Chat
If you want to keep the benefits of public commenting without the risks of General Chat, here are a few alternatives worth considering:
Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups allow you to have focused discussions in a private setting with only people you approve. You get community conversation with more control. The downside is groups don’t create engagement directly on your Page content.
Live Videos
Live streaming video allows followers to comment in real-time just like General Chat. But you can better moderate the conversation as the broadcaster. Fans also like the interactive nature of live video.
Scheduled Q&A Sessions
You can create special posts where you ask for questions from followers and then dedicate time to answering them live or in a recorded video. This focuses the conversation while still being interactive.
Facebook Events
If your goal is to build local community, creating Facebook Events keeps conversations centered around specific meetups rather than scattering across random posts.
Testing out different interactive formats allows you to provide places for conversation without opening up your entire Page to uncontrolled discussions. See what options work best for your brand and audience.
Managing General Chat as Your Page Grows
For larger brands and public figures, disabling General Chat entirely may not be practical as your audience scales into the millions. In these cases, effective moderation becomes essential. Here are some best practices to manage conversations:
- Establish clear commenting guidelines and post them prominently.
- Proactively block offensive keywords that you see repeatedly abused.
- Add trusted moderators to help filter through comments.
- Enable comment reviews and filtering so inappropriate content is hidden.
- Create a banned words list and update it regularly.
- Respond to helpful or insightful comments to encourage quality discussion.
- Ignore trolls and spam – responding often encourages them.
Even with the best moderation practices, conversations can still go off the rails, especially for public figures. Be prepared to disable General Chat temporarily during controversial events or news cycles if things spiral out of control.
Using Facebook Messenger Instead
For one-on-one conversations with followers, Facebook Messenger can be a better option compared to chaotic public commenting. Responding directly to fan messages shows you care about engaging beyond just broadcasts. Just be sure to set boundaries around response times so you don’t get overwhelmed.
Some social media managers actually prefer Messenger to open comments. It lets them have meaningful dialogues and build relationships with superfans. The privacy of Messenger also avoids the brand risks of public forums.
That said, you’ll miss out on wider audience engagement only communicating via private message. find the right balance based on your goals, resources, and audience size.
Conclusion
Facebook’s General Chat feature provides a public yet uncontrollable space for conversation around your content. For some, it’s an invaluable engagement tool. For others, it invites more headaches than it’s worth. Evaluate your own needs, weigh the pros and cons, and don’t be afraid to test different options.
With the right combination of moderation settings, discussion limits, and alternative formats, you can find the right mix of conversation and control. Focus on fostering the types of interactions that bring you and your audience real value. That is the key to success with or without General Chat enabled.