Oh, you can’t entirely avoid those people, John. My best performing story yet was about dealing with age-related hearing loss. Dozens of people commented with thanks for raising awareness, sharing their own struggles, offering helpful advice. Nevertheless, some jerk chimed in with a negative smack down.

I’ve read several stories lately where writers shared a similar experience to yours. I read their original stories and the comments, and in every case, most comments were neutral, some positive, a few negative, a handful nasty. In each case, the writer, from my perspective, focused on the bad comments but didn’t seem to appreciate the nicer ones. It comes with the territory.

I had a light bulb moment not too long ago. I read an essay where I thought the writer was wrong about almost everything in it. I was inspired to comment along with over 60 others. Every single one of us criticized the writer’s thesis. The piece got thousands of views. Everyone dissed the guy, but he probably made more money on that unpopular opinion than anything. It’s a nice consolation prize, no?