Good article on a topic that's lightly covered. The issue of how to respond to negative feedback is always a tough one.

I think it depends on the tone of the original feedback. There's a difference between "haters" ("Your dumbass article was a waste of bandwidth.") and authentic rebuttal or disagreement ("Thanks for the article but you're misinformed on several points.")

I'm one to respond in kind. I treat assholes like assholes deserve to be treated and thoughtful respondents thoughtfully.

I never assume that my responses will persuade the commenters to change their position. Rather, I assume the audience for my replies to commenters are others who are reading our exchange. I see my responses to commenters as an opportunity to provide further information, elaborate on points I made in the article, and, yeah, sometimes to correct what I'd written.

As to the assholes...just like a stand-up comedian must expect and be prepared for hecklers, so must a writer expect and be prepared for attacks from nitwits. That doesn't mean responding to name-calling, etc. (necessarily). It does mean being willing to get up in the grill of anyone who engages in gratuitous and low-rent attacks on your work. My responses in those cases range from "You might need to re-read the article given that you've shown you don't understand the points I made," to "Have one of the literate members of your household read the article to you, hopscotch, given that you clearly didn't."

If you put your stuff out there, everyone expects that you're willing to stand up for and stand by it.