That's the universal human experience. Listen to every marginally famous person and they will tell you that a single negative comment feels like it weighs more than 100 positive ones. Then factor in that people who disagree feel compelled to voice their opinion while those who agree often silently nod to themselves and move on. So the 100 positive comments are likely representative of 500 people who agree but don't say anything.

So far, you seem to be doing well. Don't let a couple of the haters get to you.

Of course, if a pattern appears of many comments criticizing the same thing, then you can think about if there's something you should change about your behavior. But even then, the change should come from your own realization that you want to change something, not from a desire to appeal to the faceless mass of terminally online weirdos.

Yep. That is true for most people.

My guess: survival instinct. It's the haters that will stab you when you're not paying attention. Unless you're famous being hated on the Internet is safe. But our brains are made for surviving in the wild, not the Internet.

I hear the same thing from artists and actors and celebrities in general. They say one bad review can hurt, even if the others are great.

The thing is that there is no way to please everybody, and even beyond that, some people can never be pleased! If you change yourself according to their complaints, they just find new complaints!

The trick is to pay attention only to comments that are trying to engage honestly, in good faith, from an informed perspective.

Which is easy to say and hard to do. I know. How do you know if someone is informed? How do you recognise reasonable-sounding bullshit? How do you recognise a grumpy bastard who is nevertheless saying something you need to hear?

I am surprised to be able to report, as a veteran of many online forums and 46 years of life, that it's possible! If you spend enough time just not responding to the comments that aren't being constructive or helpful, they actually stop being so visible in your mind. You may notice in the moment, but they do not hang around any more because your brain has realised they do not matter.

Sometimes you even recognise the mistake they are making while flaming you, give them a politely informative response, and they realise their mistake and start being civilised. Not very often, but sometimes. 😄

I have this trait irl. It's good to know about it and even better to try to regulate it, because it makes life seem so much worse than it really is. I can see there are people who don't have it this way and who just forget all the bad stuff almost immediately - must be nice.