Agreed. The Internet can be a harsh mistress. "In the news" can also mean "reading 1000's of mean-spirited comments."

Not to comment on this specific case, but I really wish people didn't feel the need to listen to the kind of feedback you get from the general internet. It's such a waste of time and emotional energy.

Listen to the people you respect, ignore the rest. And if you do want to interact with the community, for heaven's sake, don't respond to the assholes. They're just background noise.

That, and perhaps follow Andy Warhol`s advice:

Don't pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in inches.

Don't pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in megabytes. (FTFY)

Yeah that's easy to say and it really should be practiced but we all want and crave validation. The web can be incredibly harsh and ignorant (just take a look at a few of the comments here that got downvoteed to hell, which they deserved by the way) but when you get that validation from total strangers there's nothing like it! It's a rush, it's addictive, and it feels so much better than the hate.

I would say, if anything, you should do your best to filter out the total assholes but not disregard all negative feedback. There's a difference between "I hate x software because I'm a FOSS fanatic and your company sucks and destroys the earth", which is pretty harsh and "fuck you, you're queer" which is just safe to ignore.

Example: Justin Bieber hate. Those people make Internet look like a massive hate machine.

At least Bieber acknowledges that there's people who don't like him.