Dealing with comments 
I write for a few Web sites. And, yes, I do get paid for those articles. Most of those sites allow readers to leave comments. Over the years, I’ve stopped reading and responding to any comments left about my articles.
It’s not that I can’t take criticism; I wouldn’t have survived in this this business if I couldn’t. However, I find that comments tend to fall into two braod categories. The first, outright praise. I’m not against that; it’s nice, but it’s not that important to me. The second, the incredibly negative comments like that insinuate that I don’t know what I’m talking about, that the commenter could have done better, and the “I take issue with …” some minor point or the other. Those kinds of comments aren’t worth the time spent reading them.
A third category of comments, ones which offer constructive criticism or additional information, are harder to come by. Often, people who leave those kinds of comments also email me. And I can respond to them using that platform.
But, most of all, I don’t bother with comments because once I’ve written something I generally don’t go back to it. Why? I’ve got so much else to write and my time is so limited, that I need to move on to the next project or it won’t get done.
How do you deal with comments to online articles? Feel free to leave a comment.
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Comments
I actually find that a lot of my readers will add a personal anecdote and not really comment on the piece. I’m lucky that I get no negative feedback but it’s rare that an article sparks off a discussion. A recent post on my experiences setting and promoting my blog has been the one most people have responded to and what I’ve seen for the first time is the commentors starting to talk to each other about what’s being said which is something I never expected and then I find them writing their own blogs in response.
I follow up with comments as and when they come in. I don’t like to leave things without a response but, as you say, it depends on the type of comment.
I disagree on your second grouping of comments though, I think those are the most important ones to deal with. As a writer I hope to be able to communicate my ideas clearly, if that has failed I’m interested to know why. Similarly I’m happy to admit that I don’t know everything and welcome corrections.