Blaming the victim for having feelings is one of the most damaging things that people can do... though it's impossible to tell where to draw the line, what's unreasonable to be upset about and what isn't. My own Internet life got a lot easier, it's sad to say, when I just told myself that everyone I didn't know is very, very stupid by default. (Experience backs this up - I've spent at least ten years on the Internet meeting thousands of people and about twelve of them aren't idiots.)

To let them stop you from creating and releasing things is to let the culture of hideousness win, though. I've never even thought about stopping - you have to concentrate on the good comments, even though getting a single bad comment feels like the most damning and awful thing ever. I really want people to know who I am, as well as what I make.

I think the problem is particularly apparent in communities - like furries and gamers - that attract... people who are sometimes rejected by real-life society for what are occasionally actually really justifiable reasons.