[dacilselig]

Perhaps it's just me (and the irony of me saying this will be obvious after reading this post) but if you are writing blogs, isn't it obvious that eventually you will get negative feedback and in some cases verbal harassment? My perspective on such things is that say you have 1000 followers of your blog and you write on a topic. Odds are that out of the 1000, 75% of them will likely not give any feedback, 10% will give positive, 8% will give negative and then there's the 2% that may verbally harass you because they are offended. Does this mean that they are bad people for doing something like that? Well I guess it's up to you to decide whether they are.

However, try to remember that there are people out there who were not taught or never picked up on the idea that you should be courteous when talking to over individuals. Maybe they were never taught it, taught the opposite, or have difficulty in controlling their anger. They can also believe so strongly in something to the point of doing something unethical. The point is not to take things personally when people attack you directly versus your ideas. Instead why not ask them why they felt it was necessary to talk in that fashion?

Apologizing for offending them can also help in alleviating any direct attacks as it makes them aware of how they are acting. A little social engineering is a good thing to know. Don't just run away from it. There are so many better ways of going about it.