Thanks for the insightful comment Matt. I wonder if my post inspired yours about ‘comment etiquette’? ;-)

I think that despite my rant about 'why leaving negative comments on other people's posts is lame' - it will fall on deaf ears (or whatever the equivalent is for reading) if the person reading it is just a bit of an asshole who is used to being mean and untactful. Those types of people will (most likely) continue to criticize other people's work (whether it's design or writing) in a way that's either hurtful or unproductive for the person on the receiving end.

But if my rant manages to get just one person like that to pause and think about their own style of commentary and realize it may require improvement, then the rant will have been worth it :)