>Welcome to the Internet. If you do something, chances are someone hates you.
You know, this is really what we have to keep in mind, or at least try to any way. Doesn't stop it from stinging a bit when it happens though. Especially when they are the first kind of comment you receive when you show a project in a public forum.
I usually expect a couple of 'Fuck you. My eye's are bleeding from your coding." style comments anytime I show a project publicly, but there are still times that it catches me off guard.
For instance, not even code related, I once asked on Reddit for a couple of people to help beta test a Skype plugin I was working on. At that time, I had never written a threaded piece of software before, and had no idea how it would perform when a bunch of users were accessing it simultaneously. I wanted a larger test pool than the two or three of my friends who were online at any given time allowed.
So I made my post, and received almost entirely negative feedback from it. To the point that I was completely unprepared for. I got stuff about what a loser I was, and even PMs about how I should just kill myself now for being such a loser, etc, etc.. It seemed like once the first negative comment popped up, the bandwagon effect took over, and suddenly it was an inbox full of hate.
So I sat there in my chair, wondering what the hell just happened, what I did to all of these people people to cause such hostility, and on top of that, I sat there wondering why I even cared what a couple of assholes on the internet said. I didn't want to care, or be that guy who was bothered by "the mean people on the internet," but dammit I was a bothered by the whole thing.