Advice says reply to every comment. That works at forty comments a month and fails at four hundred, and it fails worst on the day one of them is nasty.
Four kinds, three responses
- A question — answer it. This is the whole job and it is the one most often missed
- Praise — a short thank you, sometimes. Forty identical thank-yous teach people that engaging with you produces a form letter
- Disagreement in good faith — answer once, properly. It is usually the most useful comment on the post
- Abuse — no reply. Hide or block, and move on
On criticism that stings
The reply you write in the first ten minutes is never the one to send. Write it, do not post it, come back after an hour. Almost always the answer shortens to one sentence, and almost always the shorter one is better.
Deleting
Deleting criticism is how a small comment becomes a screenshot. Hiding abuse is different and entirely fine — nobody is owed a platform in your replies.
Decide the policy on a calm day and write it down. In the moment, nobody has good judgement about a comment on their own work.