Everyone gets them, it's nothing to be afraid of. You can't please all the people all the time. Sometimes people are just in a bad mood and need to take it out on someone. They come across your blog or site and find something they're not 100% happy about, so they leave you a negative comment.

It's how you handle the comment that matters. There are several ways you can go about it. None of which are really the best all the time. What you do, or don't do, is up to you but keep in mind that if you go all out and create a screaming match, you may turn off more than just that one person.

"The more you give into it, the more you respond, the more it will continue. No matter how much it kills you not to set matters straight, don't give in. Even if you're right, don't give in." ~debng

To Delete Or Ignore

Unless the comment is inflammatory, offensive or pornographic, I don't recommend deleting the post. People are entitled to their own opinions and just because it doesn't agree with yours doesn't make it wrong. On the other hand, as debng points out, "It's your blog and your community, cater to them, not the trolls." I think what she's trying to say is, if your community feels that negative comments don't belong on your blog, then by all means, delete it.

To Respond Or Ignore

I vote for ignore them. As debng says, "You can't reason with them." Why try to reason with someone who is just out to be hateful and take it out on you. You can't win and you may end up losing. Worse of all, you may end up losing some of your dedicated followers, it's just not worth it. It's like trying to reason with a toddler, you just don't do it. Either ignore it, or delete it.

To Moderate Or Not To Moderate

If you have a busy community then moderating may be a big job that you may not want to undertake alone. If you're getting a lot of negative comments then I suggest that you ask a couple of loyal readers to help you out. Ask them to tell you when they see a post then needs to be deleted. Or you could even give them permission to delete it themselves, if your blog allows this.

Overall, don't worry about it too much. It happens to the best of us.