We've talked about types of reviews and the content of the reviews. Now what about when you're on the other side. What happens when someone else is reviewing your story? Whether it is:
Hard to read because there are a million spelling and grammatical errors
Nothing but malicious content
So vague it tells you nothing about whether you need to improve or your on the right track
Bias, either towards you or against you
Claiming the story has something or is missing something that is the story doesn't have or is explained
Just a quote from the story or another source
Giving glowing praise

What is the proper reaction? Should there even be a reaction? Should you respond in the comment section or let that be a space for the readers alone?

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What is the proper reaction? Should there even be a reaction?

Personally:

- if it was just a passing positive comment, I thank them.
- if it was an unsolicited piece of advice/criticism: I consider it, and wait a day. Depending on how deep the comment went, I may only mull over it for five minutes or the whole day, but I will wait anyways until my mind is clear.

If it was short:
If I decide that it was objectively incorrect (i.e. the premise of the argument is wrong), and I feel like it, I'd argue against it. It's no good letting people go around spreading blunt and erroneous opinions and convincing others to actually believe them. More likely than not, though, I'd just thank them, and do nothing else.

If I decide that it was correct, I thank them, and make the relevant changes.

If it was long:
Same thing, except I thank them more profusely.

More accurately, what I won't do is explain bits to them, especially not that "it gets explained later". As a reviewer, author explanations, while innocent, do nothing for me - at best, it's interesting but useless knowledge because my impression's already been made, and at worst, it's a denial of an interpretation that likely took hours to analyze, confirm, and elaborate on. So I'll do any reviewer who put time in for my work the favour: I thank them, and keep my returning dialogue at that.

Should you respond in the comment section or let that be a space for the readers alone?

Nothing wrong with inflating the comment count a bit

4030258 The first step is finding the elements of the review that are worthwhile. If it's nothing but simmering hatred towards your story without reason, then you might as well ignore it. What message can you take away from something like that, after all?

Same goes for glowing praise, but I'd allow myself to feel good about those.

For stuff with genuine criticism (which I hope the review would include) you should definitely take those to heart (with a pinch of salt: there's nothing gained by mindlessly obeying what someone else tells you: you should think about it and come to your own conclusions) and then depending on how it's delivered, thank the guy or ignore him. No sense drawing out a long, hostile confrontation, but if the guy has helped you, why not give him a 'thank you?'

But that last bit is kind of subjective, I'll admit. However, I think the real rule that should always be followed is that whatever you do, be polite.

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Hard to read because there are a million spelling and grammatical errors

The one hard and fast rule for how I take reviews and criticism is that it has to be written at least as well as I write, preferably better (not hard to do, really); otherwise it's probably just uninformed opinion.

Nothing but malicious content

If there's nothing of value, then the comments are best ignored. I have no interest in feeding trolls or in validating someone else's ego trip by responding. But valid criticisms can be expressed maliciously.

So vague it tells you nothing about whether you need to improve or your on the right track

("you're")

Same as for the previous two. If it doesn't tell me anything, there's no reason to bother with it, as it's probably just someone's ego trip. The tone of the criticism does matter here, however. Someone telling me "Rainbow Dash would never do that and you're a bad writer for doing that" without supporting their assertion with actual references and reasoning will probably get ignored. Someone saying "I don't think Rainbow Dash would do that" may get a response asking them why they think that, since there may be a good reason that could be articulated in the context of a discussion.

Bias, either towards you or against you

Again, it depends if there is anything of value in it. If it's just nitpicking by someone who dislikes me for some reason, or otherwise mean-spirited, that doesn't mean that the criticisms are necessarily invalid. If it's not outright malicious, and not a point of personal preference, then I'll generally consider it, and may respond to it depending on the value of the comment and my mood. Accusing the person making the critique of "bias" is too easy a dismissal, and becomes a trap that enables one to dismiss more valid criticism. My goal (which IMO, should be the goal of all writers) is not just to entertain myself, but to entertain others, and to do that, I need to make improving my skills as a writer and storyteller a similarly important goal.

On the other hand, most of these sorts of complaints are not about the writing, but about things they don't like, such as people calling a story bad because it's a RariJack ship*, and AppleDash is their OTP; or the writer pulled in stuff from the comics, and the criticism is about how the comic stories are not canon and shouldn't be used. Those sorts of "criticisms" can be safely ignored. I don't really see the point in responding to them.

Claiming the story has something or is missing something that is the story doesn't have or is explained

I have actually experienced this from one ostensible editor when I posted to one of the editing groups for assistance (a generally pointless exercise, best to go directly to individuals whose work or comments you are familiar with and respect). It's a novella written in epistolary format, which I stated quite clearly in my editing request. The first comment I got was that it was bad because it lacked character dialog. Clearly said person was unclear on the concept of "epistolary", so I simply ignored their comment.

That said, if the person making the criticism seems competent, then it may be that my story doesn't make that particular element sufficiently clear to the target audience, that there might be something that is written badly, too subtly (not every reader is an obsessive genius), or misleadingly. The education and experience level of the target audience needs to be taken into account. Do I want my story to be read and appreciated by everyone? Or do I want it to be read and appreciated only by a select few obsessive geniuses. Am I trying to be JK Rowling, Umberto Eco, or James Joyce? There's nothing inherently wrong with wanting to be any of these, but each one will affect the popularity of the work, and the nature of the comments and criticisms made about the story.

Just a quote from the story or another source

Not really sure what this means. If they're not actually saying anything about the story, then there isn't really anything to respond to.

Giving glowing praise

There's no arguing that glowing praise is nice, everyone likes having their ego stroked; and I'd be lying if I said that didn't appeal to me as well. But ultimately, glowing praise doesn't really tell me anything I didn't already know or suspect; and it doesn't really help me improve as a writer. Further, I tend to find it annoying to have a story praised for the "wrong" thing. For example, if I write a long convoluted philosophical novel exploring the nature of Equestrian society and the balance of forces that make up the harmony of the world, and I get an effusive note that "OMG best RariTwi ship scene ever!", I'm going to think they rather missed the point. Yeah, it's a good scene, and integral to the story and character development, but it's just a detail in a much larger and more complex intrigue, and there are a lot of other ship scenes just as good (or crap, depending on how good a writer I actually am).

*RariJack is objectively OTP.