I'll weigh in with yet another posting supporting the comments in Jay's blog entry on story feedback. I recently got an email where the writer crowed that he gave one of my SOL scribblings a "1."
He said, in part, "Having given my first and only 1 rating, I assume you may wonder why. This is not a rating for the NiS universe. This was my opinion on your..." and he goes on to tell me why he so strongly disagrees with the material I wrote!
Fascinating, irritating, but in a way, rewarding. Why is a "1" rewarding? Well, I chose to look at his comments in a positive way. Apparently my writing engendered such passion in this reader that he felt compelled to react so strongly that he voted the story down and then wrote me about it. Isn't that a writer's dream? To evoke such a strong passion in a reader--positive OR negative--that he has to communicate that passion to the author?
In a way, that's one of the best compliments an author can receive. Knowledge that one of my writings so strongly affected a reader. Pretty cool.