It is a legitimate response, though I do not intend to change what I did in this case. I am fine with saying nothing, but want to understand what is expected. So do I say anything or just let it go, or say I disagree, or that I agree but I am keeping it regardless? I know this is not a forum and so defence or argument is not encouraged.
What are we meant to do? I can live with a downvote, so it is not about that, though I do not think they did downvote.
90% of the time the criticism isn't as mean-spirited as it might first appear. Tone does not translate well to text, and this site is particular keen on giving answers that seem dry and matter-of-fact but which may come across as stern and disapproving.
In general my policy it to laugh it off. If someone suggests an edit, thank them and incorporate it into your answer. If someone points out your answer is completely off-base, accept any downvotes with good grace. After all, if you're not having fun, why participate at all? There are plenty of other ways to entertain yourself online.
There are (or have been) users whose comments can seem unnecessarily nasty, and those I report to the moderators as appropriate. Part of the moderator's job is to make sure the community works overall, and the poison from one bad apple can easily taint any benefit from their answers and input.
But again: use humor where you can, and keep an eye on the big picture. One individual question or answer isn't very important in the grand scheme. There are always more questions :)
So the tone is pretty matter-of-fact, but the advice isn't bad. Unless you feel your mistake is instructive, I personally would not leave it in there. It's hard to read huge blocks of strike through (stricken through? struck through!) text, so I don't think leaving it there helps. We can see what it was in all the gory detail in the revision history if you just want to mention the mistake.
Here are a few examples from my history where I made mistakes and let the answer live on anyway:
“Hope this help” or “Hope this helps”?
Meaning of “hard society woman”
Isobel,whose brother he was..or…was he
I'm not particularly proud of my mistakes, but I think that they are OK examples of how to handle feedback that is critical. In the first question, I was obviously wrong but instead of just fixing my answer I tried to explain why I was confused. In the second one, someone pointed out that my interpretation might be wrong, and I could understand where they were coming from, but there was only one other answer. I decided not to delete my answer and just salvage as much as I could. In the last question, I honestly thought folks were getting too hung up on the gender of the name and missing the point of the question, so instead of rewriting my answer or ignoring the feedback, I included both views. If I had to do it over again, I might have just changed the name to something masculine.
My point is, how you respond to it depends on what feedback you get, but I think if it's constructive criticism there is always something you could do in response, even if it isn't exactly what someone is recommending you do. You don't have to defend your answer against every comment, but I think it's really good to respond in some way to someone who has taken the time to try to help you get more up-votes (which is how I try to view feedback on my answers).
