That's the ticket. Thank people for their thoughts. DON'T defend your song. There is no point, and it shows a lack of class.

Sound advice, for the most part.

But there are times when one has to scratch one's head and say aloud "what are you thinking, man?", especially to some people who make an olympic event of picking nits and/or amuse themselves in the practice of "damning with faint praise".

I commented on a song once and totally missed a reference which pretty much explained/justified the writer's intent, and until he brought it to my attention, I would have thought that my evaluation was correct.

I have found that the occasional give-and-take debate also makes for a great learning experience. There's a reason why people are expected to "defend their thesis" - not out of ego, but because it forces them to really test what they think they know/believe and because it makes for interesting learning on both sides (make that on three sides: the giver, the taker, and the stander-by just listening/reading).

JL is right. The best thing one gets from board workshops is the ability to filter out the rare one or two cogent comments, and to learn to trust one's own inclinations for the majority of the time (assuming of course that one has reached a given level of competence).

The trick is staying open enough to mine the occasional gem someone brings up, but staying closed enough to know when a given opinion is eminently ignorable, worthy only for extra callouses upon one's rhino hide.