at this point, you really have no choice but to make the engine, do a very professional job on it, and prove everyone wrong.
Now there's the ticket!
Ridiculing someone is never helpful.
True and False I would say. True as in it's discouraging and can put them off and False because it builds character to ignore popular opinion as in most cases the popular opinion isn't exactly a good opinion.
Take Mr Sibly for example. He gets more ridicule from his own user base than he does from the ENTIRE DB (GameCreators now?) community. Why is that? Yet here he is, making another attempt at greatness (and from the looks of things, he might just pull this one off). But the really funny thing (ironically funny) is that when he releases Product X, he of all people know that there are trolls just waiting to come out of the wood work to stab at his hard work. But he continues to press on because he knows that you never take an opinion expressed on an internet forum seriously for much is lost in textual expression. And those that want to bitch, will bitch, regardless of what you do to appease them.
Me on the other hand, well I've had a couple of bad days this week and was just looking for something to rant about to relieve some stress. But then again perhaps it's my turn in the spot light right? I mean I can be the future BlitzForums Troll! To take after such great names as GFK, ENAY, Cower, Flameduck, Amon (wonder if the sarcasm is still dripping from this paragraph or not).