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.
I'll admit that that is partially true, but it sure sounds weird from that perspective. Kind of like "Hey, I'm gonna go beat up on that kid because it'll build character and make him tougher."
Regarding how public ridicule / trolling is common around here, I'd say I've probably been around the Ogre forums so long that I forgot how this forum was like. In the Ogre forums, everyone is almost always very helpful, polite, and with a professional attitude (and ironically, the moderators are far less restrictive than here - they even opened a off-topic forum after a poll showed it was favorable by the community). Anyway, the point is I was defending chwaga for being attacked for no apparent reason, and I became just a little annoyed that I seemed to be the only one, so sorry if I overreacted.