I think I need to be more explanatory, since people are taking small statements from me and running off with them (which is kind of ironic, since that was irritating me while writing the story, too...).

People are assuming that it's an exclusive-or situation here: either I was unhappy with the fic OR I was driven off by the assholes. Both can be true at the same time. Although I haven't really been "driven off", since I'm still here. But yes, I've largely given up on the fic, at least for the moment.

Did the assholes in the thread MAKE me do so? No. Did they play a part in it? Yes.

Am I happy with the fic? No. Do I consider the (reasonable, if not always polite) criticisms fair? Yes. Did I give up on the fic because of them? No. Did they play a part? Yes.

If I hadn't made such big mistakes in the story, the howling of the assholes (what a phrase!) wouldn't have made a difference. I would have stuck with it.

Likewise, if I HAD made such mistakes, but I had faith that (more of) the audience would have offered constructive criticism and helped me fix the issue, I would have stuck with it.

Instead, I saw that I'd created a fic with deep flaws, and saw the responses to those flaws, and thought: "Holy crap, I'm going to have to deal with a lot of this..." and lost my motivation. Does that make me thin-skinned? Probably, and I need to work on that. But at the same time, I'm not getting paid to write, and I don't owe anybody anything. Both are true.