Do writers enjoy receiving comments?

[LostCause]

Okay, so when I say "critical comments" I guess what I mean is thoughtless ones. Constructive criticism is obviously different (though it can still depend on the tone).

[Shocker]

I think any form of feedback that consists of more than one word can be useful. The best feedback i can wish for if somebody responds to what they liked, or even better what left them cold. Most folks around here are to polite for the second kind of feedback, but it would be the most useful.

[BlouseRipper]

Getting specific feedback helps.  "Nice story" is a boost and it tells me that people enjoyed the works.  The "I wasn't expecting that" is also good.  I'm not a professional writer, I don't even play one on TV.  So if someone says "this section/sentence/idea was a little rough have you thought about wording it this way..." also helps as well.

[Corvid]

Usually. It's always pleasant to hear one's work is receiving positive attention. Negative attention needs to be constructive to be useful. Hearing that someone wants something, or more of something often only tells me about that particular reader's tastes, which is a small sampling (hopefully) of the readership; if I'm writing for that particular person, that's fine, but otherwise it's just that one person's preferences. Telling me that one wished for more details in a particular scene, or that a character was intriguing enough to warrant more backstory, is more likely to be useful. Telling me that they should have been wearing white stockings and biting their lower lip is... Okay, I might include that, I like to make people happy, but eventually one ends up with a laundry list of fetish fuel. Pushing one reader's buttons is nice, but compelling a bunch of people to keep reading is better.