The pros and cons of joining writer's groups

Pro: You would get helpful criticisms such as getting ideas on how to improve grammar, writing tips, show you what you're missing in your story to make it better, what you could remove in your story to make it better. If you have the opportunity to critique people's submissions, you could do the same, help others improve their works. 

Cons: Some members can be real jerks who dislike your story in general, topic (witches) or just a chapter of your story. 

If someone doesn't like your story, or anything for that matter, you have to have thick skin. I just tell myself, "I can't please everyone" and let the negative comments roll off my back. Don't be discouraged if they're not taking your ideas, it's their story, they can take it or leave it. Ditto when  they give you suggestions. 

What I do is I circle or put a comment on my word doc as to what the person is talking about and who said it. 

For example: In my story, I wrote "She wiped her watery eyes with her knuckle." 
Someone, Ilene asked "Was she crying? If so, mention tears". I circled the comment and put an arrow <--Ilene. 

This is just so if I wanted to, I could go back to the person and say "I like your idea" or if I think it's stupid or choose not to use it, "That's okay. I don't want to use it, even though it would help readers understand why she was doing that."
I hope this makes sense to my readers.