You do! The guy who whines about the personal attacks always is the weakest on the subject. It's better to retaliate than to complain about it. It's basically a subset of victim mentality. You will never hear me actually get offended by being called something. In fact, if I'm not getting insulted or taking flak, it means I must be doing something wrong!
No not at all. That's a very simplistic rule.
A few points.
To point out that somebody has made a personal attack is to simply make a statement of fact . To say that it's a whine is your characterization of it and perhaps a projection. One could just as easily call your complaint about my statement of fact, a whine.
One could say that the need to retaliate to mere verbal insults, which is according to you the only correct course of action, is a sign of being thinned skinned, insecure or being the weakest on the subject.
One could say that the need to initiate personal attack is a sign of being the same.
I have been here over 16 years and I don't post atta boy posts. Instead I challenge posters when I think that they are wrong. As one could guess I have gotten also sorts of responses including many personal attacks.
Responding to those baseless attacks by either ignoring them, retaliating for them or just simply pointing them out are all appropriate responses that can be used depending on the reasonableness of the person making the baseless attacks. The goal is to eliminate the spam which is a waste of time.