I’ve been there. It’s so easy to say all this when you’re not actually in such a situation. And forum explosions always seem to happen on the weekends, or whenever moderators aren’t around to step in and put out the sparks. *hugs*

I saw what was happening. It was distressing…these are real people, people I respect, people I like, caught in the middle of one of these forum messes. But every time I tried to post anything, I’d consider what I wanted to write and realize, “this is going to add fuel to the fire.” So I wouldn’t post.

But I really felt badly for people in that thread. I feel bad that I wasn’t able to come up with a danged thing to help defuse the mess.

The one consolation I have to offer — although you know this — is that things like that always blow over. You may feel less safe in a community for a while, you may bury yourself in work or readjust priorities… but in time, it’ll be in the past, and people won’t remember it too often.

Sweeping problems under the carpet is no way to run a community.