> Nobody died, after all.
Grief is grief, loss is loss and as we exJWs all know, someone doesn't have to physically die for that grief and loss to be felt. People lash out when they are hurt. This is normal behavior. It is especially normal for people who have suffered abuse. It doesn't feel right to a lot of people, but that does not make the feelings and reactions wrong.
Personally, I feel like the admin are similar in some ways to the GB or to any governing body of a community in terms of being in the spotlight and what they 'deserve' as such. They became the authorities of the group. They took on the responsibilities that came with hosting, owning, and moderating a social community. This put them in the spotlight. It put them in a place where people can look to them for guidance be it technical, emotional, spiritual, etc. It also put them in a place to be judged for their actions, reactions, and choices... especially when those choices affect their community. To then say that they don't deserve to have the light shown on them and their responsibilities brought out into the open to be discussed by the very people they have cut off for their own selfish benefit is naive. I don't feel that the admins deserve to be personally attacked. But I do believe that they deserve to be held accountable for their actions and to take responsibility for whatever fallout they receive. It was within their capability to lessen rather than to increase that fallout. Instead of facing the music that they were bound to face no matter what, they chose to hide their heads in the sand and run away. I personally believer that each and every one of them deserves to hear the pain they have put people through.
If you want balance then you have to take the good with the bad. If you force everyone to behave well, and only well... then no one gets to deal with their problems, the problems fester, and positive outcomes are rare. What you are seeing is the reactions of people who have been harmed, to great and to little extents each according to their individual needs and personalities. It isn't wrong. If it is uncomfortable to you, you might consider doing some self analysis to find out why it makes you uncomfortable to be confronted with people being open and honest about their negative feelings and reactions.
I, personally, feel that those people who are talking out their frustrations, anger, and pain are doing a very healthy thing. I think that any admin from that other site who is reading the reactions or even contributing to the conversation is doing their part in holding themselves accountable for their actions. And yes, they do deserve what they are getting. And I also think it is absolutely right for the former members of that other site to hold those people accountable for a gross negligence in their responsibilities. Damage control is moot once the damage has been done as it has in this case. Damage control after the fact speaks to a persons guilt, regardless of if that guilt is external or internal. The time to do damage control ended the moment they took action without taking any steps to prevent or limit damage being done in the first place. Attempting to spin a positive cast over a heap of hurt is wrong.
If that other site was just a social network like any other, I would feel entirely different. It was a support forum with a focus on recovery. What they did was wrong, and being faced with the consequences of their reprehensible actions is valid and just.
