It's not even the whole failing-publicly-because-you're-a-bnf - my issue (and this is the teacher in me) was that that they both let loose on those people *in their capacity as community mods* and then deleted the evidence. Syne's position as head of DW puts her in the added position of being queen of (this) world, at which point everybody just has to rely on her coming to the realization that lines have been crossed, yadda yadda, and doing the right thing - what if she hadn't?

This online world is *way* more than a hobby for a lot of people, and it's disingenous to say, oh, it's just the internet. You remember how damaged people were by some of those kerfuffles in Buffy fandom - DW is a second home, by design, for its devotees, and that's why I think it's really troubling.

I think she's said the right things, and I hope DW as an organization learns a whacking great lesson from this. Of course people are going to get their feelings hurt; it's how they react that's important and, as business owners, they have an obligation to put things in place to ensure long-term stability so that the emotional/financial investment everyone's made in this is respected.

(Says the person who doesn't have a paid account - or much of an emotional investment - here...)