Note: Yes, this is a long post. No one's putting a gun to your head and forcing you to read it. Get over it.
You have absolutely no rules about keeping threads on topic or the like. I've little doubt that everyone but me is going to be perfectly willing to drop the subject because you're all terrified of rocking the boat, but that's not really the underlying problem here. The problem is that you're all relying on sheer force of peer pressure to maintain a huge host of unwritten rules. Not only does this have absolutely no effect on anyone with a sense of self-confidence, it also means that the rules change depending on how the forums in general feel at the moment. It's unstable and uncomfortable. Worse, no one can ever show a shred of honesty, because if you do and the group doesn't like what you have to say, one of the unwritten rules becomes "you suck." So everyone tip-toes around and pretends to love anyone else and there's no way to know whether or not they really mean it. As proof of that concept: I like and respect Seth-la, and you know I'm telling the truth because I haven't been shy about saying when I don't like someone. But if just about anyone else on this board said the same thing, there'd be no way to tell whether they were telling the truth. Honestly, would any of you ever say that you don't like someone, even if you really didn't? Even if you don't like them, you don't want to say as much for fear that everyone else will think you're a jerk. So when someone else says they like you, how do you know they aren't lying for the exact same reasons?
What I'm getting at here: If there's a problem, don't just try and pressure other people into doing something else. Talk about it, and agree on a rule that'll stop it from ever happening again. Or you could sweep this all under the rug and pretend that everything is sunshine and rainbows while throwing terrified glances at everyone around you to make sure you aren't breaking the mold. That would certainly be more in character.
