Anyone part of a message board?

If anyone as ever been a part of a message board, you know that "drama" will arise at one time or another. It's inevitable. It's open to the public so there are people of different maturity levels, intelligence levels, backgrounds, ideals, opinions, etc.

When drama does happen, I like to see everyone's point of view. I think everyone who has an opinion on the subject has a right to discuss how they feel. If you don't want to be a part of it, fine, don't be a part of it. But if you have feelings, then you should go ahead and describe how you feel.

But what I see happen way too often is this ...

~ the "friends" of the person involved mistakenly thinks their friend is being attacked and rally their support. In reality, their friend may have simply been disagreed with. Then a big division of people happen and it gets out of control. The simple disagreement of opinion has now turned into "if you disagreed, then that means you are against our friend in every possible way!". It's utterly ridiculous. It gets blown out of proportion so easily and no one can take a step back.
example: Someone is really hoping she lands a job that would be really great for her. The company said the candidate who gets the job will be offered within the week, but her interview was 3 weeks ago. Everyday the girl holds out hope the company will call her and tells everyone around her. After awhile, it sucks to see this poor girl hold out hope, so a group of girls try to sit her down and tell her that while it's possible it ~could~ happen, it's probably not going to. It sucks to break her heart, but it's hard to watch that false hope keep expanding day after day. Well - the girl does get her heart broke from the reality check. And the girl's "friends" are pissed that anyone took that hope away! And now her friends are pissed at the girls who told her the truth. Instead of just comforting their friend with "I'm so sorry you didn't get the job", they say things like "I'm sorry those other girls didn't want you to get that job! They suck! We're good and they are bad!". See how it was blown out of proportion? No one didn't want her to get the job, but some did want to let her know that the job was most likely already given to someone else, just to ease the poor girl's suffering.

~ Someone who doesn't have an opinion either way is getting annoyed at the fact it's even being talked about in the first place. But just because they aren't interested in it, doesn't mean other people shouldn't be interested. It's not going to last forever, so just ignore it.
example: GirlX has nothing to do with a discussion and posts something like this: "I wish everyone would just stop talking about subjectX. We're all tired of it and you all need to get over it!". Okay - GirlX just invalidated every single person's feelings who was involved. Maybe it's not important to GirlX, but it could be important to others. What do you do when a news program is running a story about a subject you think is stupid? Do you write in to the news station and tell everyone that they are stupid for being involved? No. You change the channel or turn off the tv.

~ Someone who was part of some drama is now tired of it and tells everyone else it needs to be over. The BEST part is when that person talks shit about it and/or sums up their feelings and THEN says "enough already!". It's hilarious. Look - you are the one who just brought it up again! So do you want to talk about it still or do you want to stop? If you want to stop - then do just that - don't bring it up. I really think this one is the ~hardest~ one for some people to understand.
example: GirlY, who was part of the original drama says something like "If people want to continue to think this about subjectY, then let them be stupid and go ahead and keep thinking it. We're going to keep thinking our own thoughts about it! So STOP TALKING ABOUT IT ALREADY!". Um, not only did you just bring it up, but you also talked shit - and you have to see that people you just talked shit to would want to defend themselves and/out their position. But since you ended it with "stop talking about it already" - if anyone does respond to YOUR shit talking, you'll say "geez, I wanted to stop this already!". Can't GirlY SEE the hypocrisy dripping from her statements? Don't fucking bring something up if you don't want to talk about it. And if you talk shit - you should be ready for someone to respond to it.

I will be the first to admit that I love discussions/debates if it's something I have an opinion on. I will reply to anyone who questions me or brings up something I haven't responded to. I don't expect anyone to change their opinion to what I think - that's the beauty of opinions - we are all allowed to have our OWN! But what I don't do is talk shit to someone who doesn't agree with me. If you don't agree, then I'll at least try to explain why I think the way I do.

I wish public message boards didn't fall into the above categories with their occasional drama. But they will, without fail, each and every time. Ah well. It's what I sign myself up for if I choose to participate, right?