Broadly
I understand what you mean, but I think you're overestimating the bias around here, and the degree to which reactions like this are down to Guardian-reading, hairy-armpitted, emo, self-appointed bastions of decency, rather than just normal people reacting to something that they think is unpleasant.

Most revenge stories around here are acts against somone's property or reputation. These are generally seen as funny and deserved and having no real long-term consequences. The food contamination stories generally get at least some responses along the lines of "you sad inadequate little twat" (at least the ones written by people in crappy jobs taking petty, smug revenge on people that they don't like). Stories of intentional physical pain or harm are pretty rare and quite a few people have said that they find them abhorrent, whatever the genders of the people involved, and have said so here; presumably because they happened to real people (rather than just being sick jokes). They know they can't stop other people laughing at them (nor do they probably want to) but that doesn't stop them offering a perfectly valid opinion.

I think that people have a weird ability to laugh at something and recognise it as nasty at the same time, and KMWIP's story was quite funny. People's responses according to this fine balance vary, and they're not obliged to treat every instance the same just because *you* feel that they are the same. Nor are they obliged to scan the boards for every possible act that steps over the line and come down on it like this. The board will survive, sick jokes and all, and just as people don't need to read the board, you certainly don't need to read the comments and KMWIP certainly doesn't need to post the most extreme PM that he received. If he was looking for this kind of response (which is possible) he was going the right way about it.
(flimflam_machine, Wed 1 Oct 2008, 15:20, Reply)