Some of you have read this:

link

And as you know, I blocked out the users names so as to protect their identities, just in case people over-reacted and started abusing them. That is pretty illogical, considering that they were abusive to me and other Fanpoppers.

But given the continuing conversation in their forum and personal messages that 2 of them have sent me, I think I may have gotten myself in too deep.
One message that I received was very polite, but said that it was just a funny joke. The second message that I got was very apologetic, but still excused the behaviour of the group as a harmless joke and claimed that what they did wasn't that bad. I replied saying that I appreciated the message, but was concerned that the same attitudes were still present. The reponse was that I obviously didn't care what the user thought.

My analysis of my own behaviour in this situation is that I care too much. I really, really love being a part of Fanpop, but this group of people has made me feel as though I am a complete loser for giving a crap about other people.

I have received the advice from a number of you to report them. I have not done this (yet) for 3 reasons:

1) The things that they have said are not horrifically abusive. They are offensive to those of us involved, but their offensiveness was not aimed directly at me or other users; it was done "behind our backs" in a forum (even though forums are public, they clearly didn't want to share their thoughts too publically and were offended that I was "stalking" them in "their" forum).

2) They are good people who got bored and made some mistakes. A couple of them are remorseful (I think). I wanted to give them a chance to see why I thought that they were in the wrong. However, they are eager to plan more "attacks" on other spots once the fuss from this one has died down.

3) I am a little... scared... of the backlash if I do report them and their content gets removed. They did this "prank" with no provokation, so I am concerned about what they would so with provokation. They have a definate gang mentality and I don't want to be bullied by them, and I certainly do not want them bullying my friends, and Fanpop, anymore.

I guess, overall, from their comments about my reaction to their prank, I, at times, feel like maybe I am the one in the wrong. I know that I have lots and LOTS of support from many, many Fanpoppers, but this group still makes me feel like I am being horrible to them, even though I know that I have been fairly mature about the problem.

So, if I were to post the link to the forum in which they were (and still are being) abusive, would you guys check it out to see if I did over-react? Or should I just drop it?

I've just gotten to the point that I just don't know what to do about it all.

UPDATE: As I am writing this, I just got another message from another one of the group telling me that I should not have "snooped" in their forum and that I have misrepresented them in my article and also telling me that I obviously don't care. This message is particularly hurtful, because I really liked and respected this Fanpopper.