Acting like that is going to get you in trouble one day. People have been killed and have had their lives ruined over emotional break downs. I say that it is better to keep your feelings under control and try to find a civil way of handling things you don't like because I would personally like to report several people on that thread for harassment
You and Chrononaut make a good point, but I'm not acting like harassment is nothing. If anything, it's the opposite. Branding angry backlash towards a terrible handled gameified version of a tragic historic as harassment, when it has not gone beyond a now locked thread (which, again, I'm assuming there have been no malicious PM's or the sort), is arguably discrediting actual harassment. Bullying, abuse, and so forth are very real issues and present very big problems, but this sort of one-off instance of anger towards someone hardly deserves to be considered in the ranks of those kinds of harassment. Judging by how they wrote their final posts on the thread, the OP seemed calm and collected, stubborn that they were in the right but at least sorta understanding. Nothing about that says "I'm horribly affected by the backlash I've recieved", and in fact, you seem to be defending someone who doesn't need it. Additionally, you can't say that they didn't expect there to be at least some negative reaction. Hell, they even said they did themselves. In conclusion, this is (imo) clearly not a risk-inducing event for the OP, assuming they don't have any mental afflictions that could serve as a catalyst for the kind of break-down you mentioned.
Additionally, let's define harassment in this context. According to
Canadian Human Rights Commission:
Harassment occurs when someone:
- makes unwelcome remarks or jokes about your race, religion, sex, age, disability or any other of the 11 grounds of discrimination.
- threatens or intimidates you.
- makes unwelcome physical contact with you, such as touching, patting, pinching or punching, which can also be considered assault.
Obviously there was no physical contact, and looking through the thread there were no mentions of any personal characteristics (sex, age, race, etc.), which rules out personal discrimination. The only one that could really apply is the second one, which also matches with the first definition you get when you google the word. Skimming through the thread, I've seen neither threats nor intimidation. A lot of insults and such (which I don't condone, but I understand), but no threats. No "I'm going to find you and kill you" kind of things. No "I'm going to make your life here hell until you leave the site" (if I missed any, please show me). Just a lot of insults and name-calling. By definition, I believe, it was not harassment. I think a better word would be condemnation.
To close... While I hate to bring personal morals like this into it, I think it's ridiculous you would consider reporting those who responded to the OP rather than the OP itself.