Geeze, I've never seen a forum thread grow or die so quickly. Is this common here?
I feel so long as something isn't harmful to others, anybody should have the freedom to like or do whatever they want without needing to meet abnormal expectations. Unsavory people have nothing to do with fandom, it's too loose of an association. Being a fan does not make you automatically a part of any community, so expectations should be low if any. No harm, no foul basically.
That being said, I'm fairly certain that having certain expectancies of people in general is fairly common in all social structures. Flaming, trolling and spam are more or less universally despised within all web communities. I can also certainly see how people wouldn't want to wade through mountains of morons and garbage just to get to a handful of people and things if anything. It'd be very annoying. What constitutes tastefulness can very subjective thing though varying from individual to individual, so it's a bit hard to say what's what exactly.
As far as the subject of blame assignment goes, I feel that minor transgressions and nonissues should be forgiven. However by no means does simply not intending harm mean none has been caused. I believe people are responsible for their carelessness regardless of intent. If they weren't, ignorance of rules and regulations would be just cause to ignore them and accidents.
In the end it all boils down to what can reasonably expected of people. It's all very touchy and depends upon the exact social structure and circumstance. To simplify manners however, if people lack tactfulness and civility then they can certainly expect to be rejected by others, fandom or not.
Stereotypes are fun for a little playful teasing, but by no means should one seriously judge an individual for their fandom. The fact of the matter is that judging people based upon generalities discounts individuality and free will, which quite simply isn't cool.
As far as manners of likes and dislikes go however, it's more or less simply personal. I'm sure we've all enjoyed some things and griped about others. This isn't a manner of taking things too seriously as it is a manner of preference. If something is disliked by somebody, they naturally think it's stupid. Sometimes this can be applied to what does and doesn't constitute artistic greatness which consequently brings into question the judgment of others. I'm a bit guilty of this myself, though to be fair, I think most people are this way to degrees. Do you and another person like the same song? Why not check out their album collection and see if there's something else you like. If you think somebody is poorly dressed, would you take fashion advice from them? Sometimes as taste can be a manner of judgment, behind their backs, I've personally thought "Anybody who likes X is stupid because X is stupid" in general terms. On the other hand, I've never actually judged any particular individual on it, at least not seriously. It's just unaimed general griping, nothing serious.
Anyway, if the thread should die, my vote isn't to trash gap it but to throw it in Cirno's Perfect Math Class. It'd be an ironically fitting demise for a thread about the evils of being too serious, that had become too serious itself, to be thrown to the lions of playful silliness to be cannibalized. Don't you think? I think so anyway. I'd personally like to see what happens. ^_^⑨ = Thumbs Down.