Personally I think you’ll find it very hard to keep the two threads apart when such things happen. A harder task for the moderators and more people offended when their postings are removed, especially in the circumstances.
I think that those who try to conclude the results of the accident investigation well before the professionals have done their job often get it wrong because they are not fully aware of the circumstances and aren’t seeing things from the professionals’ standpoint. In many cases those who post such conjecture often condemn themselves with their own words long before others wade in to point out the errors. Personally I think such conjecture is best left for the bin. Report what you see if you witnessed the event (even only on video) but leave the guesswork for elsewhere.
As for the condolence messages, well here I think there’s a real value. I think it’s right and proper to grieve with those who grieve and, having witnessed a fatal air crash myself, while my own thoughts might well have been immaterial to most people, having the chance to express them helped me to deal with the aftermath of the horrific event that I had witnessed. Perhaps such thoughts aren’t for an open forum but having an outlet for them is clearly useful for some people and it is not the right of others to deny this.
I would add that I think sometimes people forget how shocking it is for many to watch such crashes aired on TV or the Internet. While it is not as bad as being there, it undoubtedly affects people and again part of the process of dealing with this for some is to talk about it and share thoughts.
In the end my view is that as long as those thoughts aren’t offensive then why should they not be aired here? If they are seen by those more directly affected such as close relatives it only serves to show that people care and are human, so what’s the problem? At times like this such comments can be very supportive and when faced with loss in this way I think people need to realise that they are not alone in their grief.
Where my blood does boil, however, is with those who use such situations simply for their own purposes, namely to try to make themselves look important. How many times have we seen people suddenly make out as if they were best mates with those who have passed away when in fact the deceased probably didn’t know them from Adam? Such stuff is only posted to make the poster look more important and I think it needs to be seen for what it is.
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