Eh I disagree. The "Webcomics community" isn't any different than a 1000 other virtual communities and not that far gone from what in the old days you'd call the neighborhood (how many of you are widely acquainted with your neighbors? Not so much anymore, huh?)

Some of the participants make a big deal of questionable things sometimes but some also make a big deal out of anyone else making a big deal - I don't think either get the high ground on that, even if some try to spin it that way. Most of us like webcomics and sometimes we talk about things related to webcomics.

The fact that no one outside of webcomics "gives a shit" about what those of us "inside" felt like debating this week is kind of related to the fact that comics, let alone webcomics is something people outside of comics don't pay a whole lot of attention to. If Julia Roberts was an artist on X-men no one would care what she thought... except for those who are "inside" comics.

I can tell you what I perceive to be widely true in this "community" (and maybe on this one I have an idea of what I'm talking about, having worked on Comixpedia for years and paying attention to webcomics for years before that) - most of us, the vast majority of us just filter out the hyperbole in the threads and whatnot. We read, we comment if it moves us but we all definitely keep on keeping on.

People who read Comixpedia - some of them at least - knowing about the Keenspot newsbox flap last week was of interest but that's about it. To a much smaller group of people it was a source of controversy and debate. In fact over at Websnark there was a great deal of discussion, most of it fairly level-headed and intelligent. I don't think anyone over there said anything to be ashamed of and really I don't think any of the comments here were particularly flame-filled either.

So to sum up - I don't think anyone inflated this - it got about the attention it deserved and I don't agree with anyone, Kurtz, or otherwise who claim that this was some egregious example of people being pissy or catty or blowing something up out of proportion. There are lots of times that happens in any group of people who share an interest but I don't see it here so far.

I'd have to agree with Xerxes that this is not an example of the "community" being pissy. To begin with it appears that the people originally flooding keenspot with email complaints were the readers of Friendly Hostility. While there quite likely are webcomic creators in that group I wouldn't say it is representative of "the community" (although I suppose it depends on your definition of "webcomic community").
The discussion following, in which several webcomic creators did participate, was in my opinion fairly well behaved.