If your only contribution is defending shitty character testimony you should consider biting your tongue. If there's no actual evidence I don't want to hear about what a nice guy he is.
Sorry, this isn't cool. Internet forums are far too quick to form flash mobs of judge, jury, and executioner. In nearly every case this turns out to be missing critical information. Moreover the instinct to do it is reflexive; it has nothing to do with the particulars of any situation—it's just an opportunity to have an experience that somehow we seem driven to recreate over and over again.
Because the tendency is overwhelmingly in this vicious and vengeful direction, having HN be the kind of community we want requires that we all make a conscious effort not to go there by default.
