[...] people are dropping the site left and right [...] WP:IAR is being embraced like never before [...] it feels like the damn project is imploding.

It may feel that way, but you know it's not. Not over this, anyway. As someone else said, the majority of people here probably aren't even aware of this incident. I would also guess that of the remaining minority, the majority aren't that interested.

It may be healthy to step back from it and do what presumably you originaly came here to do. For full nostalgic effect, log out. Somewhat ironically, it is WP:IAR which helps enshrine this option. It is your guarantee that the tedious and overdramatic talk in project space is Mostly Harmless to the actual encyclopedia, and that for the most part you need not follow it, if you don't want to.

This is not to condone some of the behaviour here and pretend there's nothing wrong. In fact I agree that renaming is probably not a useful response. If anything I'd be more in favour of two other suggestions made by others, namely lowering the RfA bar, and admins being less afraid of keeping check on each other.

But more importantly it seems like some perspective is needed as to the urgency and severity of the problem. Personally, I make extensive use of the ignore feature.

Dan

-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTICE OF CONFIDENTIALITY: This email and any attachments may contain information that is privileged, and/or confidential, and is meant only for the intended recipient(s).If the reader of this email is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any unauthorized dissemination, distribution or reproduction of this email, or its attachments, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please advise the sender immediately and destroy the e-mail and any attachments. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --