Fly...you are not off topic by saying that acceptance of someone for who they are in both good and bad times makes a friendship...that is part
of any friendship worth it's salt...i agree with that wholeheartedly. Yet a friend would not air "dirty laundry" on a public message board, they would have more respect.
They would however be there in good conscience, to support him, and when he was being a butthead, a friend would tell him, but not in the public arena, or they would hold their silence until such time as they could tell him face to face.
I agree that anyone who knew/knows him, probably has gotten fed up with the negativity and probably post very little if at all...but yeah, odds are they do read...
What gets me is as you say, where he goes with his solo career is up to him, the choices he makes are his and at at the end of the day isn't that where where it should be left...and yet so many on the BB circut seem to feel they know him better than he knows himself, that he should be doing "this" and has no right to do "that"...
since i have been around it has always been this way, sadly...he's been bashed, trashed, lifted up and lowered down, cussed out and praised..and sometimes in the same breath (post)...then there have also been the occasional "thank you's", too...sincere or otherwise...yet he continued to sing with the passion and feeling that made him so special to many and disliked by others.
i'll leave this post with a few lines from two of Creeds songs...Weathered and Bullets...always liked what they said...
Weathered
Believe what you will
That is your right
But I choose to win
I choose to fight
Bullets
Said why...Why do we live our life
With all this hate inside
I'll give it away
'Cause I don't want it no more