Hi Bullet, thank you for answering my ask. You know, I don't get the impression that mods are terrified but that they are not proud of this outcome. Here's what I've noticed of this group. I've followed the characters for about 8 months (I mainly follow artists like you) and this is not a well-organized, well- communicated group. It's not uncommon to takes days for posts to be interacted by characters, even some big posts that were supposed to be pre-organized*. Everyone of them appears to be working on their own, except for the characters who have the same mod (I can kind of tell which ones because of the consistent instant responses).
*For example, John RP's last posted case file "The Adventure of the Speckled Sound". The science details were not in there because it's supposed for Sherlock to show off. Sherlock RP was tagged at least 3 times (John RP and 2 followers) to answer the toxicology aspect of the case, they didn't reply or participate at all (0) while complaining on their blog that nobody asked for the case details. I probably sent an anon ask for the toxicology as well. However, the case before, "The Aegean Sea Smugglers" were organized perfectly among all mods. It was beautifully executed.
*Another example is the both John RP and Sherlock RP didn't know when the New Lestrade RP joined them based on the discrepancies in their responses. Basically nobody informed them when a new member joined.
Those are just some big example of lack of communication; smaller ones are easy to spot as it's really not uncommon. I'm thinking that maybe this group has gradually fallen apart over time. The anon mod did say that John RP said he was gonna quit. I guess at that point nobody was actively managing this group so no actions were taken and now it has become extremely messy. All speculations, of course, based on their group dynamics.
These are very good observations. I haven't gone that far to check that out (yay, life). But if you or someone could gather these examples together, that could be helpful.
When doing roleplay (rp online accounts, Larp, D&D, etc) it's very important to stay coordinated. This helps with story and event continuations, the quality of entertainment (cuz let's be real, online rplayers are unpayed actors providing artistic content. Bless you all.), and in the event an actor needs to switch out, the transition is smooth and not confusing or hurtful.
As a DM, it is my responsibility to coordinate everything and ensure a positive experience for both the players (and when I did this online) for the audience.
If these rplayer decide to rebuild, it may be beneficial for them to get someone that can act as a DM.