I've been on the bullied side of things, too, in a very different sense, though not in rp. A whole fandom ganged up on a community I was heavily involved with, and I've still never really recovered from it. I know at least one mod of that community ended up stepping down after it was all over because it was too much to deal with.
We seem to think that if it's online, it's okay to do, or even that it makes us somehow more righteous to gang up on people to 'fix' them--your bathing analogy was especially apt in this case, though I won't go into details. Suffice to say that the fandom felt we were in the wrong, and proceeded to dogpile us.
I will say that when I saw others dogpiling on a game for a name they'd chosen, I was quick to assure them that I didn't feel they were in the wrong at all.
These sorts of things change your behaviour forever. Sometimes in a good way, but mostly, it only makes you less inclined to participate, and that's not what the online community should be advocating. Ever. The internet should be inclusive, not exclusive. We all need other points of view to understand our own better, no matter what we might think of those other views. It's why the US constitution guarantees freedom of speech. Better to allow anyone to speak than to stifle one person with the wrong view.