@Skibean If you know the skaters/coaches (Especially coaches of the older generation), you'd know they don't use internet skating forums no matter how "secret" or "insider" they are. I've seen a couple skaters google themselves for fun, but generally all they find is competition results, news articles, and occasionally an bio from the Wikipedia/ISU/IceNetwork/the skater's own official website. If they do pay attention to social media, it isn't forums - it's their twitter/FB/Instagram pages where people can directly interact with them, not forums. Some even ignore social media or have someone (a parent/friend/media consultant) who will manage what they can see, particularly during the season; others just aren't phased by much on social media any more, and are fine with it.
The only skaters who have forum discussion results in their first five pages of google results are those who don't compete internationally, and so few of them are even brought up on forums that I doubt they'd appear.
Everyone draws the line differently for what criticism is allowable on social media. On actual social media where an actual skater running their actual profile would see (or even if they have someone else managing their profile, but it's the official one), I will never post anything negative. Obviously, as others have pointed out on this thread and others, a lot of people don't follow that rule. I've found a lot of posters here are actually a lot nicer than those I've seen on other social media.
Personally, I have three rules about criticizing skaters.
1. The skater must be at the top levels and be a contender for international spots (Senior or Junior). Nothing negative about the youngest skaters, those at lower ranks, those who won't make any international team but compete nationally because they love it, etc.
2. I won't say anything negative about a skater's personal matters or off-the-ice matters including family troubles, personal relationship stuff, health issues, etc. That's just tacky. They are only putting their skating out there for me to see, so it would be inappropriate to criticize them for something unrelated for that. Even if they let on to something personal, I keep it positive - they don't have to let us see anything personal, and when they do it should be respected as anyone's personal issues are. After all, they are humans just like us with the exception of being very good figure skaters.
3. I won't just bash a skater. I try to add in at least one positive thing for every negative thing I say or present any criticism in a polite or constructive manner.