I read the RB thread, and was actually a bit afraid to post my opinion rant, because I was afraid I'd get jumped on, given the "positive" response on RB, and was surprised (and a bit impressed) to see the "negative" response here. Personally, I feel the response here ("It's their problem, they need to fix it", vs "OMG, these are our heroes, we have to help them!!11!") is much more mature, as well.
Now, as I said before, the auctions I have no problem with. "Hey, messed up, need money to fix it, wanna buy cool stuff you couldn't otherwise get?" isn't that bad, and rather respectable. How many threads in the Commerce forum have been because someone is broke and needs money, so they're selling off some stuff? But asking for donations is out of line.
Now, I'm on the fence about Narvy and Schrier's responsibility here. I've heard conflicting reports, one that it was a "pie throwing panel", and others that it was spur-of-the-moment and that PMC staff didn't know it was going to happen. If it's the latter, PMC staff should have stopped them, but that they share equally in the responsibility. If it's the former, then it's almost completely on PMC's staff, since they shouldn't have allowed it in the first place, but the actors should have also realized that it at least could make a mess, and requested plastic or something at least for the floors. As they were the ones directly involved in the actions that caused the damage, I can't excuse them completely, but PMC is definitely at least half responsible, if not more.