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Often on meta sites I'll see questions asking about specific posts or users, which, for the most part, are fairly unbiased and fair. However, sometimes these posts can spiral out of control into personal attacks.

Should users that are the topic of these discussions be privately or publicly notified if they are the center of such debates? It would allow them a chance to explain actions or clarify things if need be.

I don't think all cases where a specific user is involved needs a notification back to the OP, but possibly things involving suspicious behavior on part of the person in question?

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    Well, if the discussion is becoming unconstructive wouldn't it likely only escalate if the user were invited? That seems like it would only make it worse. Also, I find users to be discussed very rarely. Posts on the other hand are brought up very frequently. – Servy Jan 2 '14 at 22:37
  • related: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/187682/… meta.stackexchange.com/questions/168076/… – Servy Jan 2 '14 at 22:38
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    If a post I answered on gets meta-discussed I'd like to know. I almost always leave a comment on the question if I'm discussing it on meta. This idea sounds good to me. – Benjamin Gruenbaum Jan 2 '14 at 22:39
  • @Servy you just made a stack overflow of a Stack Overflow that refers to another Stack Overflow – scrblnrd3 Jan 2 '14 at 22:39
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I don't think there needs to be an automatic notification, but there's nothing wrong with someone notifying them. Having said that, any conversation that goes in in a personal attack direction should probably be moderated somewhat.

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