While many of you sat at home and watched last week’s inauguration on the television, on live streaming video online or even on Facebook, there were still countless numbers of those that braved the cold to see Obama sworn in person. And many of those that were there at the inauguration with tickets for the event but were still unable to enter the event itself.

A recent Facebook Group created for those that were unable to access the inaugural event, called “Survivors of the Purple Tunnel of Doom,” has gained over 5,000 members. While the number of members this group has isn’t directly reflective of those that were actually at the event, it is indicative of the overall attitude some hold towards a number of situations that may have prevented some from entering the inaugural event.

Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance William Gainer has made a rather lengthy discussion board post apologizing for miscommunication that occurred during inauguration day, among other things. For those of you that were the unlucky ones to not make it into the inaugural event, a Group discussion board post may or may not make you feel better, but the post is there nonetheless. Gainer goes on to say that he will be offering up additional information regarding some of the unfortunate happenings of inauguration day, in order to improve the overall system as well as ease the concerns of the “Survivors of the Purple Tunnel of Doom” Group.

The good thing is that Gainer does take the time to go into detail about some of the specific concerns that have arisen in regards to people not being able to access areas of the inaugural event. Based on the nearly 200 responses to Gainer’s discussion board post, there are still a lot of questions yet to be answered.

But the fact that Facebook’s Group discussion board has been able to provide a medium for open discussion of one of Washington D.C.’s largest events in history is promising in itself. For Facebook to become such a central online destination for so many aspects of a single inaugural event says a lot about Facebook and the way in which it’s brought people together around a given cause–good, bad and ugly.