Reuven – I do apologize if I came across too harshly. I just find that this is a common mistake that people inadvertently make. Since they don’t know the other people involved in a situation, they forget that it is Loshon Hara to say negative things about them to the “poster” or “speaker” who does know the person.
This happens in every day speech all the time, and I have been nichshol many times myself. For example, let’s say Sara is telling me about someone who did something to her, if I say to her, “That was so obnoxious!”, that is Loshon Hara since Sara knows who the person is. The problem is that since I don’t know the other person, it is easy to be nichshol since it doesn’t “feel” like Loshon Hara when you have no idea who the other person is.
It is precisely because it is such a common and easy mistake that I wanted to be “m’orer” the oilam about it.