Large - let me try and explain the general irritation. This is one of the most well managed, friendliest, supportive and helpful forums on the web. If you'd have said hello on the Welcome Mat, complete strangers would have taken the time to say hi and done their best to make you feel at home.
On this forum we have members that have been involved in cycling advocacy for decades. Others who have organised rides involving hundreds and, in a few cases thousands of riders. If you'd spent an hour reading around, you would have found a wealth of information and a list of people who could have given you advice about what you are trying to achieve and how you might go about it.
One thing guaranteed to upset the community is making a first post to promote an agenda, even if it's well meaning. There's so much more to organising both a campaign and a large group ride than posting up a Facebook page and a route and telling people to wear a helmet, that your post came across as extremely naive. Your second post about helmets just reinforces that. We have a whole sub-forum about helmet use. We were not waiting for someone to call us idiots and spout some baseless anecdotes for us to see the light.
So, if you're going to organise this ride, you might want to consider estimated numbers, requirements for public and third party liability insurance, liaising with established advocacy groups in your area like the CTC, stewarding/ride leader requirements, first aid and safety, mechanical support and publicity and promotion including goals and or a mission statement. That's just off the top of my head. One of the gurus on here will give you a better, and probably longer list if you ask nicely.
Otherwise you've just got a group of mates on a ride. In helmets.
