San Francisco -- As far as the online activist movement Anonymous is concerned, its Monday afternoon BART disruptions have been rousing successes.

Thousands of inconvenienced commuters disagree. So does San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr.

"I don't want this to be construed as delivering a threat," Suhr said, "but enough is enough. They made their point, and they are now losing in the court of public opinion. We don't feel that we took appropriate action at the appropriate pace (on Monday). The next response will be quicker."

Good. Fun's fun, but the reality is, this is not a widespread protest. Nor is it growing or gaining support. Despite threats of 9,000 protesters, Monday's attendance was generously estimated at 200 at its peak. That may be a big rally in Fresno, but here we call that a typical Friday afternoon on the steps of City Hall.

While protesters may have started with good intentions, their message has been thoroughly muddled. First their complaint was about BART police, and then it was outrage about cutting cell phone coverage. But protesters' main target has become a bunch of weary commuters who just want to go home. They didn't do anything - some of them probably agree with the original concerns - but they are fed up.

I asked BART board President Bob Franklin if he really expected 9,000 protesters.

"I thought that was overly optimistic," he said. "But I have gotten 9,000 e-mails. Commuters are sick of this."

The concern, of course, is that tough talk will be seen as a challenge to the demonstrators, and will activate something far more destructive. Franklin says the reason cell phone coverage was shut off on Aug. 11 was because the agency had reports that a splinter group planned to chain themselves to trains.

That kind of civil disobedience would mean abandoning the peaceful core principles of Anonymous. But the protesters are also making a series of demands from firing the BART police chief to disarming the officers, and they say Monday disruptions will continue until they get what they want.

Good luck with that. The patience of the public is waning with these protesters, and BART and San Francisco police are finding ways to diminish their impact. Franklin says the first protest, on July 11, when demonstrators blocked the doors, stopped the system for about 30 minutes and affected 97 trains. On Aug. 15, police closed four stations, but the trains ran on time.

On Monday, two stations were opened and closed repeatedly, but Franklin says there was no disruption to service, except that annoyed commuters had to board at a different station.

That left a small group of protesters meandering up and down Market Street, stopping traffic and posing for TV cameras. After almost four hours, they ended up near the library and became sufficiently disruptive to be arrested. But don't expect that kind of patience if protests continue.

"It will be different next Monday," Suhr said.

While that sets the stage for the Monday news cycle, it is also time those of us in the media had a little talk with ourselves. We need to cover events, but when there are clearly as many reporters and cameras as protesters on the station platform, we need to say so. And, when predictions of thousands of demonstrators fizzles - "They started with 30, mushroomed to 100, and dwindled to 70," Suhr said - that needs to be said too.

Local television loves this stuff but seems to have a little trouble letting go. One station billed the protest as "Commuter Chaos." It was more like annoyance. And, when you cut "live" to the scene and discover only a couple of officers standing by themselves at a BART station entrance, somebody needs to say things have died down.

It is entirely likely that many arrests will be made Monday, and that's news. But if they are, and that reduces the protest to a few stragglers, it is time to listen to what the cops always say.

Move along. There's nothing to see.