Actually, the defamotory comments were in the Kate Moss thread, not the Gareth one, so please don't jump to assumptions. Gareth, as I said, seemed to take the controversy pretty well in his post. I don't know how he took it perosnally as I've never met him, or the !WOWOW! crowd, and so Monday is going to be my first experience of all that.

As he should have - if you present your work within a public arena, then you should be able to cope with criticism or critique. Sorry for being presumptious, just strange this has taken so long to surface, and succeeding the Fash Off thread. I would say that unless it is of a completely libelous nature, then the forum should be left as it is sans ALL spam.

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Mornin' Not Fun (or if I may, Margaret) - sorry about the slow response but it was night and there is all that personal life stuff to deal with.

The trouble with the forum as it is is that there are a number of previous users, who had worthwhile comment, who have ceased posting due to the level of un-intelligent attack which is leveled at them or other forum users, whether that attack is friendly banter of not is not apparent to them, and even if it is it's not an environment they want to interact with.

The problem with communication via a forum - or the internet in general - is that it relies on a medium that not everyone is equally capable with. Writing is not a skill that everyone is confident with, and reading also - I've been accused of being patronising and overly wordy many a time.

For many of our users English is not their first language, so colloquealisms may be lost on them, and numerous other issues of the global nature of the internet come to mind.

This is also because the communication method is not personal - whilst the messages sometimes are - a lot of the usual, important, signifiers such as tone of voice and body lanaguge that happen in 'banter' are not there. People don't interpret language equivalently, as any simple investigation into linquistics and philosophy will easily show, so one persons joke may be taken to heart by the recipient. The forum, or rather some of it's contributors, lack empathy in this instance.

This is further amplified by the fact that some people simply aren't attackers, or pacifiers, but will take these attacks to heart and dwell on them. Whilst some of us are able to take criticism and cast it to one-side, or act on it, for others it take a greater toll. The forum isn't full of alpha-(fe)males who can fend for themselves, it's a collection of people with different feelings and points of view.

This doesn't mean that we want the forum to descend into a Libertarian political correctness and mind numbing confirmity, but we do want to encourage respect for each other and the ability to comment without resorting to offensiveness or personal attacks. If these do happen we want to provide the users of the forum a way of defending themselves, and each other, without fear of further reciprocation from the attacker.

As for people posting in the public arean being open to criticism, I agree with your view, but there are also people who will not take kindly to that criticism for they are private people. If we are to hope to work with some of these people then we will have to respect their will in working with us.

With regards to it taking a while to surface, there have been items which have caught our attention since the forum was put onto the site. However we've tried to the let the forum mature, and find it's own space. Lately that seems to have gone down-hill. As we look at re-engineering it and the current attitudes on the forum we've thoguht more about it and that we need to guide it more, and decided we need to re-asert our intent. There are pleny of sites where people can go for bitching sessions and personal attacks, and we'd rather that SHOWstudio wasn't one of these.

The general consensus so far has been from those who can defend themselves, keep it as is, and from those who can't (who tend to contact us directly - and are encouraged to do so if they feel they can't speak here), to provide some way of moderating the forum.

No worries, I am the Iron Lady afterall. I can take it on the chin, I did pioneer neo-liberalism (with a little philosophical guidance from Hayek.) Why don't we just privatise the role of forum moderations; in fact, why dont we just float ShowStudio on the stock exchange? "I'm not a good butcher but I've had to learn to carve the joint. People expect a new look."

I agree I would like to keep the quality and tone to an acceptable level on this site, and I think as the owners of the forum you are going to have to put something in place.

I dont think everyone will like it but what else can be done if people have no self restraint in what they say or do? There will be some moaning from people who want to be able to swear and say whatever they want but hopefully they will either find an other location to say these things or accept that this a site of people who dont want to read or interact on that level.

Ive never really felt harassed but I dont think what has been said to me or in general was really thought out before it was posted. I understand that people misconstrue the written word especially in the context of the internet very easily but it would just take 10 seconds to think, what if I look at this in a positive way, dont retaliate and end the argument in an amicable way without telling someone to feck off or similar. Ask for an explanation of what someone means before you try and rip their throat out for insulting you or your beliefs.

Opinions are strong things but learn to respect other peoples opinions and you wont need Dorian coming in and telling you all we need to change the site.

In all seriousness, I do merit your point. I do realise that people on here lack the means through wish to communicate their point more eloquently than others at times. Trust me, I know that people don't equate language, or the meaning & context of it (thank you, Derrida & Barthes for that.) I doubt the forum will turn into a Libetarian nightmare given that would imply each individual self-regulates their own post (i.e. the current situation.)

As a whole, this forum isn't all that nasty, their are other forums online where they JUST are horrible. Many of the sarcastic commentary on this forum comes from a frustration with certain aspects of the London "scene". Given that SHOWstudio is a London-based fashion, art & photography website then it is not wholly inappropriate that people will express their frustration at how the, in particular fashion, scene has become orientated around one designer & his hangers-on "collective". While some of the responses are apoplectic at times, I do think that extreme reactions are important - afterall wouldn't many say that this Pugh "thing" is an extreme reaction to the supposed mundanity of the current fashion environment. I would prefer definitive reactions to things than pondering to the middle-ground. Isn't that, afterall, what is wrong with politics (& society) in Britain at the moment: an insiduous need for consensus and thus, conformity?

I know this forum isn't that nasty, I've been involved with a lot of them in the last 10 years and this one is positively playful compared to some I've worked on or used. However it doesn't seem to me that there is any self-moderation from some at the moment, and people have been willing to put in the throw away comments that symbolise an immature community. Sure we all have bad days and react without thinking, but some of it's obviously way beyond that. Malice for malice's sake.

The Pugh thing - no comment - I'm a techie, not part of the editorial team, so not in a place to discuss what's going on with Fashion editorial at the moment.

I concur on the problem with Britain at the moment however. Probably a discussion for me when I'm 'off-duty' though.

No worries. Democracy is both a good & evil thing.

Im sorry if sound like paddy ashdown in the last few posts mrs thatcher. Rest assured being scottish we like to fight as much as the next sassenach!

Marquess of Queensberry rules of course, wouldnt have it any other way!

Maybe we should have a marquess of showstudio rules were you can punch people in a safe area, it can only last 3 minutes tops and if the other person says stop you win? Hmmm.... on second thoughts.

Cheers Iron Lady for the interesting insight, who would have thought old maggie was such a modern fashion type?