Posted: 08/04/2013 at 17:33
Hello everyone,
I thought I'd post a few thoughts on the issues raised by this thread, and also clarify how we moderate the forum…
First, I’m very proud of the fact that the GW forum is, generally, such a positive and friendly place. There has been some ‘aggro’ recently, which is a shame. Conflict breaks out from time to time in most online communities, but we’re fortunate to have far less of the ‘sniping and griping’ common to other forums.
Regarding moderation, we take a ‘reactive’ approach to this i.e. we investigate any complaint reports we receive, and remove any posts that contravene our forum code of conduct, which you can view here:
View the GW forum code of conduct
What we won’t do is stifle debate, or get involved in arguments on particular threads. You are all quite free to disagree with each other (it would, after all, be a rather bland forum if you didn’t), but we do request that you observe the following sections of our code of conduct:
Be friendly
In short: don’t say anything to forum users that you wouldn’t say to their face. Please avoid hateful speech, and don’t attack anybody on the basis of their race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, age or religion.
Be constructive
Robust debate is fine, but please tolerate opinions that differ from your own, and maintain a reasonable tone in your posts. Also, try to keep to the theme of any threads you enter, so the forum remains useful to everybody.
Regarding the sharing of links, either on threads or via private message, we’re very happy for you to do this. We do remove any ‘spam’ threads that we find, which are advertising products or services, but you’re free to share links about other websites, forums etc The internet is big enough for all of us, after all.
So, that just leaves me to say:
Don't let petty squabbles spoil the community that has developed here - please talk about plants and gardens instead, they're far more interesting. It’s a gardening forum, not a soap opera!
Thank you. 
Daniel Haynes
Editor, gardenersworld.com
