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sorry, Mrs T, I did say Claire liked a scrap and if you’ve been on the receiving end I can imagine your feelings. I’m not going to defend what she said to you, as I have a lot of respect for you, as you know, and I won’t challenge your dislike for her. You’ll be the first to accept that we all like different people.

But I have a different experience of Claire. in a number of ways.

first, when I first came to JC, I saw Claire alone fighting off an unusually large number of men who were calling her every nasty name men have for women. Most women would have scarpered, terrified, but Claire laughed them down, seeing them all off. She struck me as not just someone who liked a scrap but a bonny fighter.

secondly, I can hear her Welsh accent as she throws out the insults. When she told one guy she’d wrap his willy around his neck and throttle him, then I could only laugh out loud. Of course, if she had done this in reality, she would have been arrested for abh, and the memory would have haunted all who witnessed it. But it wasn’t for real, and the poetry in the insults (assonance and alliteration rolled into one pentameter line) is very, very Welsh – instinctive.

thirdly, I wasn’t around when Claire attacked welsh fem over her daughter, and I wouldn’t have liked to be. But I was around when the general level of insults suddenly took an unusually debased and cruel level over Claire’ dead sister, and if it had happened to me, I think I would have responded in kind – and I don’t have Claire’s combative temperament. That debased level should have been stopped right at the start, and I’m sorry that Claire responded in kind, though again I’m not surprised – when kicked, she kicks back hard.

Finally, I became friendly with Claire, and as LD said (to her own surprise) she is a very human character, full of life and laughter, a very engaging woman. I understand that this isn’t the woman who was experienced by her enemies, and that they are keen to do a snow job on her, but that woman is there behind the wall.

Who cares why Claire left (and it must have been unusually nasty – she was banned all the time and never left)? I do – and I’m not the only one who expressed a liking for Claire.

to me, personally, it’s worth it. She was in r3 for many years, almost from the start, I think.

I hate demonisation – I’ve been a victim of it in my life and I’ve seen it happen to others. A horrible process wherever it happens.

And I am disturbed that someone should be driven out of a chat room, especially when I actually quite like them (warts and all).

Like LD (to her surprise) I found Claire (once she trusted you) to be a very likeable and engaging woman with genuine laughter and life.

I wouldn’t want to make people like her, and I can imagine defending people against her attacks, but I would want to defend her against demonization.

@tinks wrote:

the ‘claire thing’ seems to have been going on a long time…….scep were you using the room long before you joined the boards?……the reason i am asking is because you joined the boards in dec 2011……..im thinkin that the abuse thing in f3 was going on long before dec 2011………have you been using f3 since it all began?

yes, of course, I was using the room for two or three years before coming here.. I’ve hardly used the chat room since joining here. I come here frequently sometimes, not frequently sometimes lol

@jen_jen wrote:

The only person who demonised Claire is Claire herself by her own behaviour. There are very few that she hasn’t turned on in f3 and as most can attest, she can be cruel and vicious. Usually there is no reason for the attack other than, by her own admission, that she does it because she is bored and she loves it when people turn on her, the more the merrier, indeed she loves to see herself being discussed on the boards even though she isn’t a member here. So here we all are, feeding her need for attention, and yes I am aware that by typing this I have joined the feeding.

Poor Claire? No, sorry – you reap what you sow,

And she wasn’t driven out, she left of her own accord.

As for this:

…the poetry in the insults (assonance and alliteration rolled into one pentameter line) is very, very Welsh – instinctive.

As a Welsh person, we may be a poetic nation but I don’t know anyone who would stoop to the depths that Claire has when in full throttle – it is very, very Claire but certainly not very, very Welsh.

I hope I have not made a mistake here…. is claire registered here as minnie the minx? I was told that it was her?

@jen_jen wrote:

No Mrs T, Claire wasn’t Minnie the Minx, that was another of F3’s “characters”.

In that case then Claire I apologise… a case of mistaken identity.

Sorry I was misinformed.