Selected essays on contemporary art submitted by visitors
Saatchi Chat Abandoned by Artists
by Michael Markham
After continued complaints that were ignored by Saatchi.com staffers concerning abuse of the chat room by non-artists and other malcontents, the creative core of Saatchi chat has moved on. Well over a dozen artists and friends of many nationalities have started their own separate chat room and blog and, furthermore, have invited back many other disillusioned former chatters. So far the new site is a roaring success.
It is a pity that Saatchi.com would not help us keep the chat room as a vital place for intelligent and creative interaction, as one would have thought this would have been to their interest (and was, in fact, proclaimed as such). In the beginning Saatchi chat provided the opportunity for many artists to network, and a number of exhibitions and collaborations were initiated there. However an unruly mob of people — often kids, but also many chronic "web bullies" — discovered the chat room and began using it for their own purposes, heaping relentless, foul-mouthed abuse on the artists there. Numerous appeals to Saatchi.com to remedy the situation were ignored.
I personally still think Saatchi chat could (and should) be a good thing. Artists who are new to Saatchi.com continue to check it out but now find it's a wasteland. My suggestion to Saatchi.com is to either fix it or put it out of it's misery.
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