I must admit when I read the editorial I was a little gobsmacked  when I got to the part slating forums like this one. 

If the industry pretty much ignores the forums then presumably he's barking up the wrong tree with covert threats that we'd all better watch out or else find out how good the industry's lawyers are.

There is a big difference between private individuals stating their (admittedly often insanely biased) opinions on forums like this and a concerted campaign by a person unknown to destroy a brand through the use of deceptive means like multiple postings under different names.  If it were truly possible for this to happen, surely the industry would care mightily about what happens on the forums.  The first is about individuals expressing honestly held opinions in an atmosphere of free speech, the second is dishonest.  If someone were to do that then sue away, but don't paint the majority of us with the same brush, just because we sometimes might say things "The Industry" or perhaps more to the point magazine editors might disagree with.

Lets face it the forums are in a way balanced - for starters for almost every strongly held opinion in one direction there is almost always an equally strongly held opinion in the other.

PS.  I thought it really took the biscuit when he published an utterly insane rant from someone on a forum as a letter in the readers section - presumably to prove we are all off our rockers.