ALL MEMBERS PLEASE READ - New UK Online Safety Act.

BossHogg

BossHogg

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As a consequence of the new Online Safety Act, the site will be tightening up on the 18+ membership. Anyone who deliberately lies to bypass the age filter, will be permanently excluded from the site. We have worked too hard to make our forum friendly and inclusive, however, I will not allow the forum safety to be jeopardised by underage posters. Any posters who are found to be underage will have their account terminated with immediate effect. It's not an action I relish doing, but will do to ensure the forum is around for a long time to come. Thanks for your understanding. 👍
 
To all members, this is advanced warning that the PM system will be getting turned off on Thursday 13th March 2025. Our reasons being all forum conversations will be in the open. More details to follow closer to Thursday. 👍
 
@Qualcast&Flymo to add to the above to address concerns you mentioned in Naughty Corner.

This is not a decision taken lightly. There has been discussion about this for a few months.
Due to the online safety act coming into law on March 16th all sites have to do do a risk assessment on various criteria of lots of nasty stuff and risks of harm to users.

Anything on the open forum is moderated but “Direct Messages” are almost private (they could be viewed if needed on server if we had reason to) therefore we cannot tell what goes on in them for the most part… They are in-modded and present the greatest risk of falling fouls of new laws. There is a report feature on all DMs but if someone was being groomed in them they may be unaware and we would be obvlious to this and therefore it would legally put Bosshogg in a liable position possibly maybe.
Boss has decided to minimise risk further - the Direct Message system is going to be no longer available.

I know this stops a lot of people being able to arrange meet up with friends etc… and no we would never advise posting personal details on open forum.
Meet-ups I guess will be as they used to be before PMs existed, a very well organised thread with instructions etc…. I know this feels unfair and we feel it too but
Sadly guidance is so vague that erring on the side of caution is better than no forum.

Once the law is in play, we will see how things settle down and the land lies..

To give a bigger picture some forums are considering closing down because of liability etc…

I am sure @BossHogg may have more to add.
 
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As it is, I am working hard enough to survive, I would be bankrupt and the forum would be scattered to the winds if the level of fines mentioned are levied on me. I will not hesitate to close the forum immediately and call it a day if anyone breaks the new law it is that serious! 😱😱😱
 
Over the years we’ve seen a number of issues arising out of the PM system. Although I appreciate it could make it more difficult to arrange meet ups etc I think it’s the right decision to switch it off to minimise risk and help preserve the forum for the future.
 
Merab said:
It will just make the arrangements a bit more public but that’s not a problem.
Just bumped the Zoom meet thread and said I will post the link on the thread
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Back in the early days arrangements were largely on the main forum as I recall. I’m sure we will learn to adjust.
 
I fully understand the reasons and certainly wouldn't want BossHogg or any other titular owner being hit with fines .... it's just such a bummer as regards things like the little fundraising things that sometimes happen and other things where individuals may share addresses such as giving lifts to meets etc. Or getting help to members in need ...

I guess what it needs us an AI bot that reads messages and recognises ones that are getting harmful
 
Merab said:
It will just make the arrangements a bit more public but that’s not a problem.
Just bumped the Zoom meet thread and said I will post the link on the thread.
I agree with you @VickiA - I’m aware of one or two members who have left because of feeling harassed by inappropriate DMs
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We are not and this is the issue. Things like that are unacceptable and unless a member hits report we don’t know to get involved. As soon as issues are reported Mods have always acted fast.
 
Qualcast&Flymo said:
I fully understand the reasons and certainly wouldn't want BossHogg or any other titular owner being hit with fines .... it's just such a bummer as regards things like the little fundraising things that sometimes happen and other things where individuals may share addresses such as giving lifts to meets etc. Or getting help to members in need ...

I guess what it needs us an AI bot that reads messages and recognises ones that are getting harmful
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We do agree. Yes, it is hitting innocent people and the way we want to plan things. Sadly things like AI bots are not inbuilt to software etc…. And then there would be the data protection issue of an AI bit reading personal details etc…
 
VickiA said:
Back in the early days arrangements were largely on the main forum as I recall.
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Of course I understand the reasons for discontinuing PM/DMs.

Will it be possible for any arrangements to be on a part of the main forum which can be seen only by those logged on? That would make it a bit more private than having all of cyberspace reading semi-personal details.
 
Mrs Tiggy Winkle said:
Of course I understand the reasons for discontinuing PM/DMs.

Will it be possible for any arrangements to be on a part of the main forum which can be seen only by those logged on? That would make it a bit more private than having all of cyberspace reading semi-personal
Click to expand...

Can you define semi-personal details for me, so I can try and answer that please with a constructive response
 
Mrs Tiggy Winkle said:
Of course I understand the reasons for discontinuing PM/DMs.

Will it be possible for any arrangements to be on a part of the main forum which can be seen only by those logged on? That would make it a bit more private than having all of cyberspace reading semi-personal details.
Click to expand...
I suppose there could be a part of the forum only visible to people who are signed-up members, as the Pregnancy section is now?

Edit - you got there before me :nod:👍 thank you
 
There will be some teething issues and we know this is a big change and not great news, but Tom runs this place out of goodness of his heart and we have to ensure the liability is as least as possible. Owning a forum is a huge responsibility and it is one Boss has done amazingly well at for years now. We want to ensure the forum can keep running safely and incident free for the foreseeable
 
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