General Discussion
Common Sense
Please can I remind users that NO ONE is anonymous on this discussion forum. Each time someone contributes to the discussion his or her IP address is recorded along with the date and time and can be traced back to the account holder of the IP address (or if it is a non-static IP address, who was using the IP address at the time).
I realise and agree that some of the comments on this site are racist and I will censor comments that are in breach of England Law. I am just completely surprised how naive people are in thinking that they are anonymous.
As a side note, please look at the contributor’s IP address, as you will see that people are contributing under different names, expressing conflicting views.
Webmaster.
You may need to explain further. For some of our new genius arrivals, IP is something done in the stream on a friday night, after a few too many ciders, in the aim of hitting a passing swan.
Webmaster, May I suggest you clean up these forums ASAP, there is quite allot of well, un-needed, wrong information, racist comments and illegal post, I understand it's all free of speach but well theres at least 6 out of the first 10 post here that should be deleted. Need help then feel free to get in touch.
Regards,
OK. If you make a list of discussion threads that you think should be removed & everyone agrees (or no one disagrees) then I will be happy to do so.
Bras and boobs
Dawlish carnival - well done shame about darren wright
Gay people in Dawlish....should we tolerate them?
Dawlish violence! Gang fights Turf land! need your views!!
Dawlish Death Squad aka Dawlish Black Swans
Extra-marital sex in Dawlish topic
They are among the few, Im only saying this as some discussion in those topics mainly and a few others could turn nasty, have turned nasty and are a bad impression to dawlish, with slander and wrong information in them,.
I don't agree! These are peoples views ok maybe some are rasist but that can stop! These threads are a way of communication between us!
Sorry for the rasist comments posted on this thread hope knowone got too offended! But with all the terror and hurt going on these days it makes me angry!
Sorry again Mr webmaster and all involved in this thread!
It'll be nice if others came forward for an apoligy!
Also don't think these threads should deleted maybe edited!
Regards
DDS DBS
Some of these threads can be classed as libel, a solicitor would have a field day with some of these messages. And whats more as the discussion board is moderated by the webmaster i'm sure that that person may also find themselves at risk to prosecution if comments about named individuals are left on the site and not removed.
So I take it you are not a solicitor and you are just guessing?
It would be more helpful (as I said before) if you could let me know which threads you thought were offensive and should be removed.
As far as I can tell none of these threads are illegal: Racism law applies to an idividual, apart from the new laws on 'inciting racial hatred' of which threads I have removed or altered. Something can only be libelous if is both a lie and is damaging to the reputation of the individual concerned.
I don't see how you are helping one bit by your post.
And yes I have a different IP address because I am posting this from the dawlish.com server (192.168.xxxx) is reserved for local area networks.
Nothing here is libelous.
Webmaster is right, you're no lawyer, just a blowhard who watches "The Bill" too much and likes to say...
"oi'll sue you under the trades descriptions act".
or
"oi'll write to Esther Rantzen about you"
People who talk like this seldom file the court papers.
This is the whole reason why I suggested pre-registration and someone else suggested a system of Moderators. That way you're not the only person who has to monitor the entire board for potentially slanderous, libellous and illegal comments and the people using the board know that they have their details stored safely and so act a bit more responsibly.
To be honest, if your web hosting company saw the content on here they'd be asking you to to do something about it straight away. You simply CAN'T allow people to have free reign on discussion forums. I realise everyone is tracked via IP address but how often are you or anyone else going to follow it up and get an ISP to tell you who it was that posted? And how on earth can you tell who was using a publically accessible computer in say the Library or at school? You're deluded if you think IP address is a safe and reliable identifier of an actual user. There's all sorts of easily accessible and usable "Anonymisers" out there that many people use rendering IP address completely useless as a means of identification.
There's plenty of FREE discussion forum systems out there in Googleland that include registration and emailing and actually look much nicer and work better than this one. Do the right thing and get one and start giving visitors to this website a much better impression of Dawlish.
Hallelujah!
Someone who gets the point of the complaints posted within the discussion forums. It is so easy to hide your identity - I myself have posted comments on three different computers all have different numbers coming up, all have multiple users.
As a site that sells advertising for tourism related business's someone should be ashamed - if the advertisers monitored this properly they'd probably withdraw - I would.
EVERY message should be monitored for content BEFORE it is posted. If other sites can do it why not this one?
James & business person.
I agree it would be nice to have registered users and we already have the capability on the site (login at the top) of which several people (commercial and non-comercial) have access to. However, I think if we forced users to log on to use the discussion forum, then not many would use it. We are considering our options here, however.
You are right, people can mask their IP addresses, but most people don't or don't know how to. We are certainly not deluded, and never suggested IP tracking is a reliable way of identifying individual users - we don't want or need to identify individual users.
Lastly, there is no hosting company - we host our own websites.
Re: hosting. good move then!
I agree with Business person if your advertisers (i.e the Non-google ones) knew about some of the abhorrent comments on this website they would, I'm sure, have something to say about it.
Please keep in mind and consider registration plans - it doesn't seem to harm other forums - in fact, I'd say it improves them immensely - i'd much rather spend my time on other registration-only forums than this place where people hide behind multiple aliases and post racist, homophopic and slanderous comments. There's no sense of trust on this website so you can't build up any meaningful online associations with people. I can't even be 100% sure that you're really the webmaster can I?
Anyway, I won't be the one to do this, but I'm sure it won't be too long before a letter is written to the Gazette or council, you get bad publicity and your advertisers and userbase rapidly disintegrates. All i want is the best for Dawlish and this website is currently a very negative place and not a nice place to visit if you want to ask for information about the town.
does anyone think this gent is a little bit too concerned about the content of this website !!! if he doesn't like it why does he keep logging on and posting messages ?? Now he is mentioning going to the newspapers..sounds like someone is trying to scare the moderator into making it registration only !!
YOU AREN'T DARREN WRIGHT IN DISGUISE ARE YOU ??
HHHMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
It ain't going to work Bartlett, so eff off.
The idea that additional regimentation, , is going to bring more people in is just nonsense.
We've all been on this Forum for years and providing the only traffic. Its entertainment and we make each other laugh. Not for a minute do we take our brickbats seriously. We don't want a bunch of old farts in here. If registration encourages them to join, then they'll kill this forum.
KIDZ ROOL !
I have also enjoyed looking through the comments posted on this forum. There had been some racist reference but the webmaster edited those comments and the individual concerned apologized on this forum for going too far with his opinions. Why keep going over the same monotonous tirade to the webmaster?
If you look at the Notice board and Guest book there has been a lot of people congratulating the Webmaster on hosting such an informative site. The Discussion forum is just a small part of Dawlish.com and i think the Webmaster has done an outstanding job.
I agree completely and I apologise to the Webmaster if my comments appear in any way threatening. If you actually knew me you'd know I couldn't threaten anybody. All I'm trying to do is make this place a nicer place for both Dawlish residents and visitors - at the moment I think the forum gives a pretty negative perception of Dawlish to visitors. That's all. If i'm wrong, i'm wrong and i don't mind that.
In fact, i do think this website is one of the best "small town" websites i've come across but can't people make "constructive criticism"? There's no way i'm going to the papers or whoever, that's not what I'm about, I'd just like the webmaster to at least read the criticism and advice. If he chooses to ignore it then I'm good with that, it's his website after all. However, this particular website represents the town and surely the best interests of Dawlish is to promote a nice friendly town for visitors - after all tourism is the main industry here. I'm not a member of any business forum, just a new Dawlish resident who'd like to do their part in improving the place where they live.
I just don't feel there's a community on this site - well, no more than about 4 or 5 people who regularly have conversations with themselves. If you disagree fine, but i'm going back to my other sites where there's more of a community feel.
James Bartlett is right. At least there is life now on this forum but its a pretty low form of it - the sort that usually resides in ponds.
The webmaster of this site rocks. Not only does he keep anonymity of users he runs a highly maintained website! Also have any of you took the time to check out this site! I am a very patriotic and loyal person and love info on dawlish to be shown to others around the globe!
Keep up the good work webmaster!