Two issues : A) public vs members only Forum & B) anonymous vs identifiable poster
A)
Public vs members only Forum This has been debated in length on the Forum over the past year and the Committee has concluded to keep it open mainly for the reasons Nik has mentioned in his post of 14 Nov at 15:05:05.
@ Nik: you mention in your post that “it is mostly ACOC Members who have been doing the bulk of the whingeing from what I can see”;
Maybe you have better eyes than me or maybe you know who hides behind most of the pseudonyms the identity of which is not disclosed, but I doubt that if you do not dispose of statistical data of Forum use as described in my post of 6 July 2017 at 07:44:22 under topic
http://acownersclub.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4667, reproduced here, it is difficult to make such statement:
“Facts can only be established by means of the software that manages access to the website and Forum, i.e. and put the data into a simple speadsheet giving:
A) Total # website accesses repectively Forum access and geographical origins
B) Traffic by ACOC members:
- ACOC member ident & corresponding Forum member ident / # website accesses / # member's area accesses (after login) / # Forum accesses / # Forum views / # Forum posts (after login)
C) Traffic by NON ACOC members:
- Forum member ident / # website accesses / # website views / # Forum accesses / # Forum views / # Forum posts (after login)”. In order to appreciate how our current Website and Forum works in terms of structure and access, we should read again through the Topic “Photobucket Photo Hosting”
http://acownersclub.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4667 and in particular my post of 6 July 2017 at 16:17:39 reproduced here:
>>
quote:
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Originally posted by AC Ace Bristol
.
.....706 of 1137 members have made 26,891 posts in 11 Forums.
Currently 3719 Topics..
Conclusion.. .. the ACOC Forum serves it's purpose, can be / must be continually improved to meet new demands and criteria...
Keith
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Hi Keith,
Fully agree with you on the purpose of Action and Forum.
I understand that the statistics at the bottom of the page refer to Forum Members.
Forum Members are not necessarily ACOC members. And ACOC membership does not necessarily imply Forum membership.
The website structure has 3 different clusters:
1) General info including Forum view
2) Forum posting
3) ACOC Members Area
There are 3 types of Players:
A) ACOC members - membership grants a Username(A) and a personal PW(A)
B) Other General Public (non-ACOC members)
C) Forum Members - membership by registering online through website => selfdefined username(F) amd personal PW(F);
Players C are part of A or B
Cluster 1 can be accessed by A & B
Cluster 2 can be accessed by C
Cluster 3 can be accessed by A
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In relation to the photohosting issue (third party hosting vs direct hosting), the Committee has asked for alternatives software solutions to be considered for allowing direct hosting. It may well be that a new software will bring about further facilities in terms of Website and Forum traffic monitoring and linking between the different groups of Players as defined above.
B) anonymous vs identifiable poster - it is my belief that in our free world an opinion expressed is attached to a name and a face; this allows the reader to appreciate the expressed opinion; personally when formulating an answer to someone, I like to know who he is because that defines the tune of the music that I want to convey;
- on the other hand I can understand TTM’s point related to privacy protection in a public forum that can be read without restrictions by anyone, good or evil minded;
- if the ACOC will keep the basic Web and Forum structure as above, i.e. with a public Forum, the least that we should ensure is that:
o players should be identifiable at registration; this does not imply that their identities be disclosed, but at least they should be identifiable at registration and it will be the webmasters’ job to ensure compliance to the rules of the game when access is granted also to the public part, i.e. the Forum; there are enough security software solutions available to check identities, any seasoned Internet buyer goes through such procedures each time he undertakes a transaction;
o such would allow the Forum management software to attach a tag “ACOC member” to a Forum Player if indeed he is a paid up member of the Club;
o Hence if he so wishes, the Forum player can still decide to appear under an anonymous “XYZ” pseudonym, but if he is a member of the ACOC, he will have a tag attached; hereby other players will know that XYZ is not a fake and and is or is not a Club member.
Constant Wagner, Luxembourg, ACOC member since 2002
