new forum - help needed badly

[uSwitch247.com]

Hi guys

I just added a consumer based forum to uSwitch247 Uswitch247.com - Powered by vBulletin which to be honest is a bit crap so I need a huge hand - (one of the kenny everitt variety)

Please feel free to offer new subjects, discussions points etc, it's designed for people who really want to bitch about crap service from shops, ISPs, etc etc but also for people who want to mention a good deed. Also to get some banter going about the stuff on uSwitch such as energy - green / nuclear etc

please help and also please join - (Cause no one else is )

thanks lads

[paul]

you have waaaay too many forums for a start. Try starting with 3 forums and have general topics and then expand as your user base expands. (sorry I don't have the time to join anogthre forum right now)

[blacknight]

You might want to sit down and have a good hard think about your strategy.

If you are going to setup a forum and run it successfully you will need a core group of active members + a core group of vigilant moderators

Under Irish law you are responsible for ALL the posts / comments made on the forum, as you are considered to be the publisher.
Since so many Irish companies have the "charming" habit of suing first and asking questions later you need to be very aware of this.

[gav240z]

Originally Posted by blacknight

You might want to sit down and have a good hard think about your strategy.

If you are going to setup a forum and run it successfully you will need a core group of active members + a core group of vigilant moderators

Under Irish law you are responsible for ALL the posts / comments made on the forum, as you are considered to be the publisher.
Since so many Irish companies have the "charming" habit of suing first and asking questions later you need to be very aware of this.

That's ridiculous, what ever happened to Freedom of Speech?

Can't you put a privacy policy / terms and conditions statement on the site that mentions something along the lines that you try and monitor posts etc.. however you cannot stay on top of everything and if there are any disputes etc.. then they should contact you first to resolve the matter?

I know from my personal experience in Australia, I had a police officer call me out of the blue and ask about someone who was using my website to contact sellers of car parts or cars and try scam bank details from them.

I was oblivious to this happening at the time as I had not been contacted, but the police were first contacted. After the discussion with the police officer I placed some t&c's on the site, as well as a warning in the classifieds section of the site.

I agree its a good idea to monitor posts / activity on your sites, but you honestly can't monitor everything.

Back on topic
Setting up a forum takes time and as Blacknight said an active group of users and moderators. You might want to try promoting your website by visiting blogs / websites where users have complained and ask them to share their opinions on your forum.

You might also consider running Google Adwords / Content Network ads for terms that relate to say "my ISP sucks" and "i hate hosting company x" etc..

Also you might want to consider some SEO (search engine optimisation) plugins for your forum to make it more search engine friendly.

[ringleader]

Register 4/5 users yourself and start threads related to the forum topics, then respond with another of the fake accounts.

Stupid, but it will give you content to begin with

One thing I would suggest is changing the skin (style) of the forum.

There are buckets of forums out there that look exactly the same as yours, and people won't stop to read what your forum is about.

You need to plaster it into them what they would be doing on your site, and why they should stay there to do their bitching.

[blacknight]

Originally Posted by gav240z

That's ridiculous, what ever happened to Freedom of Speech?

Freedom of speech does not protect you from slander / libel.

While it's fine to say something like:
"I didn't enjoy the food in restaurant X" a lot of immature users push it to the point of calling people things that are best not reproduced here.

Under Irish law you, as the website owner, are responsible for the content.
You can put policies and TOS up, but that does not remove your responsibilties.

I used to run a political forum that made it onto the front page of the Sunday Times once Believe me. It's "fun"

Originally Posted by gav240z

Can't you put a privacy policy / terms and conditions statement on the site that mentions something along the lines that you try and monitor posts etc.. however you cannot stay on top of everything and if there are any disputes etc.. then they should contact you first to resolve the matter?

We, Blacknight, operate Irish ISP Test which has a forum. Instead of contacting us about issues politely and sanely we've already had legal threats about posts on there.
Unfortunately this is part of the Irish mentality where sending solicitor's letters is the 1st reaction.

Originally Posted by gav240z

I agree its a good idea to monitor posts / activity on your sites, but you honestly can't monitor everything.

Of course you can't monitor everything, but you have to be aware that you cannot simply let it run riot by itself.

[Forbairt]

damn I didn't realise it was like that :|

But I guess thinking about it it explains a lot the no talking about XYZ on boards.ie

[blacknight]

In a lot of cases they'd have already received legal letters.

[uSwitch247.com]

News ::

Internet News - Online row forces website move to US


Internet News - The question of how to balance free speech and the laws of libel in online debates has been raised by a recent case, writes Catherine O’Mahony. Dave Cochrane, founder and moderator of the political discussion website Politics.ie, now has a buffer between himself and any solicitors who might want to pursue him. Three weeks ago, following a demand from a Dublin firm of solicitors to remove content and to identify posters to the site, he took a decision to transfer his operations to a US server, and also to sell the site to a US-registered company, in which the principal shareholder is himself. In the US, he enjoys the protection of the Communications Decency Act, which states that the owner of a website is not personally responsible in law for what anyone who uses the site might say. At issue in this case was a comment posted on Politics.ie about the Taoiseach’s former secretary, Gráinne Carruth. A Dublin legal firm contacted Cochrane asking for the comment to be removed. Cochrane said he complied ‘‘within minutes’’. He also asked the website server Google to remove the material from its search facility, which it did after a week. Cochrane agrees the comment was potentially controversial. However, he said he believed the Dublin law firm was asking him to breach the Data Protection Act, in asking him to identify six website users who had become involved in the online discussion. Concerned about his potential liability over the incident, he posted the correspondence in full on Politics.ie. Two days later he had transferred both his site, plus five years of data associated with it, to a US server. He said he feared that, if the solicitors successfully pursued Hosting 365, the operator of the Irish server, it might be compelled to shut him down. The incident has been much discussed on forums online, often compounding the original libel - an example of the grey area that operators of discussion boards inhabit, from a legal perspective. Many posters to web discussion sites do so anonymously, and their language can be colourful. The sites tend to depend on in-house regulation and the vigilance of established users. Cochrane said he did not believe in facilitating free-for-all online comment. He did not allow ongoing court cases to be discussed on the site, but made an exception for Ireland’s tribunals on the grounds of public interest. Since he launched Politics.ie five years ago, he said he had received solicitors’ letters about items about once every three or four months. He has always complied with requests to remove offensive material. He has also ‘‘informally operated’’ according to what he calls the DGDS rule - standing for Don’t Get Dave Sued. He said he and his team of content moderators - about a dozen people who represent a variety of political perspectives - regularly query postings and remove things when they seem questionable. Since the latest spat, he has also introduced new rules to his site. There is a warning system for users who post material that is libellous or bordering on libel. After ten warnings, they will be banned, he said. ‘‘The site is about opinions, and those opinions will often be more controversial than anything in a newspaper,” he said. ‘‘But the people who post on my website need to be responsible for what they say. This is my site and my responsibility. I don’t have a legal cloak that protects me.” Cochrane’s position is not unique and his dilemma could face any number of bloggers and operators of well-used discussion boards, such as Askaboutmoney.com and Boards. ie. Moderators like himself also worry about loose remarks people might make online about, for instance, stock investments, where a desire for personal gain might adversely affect share prices. Cochrane and the operators of several other Irish sites plan to come together this summer to frame a document, outlining their position, which they will give to the government for consideration as part of its Defamation Bill. Cochrane said the new bill should cover online media as well as traditional media. Cochrane, a former Progressive Democrat, who is campaign manager for the Libertas anti-Lisbon Treaty campaign, said he had considered shutting down his website. ‘‘A couple of barristers who use the site told me I should shut the whole thing down or I might end up bankrupted.” Politics.ie, which regularly attracts posts from named politicians, has around 12,000 registered users and gets 12,000 to 14,000 visitors a day.

[uSwitch247.com]

also thanks for the comments so far - will still be greatful for more - keep em coming