Well, it's been a while since I posted here, but I am wondering how the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA) might affect the posting of comments or 'replies' to comments made here at Classic Camp Stoves. I am a member of three other clubs (car and motorcycle), and one of the bike clubs (2,300 members) have had a committee decision made to stop all replies to comments posted on their club forum. This has been met with a lot of flack from many members, as the forum is the place where communication between members is most active, just as it is with many clubs. Such has been the outcry against said 'decision' that the thread has been locked. The claim from the committee is that certain aspects of the forum might breach the OSA regulations which encompass any means of communication that can be used as a 'messaging tool', this includes replies to comments made. The club in question has been deemed to be "Read Only" as of the 16th March 2025, effectively making their forum obsolete. One of the other clubs has replied to my query (as above), and deemed that it did not affect them, as they had taken adequate action to avoid any such breach, but precisely what that is was not transmitted to me. Another club has commented that it should be brought up for debate at the next committee meeting. So my question is: Does the club have any reason to consider the OSA has any affect upon posts made in the forum which may cause a litigation against them for some as yet unknown reason, and if not, what action or lack of action does the club have with regard to this issue? It seems like an unecessary knee jerk reaction to me, and quite the opposite of what the OSA was originally intended for - primarily to stop children and 'vulnerable adults' from being psychologically 'harmed'. Can a club official/webmaster make any comment on this please? Derek
Start a new forum for the club via a platform such as Proboards- free, easy and takes minutes to set up. That will tide you over until the comittee members are replaced by others with a basic understanding of the subject they are dealing with.
Interesting act. "The Online Safety Act 2023 (the Act) is a new set of laws that protects children and adults online. It puts a range of new duties on social media companies and search services, making them more responsible for their users’ safety on their platforms. The Act will give providers new duties to implement systems and processes to reduce risks their services are used for illegal activity, and to take down illegal content when it does appear. " First of all although this site is based in UK I wonder what portion of the membership is UK and how it would apply to non UK members. Of course though the precedent has already been set by the likes of facebook which has for years places American rules and values on the rest of the world. Also many other countries have enacted similar legislation. Ausi for instance now has a blanket ban on those under 18 joining social media. The question then is if classic campstoves qualifies as social media. It would be easy to impose a r18 rule on the group and most problems go away but I can remember at least 1 member who was quite active here from well below that age. He was treated respectfully by everyone and was a valuable part of this place. The other part of course is just more work for the moderators but really how often is content that breaches the spirit of the act posted? My guess would be less than not very often. We are a special interest group and for the most part stay away from politics religion and personal attacks. As long as things remain that we I believe this forum has little to worry about
Gentlemen, thank you one and all. I had taken a look at the 'Act' and failed to see how any of it directly or indirectly could affect the posting of comparatively harmless banter and shared advice between folk on a motorcycle club forum. Certainly not to the extent that would cause the club to declare all forum posts would be "Read only", it didn't and doesn't make sense. No other club that I have approached so far has felt recourse to such a move. I think our club committee hasn't pre-heated a burner correctly. I tried to find a reference to rule 18, but have failed to find it, not on the Ofcom site or within the Act. All the same, many thanks for the prompt responses.
The thing is unless committee are the only ones able to post anyone can reply by starting a new post. A lot of mess for very little gain
That would appear to be how it would work Geeves. Even individuals not on the committee would post a comment as a new thread, and be denied any reply - or assistance. At least two people have left the forum (others have said they would leave the club as paid members). It's a form of suicide for the club, if not that, then a serious injury to commonsense. Currently it is indeed a mess. I see r18 relates to age. Missed that.
