Big sad forum news - Online Safety Act

[Maz]

I'm looking into that at the moment. Keeping just the home page and articles online after the forum closes on the 16th and then archiving them possibly. Trying to get as much information as possible from various sources at the moment.

From the Offcom information, it is ok to leave the home page online for a while, providing no one can interact with it any more. And I've gone through all the articles removing hyperlinks/links and changed them to plain text. ie if no one can interact and there are no hyperlinks or links to click, then that page wouldn't come under the current legislation.

Will keep you all updated. Look forward to seeing you on Instagram. I'll start posting more on Instagram in a few days when I've got all this sorted.

 

[Doodleham]

So sorry to hear this. I've enjoyed my time in this forum.

 

[Maz]

I hope you'll keep connecting with us on Instagram?

 

[Socks' Mum]

Yes, definitely perhaps things will change and we will be able to have the forum start again. Could it be put on hold rather than dismantled? Big government has taken away so much without having anything to offer in return. I know the internet needs to be made safe but punishing conscientious people is the wrong way to do it.

 

[Hammy Chum]

Wait what???? Oh no!!! I'm gutted, this forum has literally been SO helpful as a new hamster owner and especially @Maz who has been just amazing and so kindly taken the time to reply in details to all my random questions. This is so sad!!!

I'd say if there is any way you can leave as just a website that will still be so useful. I'm so sorry this has happened. I will follow on Instagram now.

 

[Socks' Mum]

This is such a terrible shame, I will be on Instagram as long as I'm allowed.. I, alongside a large number of other group admins, were banned from Facebook for "fraud and deception" and in spite of appealing, were told to get a lawyer if we didn't like it.. so my participation on meta platforms is limited. But I would hate to lose contact with you all, so I'll follow on Instagram.

It is such a shame all the articles will no longer be out there for people to read, it's such a good source of up to date information! The Facebook guinea pig group I used to admin for, prior to the ban, is setting up a website to move all the articles and information we published into, so it is still available to the public. I wonder if that would be an option for all your hard work?? I must admit I don't understand the new legislation and all the fine details so maybe not.

Either way, thankyou for all the hard work you put into making this forum what it was, kind, informative, inclusive..a real community. I will most definitely miss it when it's gone.

Yes, the guinea pig community in Los Angeles was banned enough mass. I think it had something to do with changing a setting from business to private to make a video, not something you would perhaps consider deeply suspicious, but the bot had a blanket banning tantrum and people were banned from Phase Book left right and centre. Wheekers is OK though.

This forum was kind and thoughtful and immensely personal and real. It was a model of good internet practice.

 

[Lovelyness]

Yes, it's not just hamsters...its community... and not everywhere feels like that

 

[Socks' Mum]

Yes, the guinea pig community in Los Angeles was banned enough mass. I think it had something to do with changing a setting from business to private to make a video, not something you would perhaps consider deeply suspicious, but the bot had a blanket banning tantrum and people were banned from Phase Book left right and centre. Wheekers is OK though.

This forum was kind and thoughtful and immensely personal and real. It was a model of good internet practice.

En mass not enough mass

 

[Maz]

Yes, definitely perhaps things will change and we will be able to have the forum start again. Could it be put on hold rather than dismantled? Big government has taken away so much without having anything to offer in return. I know the internet needs to be made safe but punishing conscientious people is the wrong way to do it.

It's not quite that simple unfortunately. I am trying to work the odd thing out but it's very time consuming. I'm hoping to just leave the home page online - view only - no interaction, no login. I need to do a lot in settings to dumb it down to achieve that. I've already removed any clickable links from the articles and replaced them with text of web addresses (ie not clickable). I've removed all the sharing icons from that page so there's nothing clickable.

The rest of the site will have to be "turned off". So it's not viewable. So technically, yes, it could feasibly be started up again if I leave it like that. However, I am pretty sure it won't be possible. The legislation is very specific - to avoid risk to children a site needs to have no user to user interaction, no clickable links. It might even extend to moderators needing a DBS as well as age verification software. They are aiming the legislation at the hard stuff but anything on the internet could technically be a risk to children if they can interact with others or click on links.

So I can't see it will lead to the forum being able to start up again. But yes it will just be "turned off" for now. I can't even leave resources viewable because resources involve clickable links.

But I am hoping to be able to just leave the Home page up. The only issue with that now is the login button would still be active on the home page. That is one thing I can't remove (without some programming help which might be possible).

It might be that I have to delete all user accounts so no one can log in. Also for GDPR so I'm not storing any user details in the server.

What that would mean is - if the forum ever did start up again, everyone would need to open a new account. Although that's not too bad.

I'll keep you posted, but my brain has been working in overdrive for the last two days.

The intention however at the moment is just keep the home page online, with the articles, which is viewable to everyone, but nobody can interact with it. Read only.

 

[Socks' Mum]

Sorry to hear you are having to do all this Maz. I hope everything falls into place

 

[Emx93]

This is so sad! Very sorry to hear this, I don't use Instagram (think I have an account from years ago but not sure how to work it ) I do have Facebook and tiktok though if anyone has those?

 

[BlueElephant]

I am so sad to read this. I have only just joined and don't yet own a hamster! I just wanted to say how incredibly helpful all the articles are. As a newbee doing research they have been invaluable in helping point me in the right direction of what to buy. I hope you can find a way of keeping them available to people in some format. It's clear to see how much effort has been invested in this site. It must be very upsetting to see it come to an end.

 

[Maz]

This is so sad! Very sorry to hear this, I don't use Instagram (think I have an account from years ago but not sure how to work it ) I do have Facebook and tiktok though if anyone has those?

The idea is to connect as a group on Instagram It might be worth trying I'm afraid I don't use the others you mentioned.

 

[Maz]

I am so sad to read this. I have only just joined and don't yet own a hamster! I just wanted to say how incredibly helpful all the articles are. As a newbee doing research they have been invaluable in helping point me in the right direction of what to buy. I hope you can find a way of keeping them available to people in some format. It's clear to see how much effort has been invested in this site. It must be very upsetting to see it come to an end.

Thank you so much. I will post the links to the archived home page articles in another thread in case you want to copy them. But hopefully the home page will be staying online. Maybe you'd like to connect up with us on Instagram? The intention is to keep the sharing and group on there.

The forum's Instagram account is now called Hamster Hub maz_hamster_hub