Alan,
You have Locked the Ownerships messageboard.

Nobody (you say) asked you to take it over, you just did.

We have disagreed in the past and we disagree now. The messageboard is one of the important parts of sorting out the Ownerships train-wreck. It's nowhere near perfect, but it is important.

I too have a bravenet board which I can administer, and I can see the information available to administrators. From my lofty heights of 30 years in the IT industry (and I don't deny your similar experience) you just ought to know the technical constraints of making assumptions about IP addresses. It may well be that people are making postings under different anonymous identities. In which case you can, like the rest of us, soberly make reasoned rebuttals and leave the readers to make their own conclusions.

As to adverts, adverts are adverts: and we can all see a sales pitch for what it is - in our current circumstances quite often useful contributions.

If you wish to defend Ownerships people from being challenged, then you say you are a "narrowboatworld" journalist - do a proper journalist's job and report what they say - and analyse it to give us a balanced picture.

And Leave Our Board Alone

Oh, and why would we want to invite a journalist to this afternoon's meeting, btw?

Ragards
Angry of Fulbourne
aka Peter Scott

Peter,I quite agree with you regarding Allan locking the board and I have e-mailed him to tell him so!

I agree - it's outrageous

Mr Richards

I have e-mailed you my thoughts on locking down Ownerships Board. Needless to say I concur with the previous posts. Please open it again NOW!

I too think Peter makes several valid points.
Will the board be fully censored in future with only pro Ownerships posting allowed?
Perhaps all future discusions should be on this forum?

Although now in a private syndicate (and it's quite easy to administer actually) I was with OwnerShips for many years and I truly feel for all the owners and some of the staff.

The main reasons I left O/S was the sheer size it was becoming (since which it's more than doubled!)a vague suspicion about usage of my money (easy in hindight) and the slowness of response to boat requests for day to day repairs and/or maintenance. Boatyards are more than happy to deal with your boat direct and all it takes is for one syndicate member to volunteer to be the focal point with perhaps a couple of others helping out. It's loads cheaper, far more satisfactory and you get a real sense of ownership and involvement. River Canal Rescue (the AA of the waterways) membership useful, reasonable and reassuring.

Finally a request relating to the thread. This message board, admirably run by Philip, is for the benefit of all shared owners. It would be a shame to see it swamped by O/S owners because their own board has suddenly been 'moderated'.

This is about freedom of speech (or in this case posting), but it is also about required monitoring and moderation.

We live in an age were freedom of speech is luckily available (at least in our corner of the world), and this is one of the highest prizes to keep fighting for. So is Alan Richards threatening it?

Not really, he isn't. He has taken over the board to keep it open in the first place. This should be applauded by all. He now has a burden he probably did not want because providing a platform bringss also at least a moral if not legal responsibility.

There are wild accusations flying about. I am glad to say that amongst the thousands of postings they are a small minority, but they are disruptive and in many cases insulting to others. Which is something not included in the right to freedom of speech.

May be he is not dong it perfectly, but he was the one who stepped into a breach. And I did not nor do see the long queue of others wanting to do the same.

So while there is ample room for disagreement with Alan or about his actions, it should not be about is actions on the board. He kept our version of Hyde Par corner going, and if at times he asks someone to step down from his box it may not always be the right decision, but this is to be expected.

As for this board here - well, I had always hoped that there would be room for two boards, and whle there is room, one of the rooms is sadly unpopulated. May be we see a bit more general traffic here now?