No administrators?

[Richard Russell]

It appears that this forum has no administrators (see attached screen shot)! How this situation can have arisen I have no idea, I would have expected it to be impossible, but it explains why my recent attempts to send Private Messages to the admin have failed. Any ideas how this can be resolved?

noadmin.png

[Ric]

Sorry, no

[DDRM]

There must be one or more "founder members" (who don't have to have founded the forum! They can have been given that status later). All founder members have full admin rights.

Best wishes,

D

[Richard Russell]

There must be one or more "founder members" (who don't have to have founded the forum! They can have been given that status later). All founder members have full admin rights.

But surely they must also be 'administrators' and therefore listed as such on the Team page? You can't have a situation where a third party (and I'm particularly thinking here of Ofcom, who need to know who to levy any fines against for example) can't identify who is responsible for running the forum.

The situation we face at the moment is that this forum is operating illegally, that is contrary to the provisions of the Online Safety Act which came into force earlier this year (as interpreted and enforced by Ofcom) and a fine of up to £18 million could theoretically be levied.

This urgently needs to be resolved, but how will that happen if the administrator(s) cannot be identified or contacted?

[Richard Russell]

This urgently needs to be resolved, but how will that happen if the administrator(s) cannot be identified or contacted?

I will tentatively set a deadline for the end of this month (30th September) after which, if nobody with the authority to administer this forum has come forward or been identified, I will delete the forum from the server - that being the only thing I can do.

I would far rather that the forum be retained in some form, perhaps as a read-only resource or as a place where announcements can be made - which are permitted without falling foul of the Online Safety Act - but both require an administrator.

[baz4096]

Rather than see a valuable resource switched off or made read only, I can offer free hosting and admin services in the event of no other suitable alternative presenting itself.

Chris Barrett

[Richard Russell]

Rather than see a valuable resource switched off or made read only, I can offer free hosting and admin services in the event of no other suitable alternative presenting itself.

If you were to become an administrator (or co-administrator) what would your policy be regarding the Online Safety Act? Are you in the same camp as the current administrator, in considering the only safe option to be setting the entire forum to read-only?