You know how it is with these “back office” things on websites – times change, technology moves on and the site evolves as you deal with that. The consequences of that aren’t always as thoroughly appreciated…
However, it has been noticed that our privacy policy made reference to two elements:
- The Members’ Forum, which had faded away unloved and unremarked upon, until we put it to sleep forever in January 2022, removing the material from it the following month.
- The use of a nifty piece of software which allowed the site to verify that those claiming to be members were actually members – it linked to the party’s membership system with a simple question – is this membership number accurate?
The latter ceased to function following an upgrade to the Party’s membership system in early 2019, making it effectively impossible for anyone to join the Members’ Forum. Since then, we have had no means of verifying that those claiming to be members actually are, unless members of the Editorial Team know them personally and that’s not really a viable means of operation at the best of times.
Accordingly, we’ve removed the entire section in order to reflect the actual position as it has existed for some considerable time.
There may be further amendments to the site over the coming weeks as we review the various elements to ensure that they are (a) compliant and (b) accurate going forward, so please bear with us, especially as some of this may require reference to people who are more expert in this stuff than we are.
Indeed, if you do see anything that requires revision, please let us know, explaining what the problem is and why it is a problem.
In the meantime, we hope that you continue to enjoy the number one independent website for Liberal Democrat members and supporters.
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4 Comments
Good to know, I did wonder what happened to the Members’ Forum.
By the way, many thanks for the Flat Earth article – very pithy, to the point, and made me laugh in light of the recent conference stall controversy.
@Kevin
Sorry to disagree, but if you can’t allow comments on a post it would be better not to have the post at all. We don’t want to get like the Guardian, which often doesn’t allow comments – usually indicating that the topic is precisely one on which free speech should be allowed.
Both of these comments are off topic for this post. I will let them stay but no more.
Thanks Caron for updating us on these back-office matters. I understand how busy the volunteers would be. There are also 72 reasons to believe things are going to get even more busy.