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Sideshoots - associated subjects / News, Help and Assistance / Changing content of the domain home page as the new Coffee Shop settles in
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on: Today at 11:31:27
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Just over two weeks ago, the Coffee Shop moved from http: to https: and with a new page at the top of the domain. And at that time, the main thing for that front page waste say - to regular members - was, yes, this is the Coffee Shop and provide navigation. The purpose of the page changes ... rather than the short term re-assurance that it IS the Coffee Shop, we can take up the "real estate" of the big headline with: * A welcome to newcomers including data on how to reach us * Status data on the Coffee Shop's recent operation which is more useful in the longer term and with the changing need of that page. The page still - and will continue - to carry the main navigation icons and links to the resources on the Coffee Shop which are either to the right on a laptop, or below on a narrow device such as a phone. Description here - if it's useful to you - on the status line which flags (from latest first) the most recent activity. At this stage, a link on a single letter (occasionally symbol) indicates a public post which is the most recent addition to a thread, the letter or symbol differing from board to board.  Here are some of the status letters @ - Who's Who B - Fares Fair C - Buses and other ways [ - Help and assistance It's just one line on the report - very useful to me. If you don't like it, please ignore. |
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Sideshoots - associated subjects / News, Help and Assistance / The Coffee Shop, online safety and the Online Safety Act
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on: Today at 09:56:02
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An article in The Guardian, and an item on the BBC» , have highlighted the Online Safety Act over the weekend. Thank you to members who have asked whether it might relate to the Coffee Shop forum, especially in following up the article in the Guardian in which one operator of multiple small online communities with very different specialities is planning/threatening to pull the plug on her communities. Management Summary:The Great Western Coffee Shop Passenger Forum carries on through the updates / additions to online safety laws. The safety of our members, guests and the wider community has always been paramount and that commitment does not change. More detail:Our moderator and admin team and webmaster are reviewing the implications of the new legal position. We believe that we already meet the user safety requirements (in 17 areas) that the law is intended to address. Yes - we have read and circulate the 17 around our team. You may see minor updates in places to conform to the letter in addition to the spirit of the law. GDPR, Cookies, Accessibility, Safety - the law as to what is and isn't allowed online and what is required of sites ans providers has changed over the years, with new jigsaw pieces coming into play in what started off as a new, and unregulated, environment. Web sites such as the Coffee Shop forum are minnows compared to the big fish that the various laws look to address, but never the less we must take them into account and act appropriately. In some cases - and the current new legal position is a good example - the complexity and volume of information provided to meet a vast range of cases feels overwhelming, and also questions arise as to whether the new law / legal position takes away freedoms or imposes overburdening regulation. Against that framework, here is a summary of what is required of us ... The illegal content safety duties, and those relating to reporting and complaints, focus on keeping people safe online. It’s about making sure you have the right measures in place to protect people from harm that could take place on your service.
If you are the provider of a user-to-user service, it means you will need to:
* take proportionate steps to prevent your users encountering illegal content
* mitigate and manage the risk of offences taking place through your service
* mitigate and manage the risks identified in your illegal content risk assessment
* swiftly remove illegal content when you become aware of it, and minimise the time it is present on your service
* explain how you’ll do this in your terms of service
* allow people to easily report illegal content and operate a complaints procedure
If you are the provider of a search service, it means you'll need to:
* take proportionate steps to minimise the risk of your users encountering illegal content via search results
* mitigate and manage the risks identified in your illegal content risk assessment
* explain how you’ll do this in a publicly available statement
* allow people to easily report illegal content and operate a complaints procedure Our systems / procedures / moderator team already do most of this. The quoted summary says "will" but we already do. There are a couple of elements where - thinking "worst case" - we could add a few lines of preventative code to have the forum flag automatically something that has never happened. That is rather than occasional manual checks I have made in the past. It is worth updating the required public statements, reporting and complaint procedures all in a single obvious-to-find container (there are links on the bottom of every page anyway!) Perhaps worth my while to add - what you will NOT see. You will not see any switch towards a more interventionist moderation as a result of these law changes. You will continue to see the Coffee Shop maintained as a safe place. And also a place where your views and thoughts remain welcome and help fertilise conversation, even if those views are not aligned with those of our team who help keep the place safe. |
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All across the Great Western territory / Buses and other ways to travel / Re: Paddle Steamer Waverley - merged posts
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on: Yesterday at 22:57:24
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Hoping to take a trip this summer - https://waverleyexcursions.co.uk/2025 DATES BY SAILING AREA
Waverley’s 2025 sailing programme will be release area-by-area in early 2025.
First public sailing of 2025 – Friday 16th May
Clyde Spring Sailings – Friday 16th May – Sunday 18th May
Glasgow to Oban sailing – Monday 19th May
Oban & Inner Hebrides – Tuesday 20th May – Tuesday 27th May
North Wales & The Mersey – Thursday 29th May – Sunday 1st June
Bristol Channel & South West Wales – Monday 2nd June – Tuesday 24th June
Northern Ireland – tbc
Glasgow & Clyde Coast Summer – Friday 27th June – Monday 25th August
South West – Thursday 28th August – Monday 1st September
South Coast & Isle of Wight – Monday 1st September – Tuesday 24th September
London & Thames Estuary – Wednesday 25th September – Sunday 12th October
Glasgow & Clyde Coast Autumn – Saturday 18th & Sunday 19th October |
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All across the Great Western territory / Media about railways, and other means of transport / Re: Sunday Times Travel supplement - 14 page rail special
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on: Yesterday at 10:27:20
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Online version - and with a different picture https://www.thetimes.com/travel/advice/meet-the-interrailers-the-best-part-is-discovering-underrated-towns-tc80kzdgqGraham Ellis, 70, retired IT trainer from Melksham, Wiltshire
Graham Ellis found that much of interrailing was simpler than expected
Graham travelled with his wife, Lisa, 70
I did an Interrail trip around Eastern Europe and the Baltics in 2022 and utterly enjoyed it. So I did another one last spring, with my wife joining me for part of it. I got a three-month pass, the longest one you can get, and made three separate trips. Lisa got a shorter pass and joined me for a fortnight, going down to Sicily via Switzerland, then back through Austria and Paris.
I found a lot of it much simpler than I anticipated. But when you get somewhat remote it can be testing at times. When I was on my own, I went across Poland, up through the Baltics and across to Finland, and that was interesting because sometimes you have to make a seat reservation when you’re already in the country. There’s only one train a day from Lithuania into Latvia and unfortunately it was full, so I had to spend an extra day in what turned out to be a rather charming town called Siauliai. I just went online and booked a B&B.
One of the nice things about interrailing is that while everyone goes and stays in places like Amsterdam and Prague, you can stop in some very lovely little towns 20 or 30 miles away and use the pass to get in and out. You’ve got a chance to see more of the country; it’s almost like the opposite of cruising.
I have another ticket booked for this year and Lisa is going to join me for about half the time. We’re probably going to go across on the Harwich to Hook of Holland ferry, then over to Rostock on the Baltic coast of Germany, on to Gdansk and down through Austria, across the south of France to Spain and then back home on the ferry. In pedant mode - a couple of dates got mixed in translation and I describe the city in Lithuania as "Interesting" rather than "Charming". |
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All across the Great Western territory / Diary - what's happening when? / The Community Rail Network / Rail awards 2025
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on: Yesterday at 08:29:24
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The Community Rail Network / Rail awards are to be held in Newcastle upon Tyne on 13th March 2025 https://communityrail.org.uk/events-and-campaigns/community-rail-awards/We are delighted to announce that our 20th anniversary Community Rail Awards will take place on Thursday 13 March 2025, at Newcastle Civic Centre, closely supported by our headline partner Lumo, and other industry sponsors.
Highly respected throughout the industry, our prestigious Awards are all about celebrating the passion, commitment, innovation, and best practice in community rail, recognising the volunteers, groups and partnerships doing wonderful work on behalf of their communities and railways. They give community rail the chance to shine, showcasing the array of work happening across Britain, and showing influencers and decision makers what community rail achieves.
This milestone Awards will also align with the celebrations of Railway 200. |
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Sideshoots - associated subjects / News, Help and Assistance / Re: Some Site Statistics
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on: January 11, 2025, 21:55:01
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First server stats over the BIG changes - with thanks to Google Analytics sorting out the wood from the trees: Traffic level - number of visitors over the last 4 weeks (solid) and previous 4 (dashed). Systems flagged up a warning that traffic was low on 25th December (can't imagine why) then again on 28th (not a surprise as I moved the domain. Good to see it rebuilding from there  And here's a visitor by country - showing 199 out of 211 in the UK▸ which is a marvellous conformation of real human traffic of around 200 guests a day.  |
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All across the Great Western territory / Who's who on Western railways / Re: The User Group onion
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on: January 11, 2025, 18:47:35
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You omitted Transport Focus / London Travelwatch - they do both still have statutory duties for passengers Rail Ombudsman https://www.railombudsman.org/Transport Focus is in the article's footnote to explain. It is not a user group - it is a statutory body that is under the control of statute and does what HMG has told it. Same for the Ombudsman - the one time I asked them to look into something they told me (very nicely) that it's not in their jurisdiction which confirms it's not really doing whatever the passenger groups mandate - it's doing what Heidi and her team tell it. London TravelWatch is also a statutory body. It's also nothing to do with Wiltshire. |
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All across the Great Western territory / Who's who on Western railways / Re: TravelWatch SouthWest - merged posts
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on: January 11, 2025, 11:07:02
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An update from TravelWatch SouthWest for Coffee Shop members - we (speaking on behalf of TWSW» ) have a temporary domain and email addresses while issues with the old one are sorted out. It is at https://www.travelwatchsouthwest.org.uk - that's an extra .uk on the end which is probably the right name for an organisation in Britain rather than International anyway. Once the proper domain name is back to receiveing emails and with updated content, both the old and new will be pointed to the same place so that you can bookmark either to your heart's content. Please note that at present emails sent to TravelWatch addressed WITHOUT .uk on the end are being lost in transit and not received. Dates for your diary - 21st March 2025 for our next general meeting in Taunton. 13th and 14th June 2025 for the European Passenger Federation meeting at Steam in Swindon. I have also been updating our Social Media - again links via https://www.travelwatchsouthwest.org.uk to those being actively maintained. There is so much social media around these days - Facebook remains obvious, but after that others are less so. The X / Twitter feed from TWSW was never particularly active and with its short messages really provided only pointers to other content. I have added Blue Sky and Instagram feeds as dipping toes in those waters - no guarantee of their longevity but let's see. There are also significant numbers of movers and shakers on LinkedIn and although TravelWatch SouthWest has only limited presence there as an organisation, I have included a link.  TravelWatch SouthWest members - please feel free to address questions to Bryony via the secretary address or to me or to Rachel or to David or other directors via - err - any email addresses you know EXCEPT the .org ones, as emails to there are lost in the ether at the moment. And there is a lot of really good stuff on the proper page that will be accessible again and I'm hoping sooner rather than later. |
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Sideshoots - associated subjects / Campaigns for new and improved services / Re: Birthday trip, Melksham to Penzance - 28th January 2025
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on: January 10, 2025, 22:22:50
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Wondering aloud, perhaps alighting at St Erth and taking the branch to St Ives and back to St Erth.
Then (timings permitting) take a HST▸ to Camborne, thence HST to Penzance?
Will take a look - but I suspect the advance/sale fare does not allow me to end my journey before my ticketed station? I remember someone getting into serious trouble buying a "This train only" London to Southampton Central ticket and getting off at Eastleigh. There’s no barriers and never seen a revenue check at StErth, but I’m sure they could arrange one knowing what train you’re on  Logic is to ask the train manager if I can get off at St Erth. Unlikely to refuse and it's then done with permission, so allowed. |
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