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[southpaw82]

PepiPoo had a bit of an ‘episode’ last week, leading to it being out of action for a while. I am a moderator of this site but not an administrator - meaning that when things go wrong, I can’t do anything about it. I will keep moderating PepiPoo as long as it exists.

A new site has been set up over at FTLA. Anyone is welcome to post here on PepiPoo, on FTLA, or both.

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[MJdev]

You can use both sites but, anyone privately messaging to suggest new members join another forum will be permanently banned. I've seen the private messages from long term members, this is the only warning.

I've re-enabled the last active on the root admin account.

[Incandescent]

You can use both sites but, anyone privately messaging to suggest new members join another forum will be permanently banned. I've seen the private messages from long term members, this is the only warning.

I've re-enabled the last active on the root admin account.

OK, so if you are now controlling the site, maybe you can set yourself up as an admininstrator, because the one named person (Mika), seems to have disappeared some time ago. This site can suffer very long response times; is anybody dealing with that, at all ? The platform allows very little space for posting documents or photos. Maybe time to modernise ?

[Boomer]

I've seen the private messages from long term members, this is the only warning.

So "Private Messages" are not private???

This is worrying (and possibly illegal)!

[mickR]

it would be nice to see more input from DJ dev rather than just hoping up sporadically with a single post.
I would suggest threatening to ban certain people (we know who that was aimed at) months after the horse has bolted and left the stable door wide open, is falling somewhst short of the other issues regarding administration and help with moderation.

@DJdev what are your plans to rectify this?

[southpaw82]

I've seen the private messages from long term members, this is the only warning.

So "Private Messages" are not private???

This is worrying (and possibly illegal)!

I definitely can’t read them. Of course, that’s not to say that they haven’t been forwarded on.

This post has been edited by southpaw82: Wed, 28 Feb 2024 - 18:44

[mickR]

@SP
has DJdev given you any idea of plans for the future?

[mickR]

according to his profile, fredd was on here on the 23rd Feb at 10.47 ??

[southpaw82]

@SP
has DJdev given you any idea of plans for the future?

No.

[astralite]

As far as I can ascertain, Fredd’s first post was: http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showto...=0&#entry10 . As our webmaster/admin Fredd posted frequently and I think his last appearance (until 23rd Feb 2024) may have been on 29 Feb 2020, on 'Completed Case Summaries’. Mika, who I think was most interested in the criminal aspects and the ECHR case was last seen on 19 Nov 2012.

I consider using PePiPoo’s private messaging system to undermine PePiPoo is and has been a cynical misuse and abuse of PePiPoo’s resources.

It is of great credit to the founders that this site has provided so much for over 20 years but Incandescent and mickR are on the point. Updating is now very much needed and a site cannot run effectively without good admin and moderation. We need Fredd and Mika (who I believe to be Steve Smith and Mike Morgan, the co-founders and owners of the site) to appoint assistants/replacements/backup.

I am completely non techy. Can MJdev/Fredd or others tell me what this means? ‘I've re-enabled the last active on the root admin account.’

[andy_foster]

Considering that Fredd's "last active" time/date is now visible, which it wasn't previously, I'm gonna have to say that the meaning is more cryptic and obscure than the Da Vinci code.

[mickR]

it also only means that "someone" not necessarily Fredd has accessed that profile.

[MJdev]

I've seen the private messages from long term members, this is the only warning.

So "Private Messages" are not private???

This is worrying (and possibly illegal)!

Actually it was first reported to me that some new and long term members have been advertising through PM, and then multiple well known high posting accounts sent me proof of it happening.

[MJdev]

As far as I can ascertain, Fredd’s first post was: http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showto...=0&#entry10 . As our webmaster/admin Fredd posted frequently and I think his last appearance (until 23rd Feb 2024) may have been on 29 Feb 2020, on 'Completed Case Summaries’. Mika, who I think was most interested in the criminal aspects and the ECHR case was last seen on 19 Nov 2012.

I consider using PePiPoo’s private messaging system to undermine PePiPoo is and has been a cynical misuse and abuse of PePiPoo’s resources.

It is of great credit to the founders that this site has provided so much for over 20 years but Incandescent and mickR are on the point. Updating is now very much needed and a site cannot run effectively without good admin and moderation. We need Fredd and Mika (who I believe to be Steve Smith and Mike Morgan, the co-founders and owners of the site) to appoint assistants/replacements/backup.

I am completely non techy. Can MJdev/Fredd or others tell me what this means? ‘I've re-enabled the last active on the root admin account.’

I've said a few times I haven't left and I've been backend doing lots of things, including notifying you all of planned downtime. Mika's ability to login was previously restricted a long time ago by myself.

There will be lots of updates coming, and members that have kept the site going while I have been in the background (but still here) will be heavily recognised. That's why I enabled my last active on my root account, so you can see both accounts when I login.

In due course southpaw will move up and then other moderators will be appointed

[Boomer]

Actually it was first reported to me that some new and long term members have been advertising through PM, and then multiple well known high posting accounts sent me proof of it happening.

That sounds reasonable - thanks for clarifying the matter

[Schofeldt]

This issue is all about trust amongst us all, motives and what we want to achieve. I have spent the whole day at the Tribunal today in my capacity as observer.* Two of the three or four guys were there doing their inimitable thing. This whole saga is rather sad, actually.

*I will not divulge the rather humorous interchange between one adjudicator and me on this issue. But, I will give you a clue: next time (Saturday) I will appear as a representative, I may wear an L logo on my tee shirt!

[Incandescent]

Just looked at my own profile, and I see I joined Pepipoo in 2012, so I've been posting for a long time. Over those years the councils, and Transport for London have become more and more venal and rapacious, and the effort is just to get the money in at all costs, and bu**er the motorist. Extensive and fundamental reform is needed to remove the cash incentive. CCTVs are now just cash cameras.

[Schofeldt]

Over those years the councils, and Transport for London have become more and more venal and rapacious, and the effort is just to get the money in at all costs, and bu**er the motorist. Extensive and fundamental reform is needed to remove the cash incentive. CCTVs are now just cash cameras.

As per yesterday: even to the tune of potentially asking for 900 Red Route allowed appeals to be reviewed while they issue ca. a quarter of a million PCNs a year merely for this contravention. I was there and heard it all. 2230282004

This post has been edited by Schofeldt: Fri, 1 Mar 2024 - 12:48

[mickR]

these things need to be made widely public, anyone know an itv/bbc journalist?

edit, how did we get to this far off topic??

This post has been edited by mickR: Fri, 1 Mar 2024 - 15:08

[Sparxy]

I've said a few times I haven't left and I've been backend doing lots of things, including notifying you all of planned downtime. Mika's ability to login was previously restricted a long time ago by myself.

There will be lots of updates coming, and members that have kept the site going while I have been in the background (but still here) will be heavily recognised. That's why I enabled my last active on my root account, so you can see both accounts when I login.

In due course southpaw will move up and then other moderators will be appointed

I think the concern was the cryptic post from a brand new account, just glad you're sorting things out!

Whilst I have no idea what updates you're thinking of, may I suggest using something like Cloudflare? It'll reduce load on the website server by caching static content, and potentially reduce load times and increase responsiveness for visitors. They do offer a free plan which I expect Pepipoo would fit into (subject to T+Cs), plus SSL as standard (free) even if the underlying web server isn't running SSL. It'll also display nice error messages for users if the web server goes down for any reason, rather than just a "Connection failed" message.

So "Private Messages" are not private???

This is worrying (and possibly illegal)!

Whilst large companies / web services will (should) have safeguards in place for who (think developers, employees) can actually access the underlying databases for online services, including the use of segregation of PII from other data and encryption in certain circumstances, webmasters and administrators of smaller websites will have direct access to the database and so can read anything stored in it.

Private messages get stored in the database just like any other topic, post, reaction, etc. System administrators can just look directly at the database to read any personal messages, and IPB likely has an interface for looking at PMs to and from users too. You are sorely mistaken if you think anything sent through the internet is private to the people running the online services unless it is, and has proven to be, fully end-to-end encrypted... and then the other user can just forward that on anyway!

This post has been edited by Sparxy: Sat, 2 Mar 2024 - 02:53