Virgin launch Customer Forum

[musicbravo]

Arthur's gonna have a field day complaining direcly to VM through the medium of forums

[Raistlin]

Originally Posted by Sir John Luke

That's good. Just registered on the site. Clicked on the confirmation e-mail to confirm my e-mail address, and now I get a message saying I'm banned from the site!

.....and people complain that I'm too quick with the big red button

Not a good start that

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by musicbravo

Arthur's gonna have a field day complaining direcly to VM through the medium of forums

That might just tempt me to sign up. It would be so funny to watch

---------- Post added at 19:19 ---------- Previous post was at 19:18 ----------

Originally Posted by Sir John Luke

That's good. Just registered on the site. Clicked on the confirmation e-mail to confirm my e-mail address, and now I get a message saying I'm banned from the site!

You never know you might not be on the pre approved list

Originally Posted by BenMcr

Doesn't that information show up in all website logs anyway?

that is my understanding forum owners have access to most of that information

Not. Bloomin. Likely.

No way am I posting freely in a forum owned by Virgin ... they're not associating my opinions on their service with my customer account, thank you very much. Especially not when there's simply no need to go to an 'official' forum. They have left it far too late - several years late, in fact. In the meantime a number of very useful and wholly independent forums have filled the gap. Naturally I am already an active member of the best one.

[Toto]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

Doesn't that information show up in all website logs anyway?

No, that quote to some may suggest that VM can log the site you visited prior to going to their forum, that isn't correct - and probably needs to be clarified - in that it only logs a referral to the VM discussion forums, such as that of a search engine.

In terms of the other info, then yes, its pretty much standard.

---------- Post added at 19:38 ---------- Previous post was at 19:37 ----------

Originally Posted by musicbravo

Arthur's gonna have a field day complaining direcly to VM through the medium of forums

LOL, that's if they can understand what he's talking about.

That said he has improved over the months with his punctuation.

[joglynne]

Arthur could be our secret weapon. A bit like a one man fifth column. I bet he would enjoy asking some awkward questions and giving them some home truths.

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by zing

that is my understanding forum owners have access to most of that information

That's maybe, however its what they can do with that information to certain types of posters that worries me.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by Toto

No, that quote to some may suggest that VM can log the site you visited prior to going to their forum, that isn't correct - and probably needs to be clarified - in that it only logs a referral to the VM discussion forums, such as that of a search engine.

In terms of the other info, then yes, its pretty much standard.

That's what I meant. I'm pretty sure that if I go from news.bbc.co.uk to here then whoever has access to the weblogs of this forum could see all of the same info e.g. my IP address, Domain that is attached to, what pages I visit here etc etc

[joglynne]

You could always do your own quote-/quote and it would help if the posts were numbered so you could at least refer to the post number that you were replying to.

Originally Posted by BenMcr

That's what I meant. I'm pretty sure that if I go from news.bbc.co.uk to here then whoever has access to the weblogs of this forum could see all of the same info e.g. my IP address, Domain that is attached to, what pages I visit here etc etc

Whether they're particularly bothered to look, except at the aggregated data in order to get an idea of general trends, is of course another matter.

The only thing that bothers me about Virgin running a forum such as the one they have set up is that it will be very, very easy for any of their forum moderators to check the originating IP of any individual post. We can do that here, of course, but then we at Cable Forum don't then have the ability to cross-reference that data with a list of customers' real names and addresses.

I wouldn't have a problem with them knowing who I am if I was having a problem with my service. It might actually help them fix the issue. But I most certainly do mind them knowing who I am if I'm in the mood for a general moan or rant. The point could be moot if they intend for the forum to be simply for raising and dealing with issues. If that's the case they're not likely to allow posts or threads designed for general chatter or moaning. But if they do that, they may well discover they've wasted their time calling it a 'community'. A web-based community needs something to draw it together and keep it together. A sort of basement where everyone can hang out in between serious requests for help ...

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

That's what I meant. I'm pretty sure that if I go from news.bbc.co.uk to here then whoever has access to the weblogs of this forum could see all of the same info e.g. my IP address, Domain that is attached to, what pages I visit here etc etc

Ok i will be blunt this forum is not my employer and would i hope not be giving away my identity to my employer or using said information if i posted something that they did not agree with.

However if the employee posts on a forum owned and moderated by his or her employer and said something that they did not like, what is to stop them using the information they have from the forum to find out who that person is and reprimand him or her. ?????

[Druchii]

The terms of use for the whole Virgin site:
http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html...ms_of_use.html

In it, this:

1. 3.6 Your liability for your content and/or conduct
   Virgin Media shall not be liable for: (a) any user content posted on any Virgin Media Site; or (b) the conduct of any user of any Virgin Media Site. You agree to indemnify and hold Virgin Media, its group undertakings, and each of their directors, officers, and employees, harmless from and against any loss, liability, claim, demand, damages, costs and expenses, including reasonable legal fees arising out of or in connection with: (a) any content posted by you or through your account on any Virgin Media Site; (b) your use of any Virgin Media Site; or (c) any breach of these Terms of Use and/or any Guidelines or of any law or the rights of any third party.
2. 3.7 Termination
   Virgin Media may terminate your account and/or delete any content (including but not limited to your profile) that you have posted on a Virgin Media Site and/or prohibit you from using or accessing any Virgin Media Site (or any part of the same) for any reason, at its sole discretion, with or without notice.

Watch out with what you post...

---------- Post added at 21:46 ---------- Previous post was at 21:42 ----------

And of course, this wall of text relating to Broadband and phone use, courtesy of: http://www.virgin.net/terms/national_bb_terms.shtml

Using our services

1. You are responsible for the way the services are used. You must not use the services to do any of the following acts or allow anyone else to use the services to do such acts:
   1. Send a message or communication that is offensive, abusive, defamatory (damages someone's reputation), obscene, menacing or illegal;
   2. Cause annoyance, nuisance, inconvenience or needless worry to, or break the rights of, any other person;
   3. Perform any illegal activity;
   4. Break, or try to break, the security of anyone else's equipment, hardware or software;
   5. Deliberately receive, use, own, post, transmit or publish obscene material (including, but not limited to, child pornography);
   6. Upload, post, publish or transmit any information or software that is protected by copyright or other ownership rights without the permission of its owner;
   7. Copy or distribute any software or services we provide (but you may make a backup copy of the software we provide for your personal use);
   8. Use any services (including, but not limited to, phone services) for commercial or business purposes;
   9. Use any Internet Protocol (IP) address that we have not assigned to you. Put simply, you may not use your Virgin Media internet connection to harm the service of another internet user or impersonate another user, whether on our network or external to our network. You acknowledge that we may change your Internet Protocol (IP) address from time to time without giving you notice;
   10. use the services in a way that (i) risks degradation of service levels to other customers, (ii) puts our system at risk and/or (iii) is not in keeping with that reasonably expected of a residential customer.
2. If we believe that you are using the services in any of these ways, we are entitled to reduce, suspend and/or terminate any or all of the services without giving you notice

---------- Post added at 21:46 ---------- Previous post was at 21:46 ----------

As i said, be careful what you post/do on in their backyard

[Toto]

Originally Posted by Sirius

Ok i will be blunt this forum is not my employer and would i hope not be giving away my identity to my employer or using said information if i posted something that they did not agree with.

However if the employee posts on a forum owned and moderated by his or her employer and said something that they did not like, what is to stop them using the information they have from the forum to find out who that person is and reprimand him or her. ?????

Nothing, so be careful

Actually, you know what you could do, get a cheap mobile dongle, say a non T-Mobile one and use that connection when posting to th forum.

[Sirius]

I will leave this thread now to those that will be using it. I don't intend to register or use there forum so it is not going to be a issue for me. I have said what i needed to say