UKOnline...Gone to the dogs???? (ukonline.co.uk)

Member Name: superramwales

Product:	ukonline.co.uk
Date:	23/01/02 (61 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fair links to information, reasonably easy to use, Opportunity to debate

Disadvantages: Oppressive debate forums, Over moderated, Boring

This week saw the reformatting of CitizenSpace (including YourSay) debating forums.

Typical of any Government they just can't seem to resist themselves trying to fix something that ain't broke!!

Initially the forums had "technical" problems, which meant the service was down more than up.
The "new" forums are all subject to pre-moderation, which means you enter a comment, maybe a reply from another poster and...hey presto it doesn't come up for anything up to one hour, on a good day it may be as little as fifteen minutes.

Looking at the TV adverts for UKOnline, which states the Government want to get everyone talking to each other, it would seem one would need to be able to perform miracles to achieve this in the present format.

The moderation is so tight it is more akin to a gagging procedure.

When questioned about the "new" pre-moderation", the editor said this needed to be done because of "security" issues.

Last week there was much good debating on the Your Say forums of UK Online, the forums, which deal with many areas of interest were active with many different authors of postings, over a while one gets to "know" different people and soon find common interests or pet hates of each regular poster, the forums quickly becoming a "virutal" family, and like most families good debate and arguments soon became the norm.

However, the new format prevents this and has, in its present form, killed free speech stone dead.

What the TV advert indicates is NOT what you will get on these forums.
If you want to fill a form in online or find out general questions then you may find the site useful.

However it appears selective in what it offers!!

If you want an experience of what life may have been like under a dictatorship have a look at the forums for yourself.

Let's hope they see sense and rev
ert back or that another site will offer good debating forums.

This site was recommended by a friend and I shall enjoy having a look round it.

Summary: