Colin Macleod has recently put out this message to all registered users of NewsGrouper:

[quote]
UK Access will be blocked from 16th March

You are seeing this page because you appear to be connecting from an IP address in the UK.

On the 17th of March the UK's new Online Safety Act will start to be enforced. I thank all those who answered my survey on this. However I regret that I have \concluded that it is not practical for this site to comply with the OSA. So from 16th March I will block access from UK IP addresses, which puts it outside the scope of the act.

Other web interfaces to Usenet are available, and may continue to allow UK users,
see Wikipedia. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web-based_Usenet#Web-based_sites_and_popularity> [end of quote]

I guess one could use a VPN but I didn't say that!

--
Cheers, Alan

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Alan B <[email protected]d> wrote:

Colin Macleod has recently put out this message to all registered users of NewsGrouper:

[quote]
UK Access will be blocked from 16th March

You are seeing this page because you appear to be connecting from an IP address in the UK.

On the 17th of March the UK's new Online Safety Act will start to be enforced. I thank all those who answered my survey on this. However I
regret that I have \concluded that it is not practical for this site to comply with the OSA. So from 16th March I will block access from UK IP addresses, which puts it outside the scope of the act.

Other web interfaces to Usenet are available, and may continue to allow UK users, see Wikipedia. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web-based_Usenet#Web-based_sites_and_popula rity> [end of quote]

I guess one could use a VPN but I didn't say that!

I know of a long-standing specialist PHP Bulletin Board that is being
shut down because of fear that the OSA will make the owner liable. This
is a dreadful blow to an already beleagured minority group for whom this
board has been a lifeline and a source of valuable information over many
years.


--
~ Liz Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk

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On 17/02/2025 21:30, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

I know of a long-standing specialist PHP Bulletin Board that is being
shut down because of fear that the OSA will make the owner liable. This
is a dreadful blow to an already beleagured minority group for whom this board has been a lifeline and a source of valuable information over many years.

Please ask them to add themselves here:

<https://onlinesafetyact.co.uk/in_memoriam/>

and also make sure they are archived at least once by

<https://archive.org>

for posterity.

For small "owner operator" sites the whole OSA thing is a nightmare. The consultation process focused on "harms" and no one from the Government
warned that regular sites might be caught-up - so an entire demographic,
so to speak, was never consulted.

The irony is that smaller sites can't afford to play, so small
self-hosted sites either close or move to Facebook et al and their child
users get their privacy screwed (even more) by FB.

--
Bruce Horrocks
Hampshire, England

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Bruce <[email protected]> wrote:

On 17/02/2025 21:30, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

I know of a long-standing specialist PHP Bulletin Board that is being
shut down because of fear that the OSA will make the owner liable. This
is a dreadful blow to an already beleagured minority group for whom this board has been a lifeline and a source of valuable information over many years.

Please ask them to add themselves here:

<https://onlinesafetyact.co.uk/in_memoriam/>

and also make sure they are archived at least once by

<https://archive.org>

for posterity.

There is a lot of personal information in the 'private' section of that
board, so they may not want to archive it in a public place.


--
~ Liz Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 18/02/2025 08:47, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

Bruce <[email protected]> wrote:

On 17/02/2025 21:30, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

I know of a long-standing specialist PHP Bulletin Board that is being
shut down because of fear that the OSA will make the owner liable. This >>> is a dreadful blow to an already beleagured minority group for whom this >>> board has been a lifeline and a source of valuable information over many >>> years.

Please ask them to add themselves here:

<https://onlinesafetyact.co.uk/in_memoriam/>

and also make sure they are archived at least once by

<https://archive.org>

for posterity.

There is a lot of personal information in the 'private' section of that board, so they may not want to archive it in a public place.

*NOTHING* is "private" on the Internet! ;-)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 2025-02-18, Bruce <[email protected]> wrote:

On 17/02/2025 21:30, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

I know of a long-standing specialist PHP Bulletin Board that is being
shut down because of fear that the OSA will make the owner liable. This
is a dreadful blow to an already beleagured minority group for whom this
board has been a lifeline and a source of valuable information over many
years.

Please ask them to add themselves here:

<https://onlinesafetyact.co.uk/in_memoriam/>

and also make sure they are archived at least once by

<https://archive.org>

for posterity.

For small "owner operator" sites the whole OSA thing is a nightmare. The consultation process focused on "harms" and no one from the Government
warned that regular sites might be caught-up - so an entire demographic,
so to speak, was never consulted.

So there should be no impact on Usenet groups then?

The irony is that smaller sites can't afford to play, so small
self-hosted sites either close or move to Facebook et al and their child users get their privacy screwed (even more) by FB.

No thank you!

--
Cheers, Alan

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 18 Feb 2025, Bruce wrote
(in article<[email protected]>):

The irony is that smaller sites can't afford to play, so small
self-hosted sites either close or move to Facebook et al and their child users get their privacy screwed (even more) by FB.

Years back I ran a very small scale web hosting operation. We’re talking
less than ten people, by design.

Rules started coming in about making the operator liable for content etc.,
and I just thought - nope, not doing this one. Exited the business due to the legal uncertainly. That’s around 15 years or more ago now. The latest cut
is just more “think of the children” misplaced nonsense, and it’s only going to get worse.

Most of those who weren’t technical, and let’s face it that’s 98% of politicians if I’m being generous, have no clue other stuff really exists other than the mainstream Facebook et al.. I’m also always amused whenever they demand censorship applied to every upload - they simply have no
conception of how many posts of and how much video is uploaded to a site per day. Most of them could do with getting hold of a copy of The Restaurant At
The End Of The Universe and reading the bit about the Total Perspective
Vortex again and again, until it finally starts to sink in.

Cheers,
Ian

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 2025-02-17, Alan B <[email protected]d> wrote:

Colin Macleod has recently put out this message to all registered users of NewsGrouper:

[quote]
UK Access will be blocked from 16th March

You are seeing this page because you appear to be connecting from an IP address
in the UK.

On the 17th of March the UK's new Online Safety Act will start to be enforced.
I thank all those who answered my survey on this. However I regret that I have
\concluded that it is not practical for this site to comply with the OSA. So from 16th March I will block access from UK IP addresses, which puts it outside
the scope of the act.

Other web interfaces to Usenet are available, and may continue to allow UK users,
see Wikipedia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web-based_Usenet#Web-based_sites_and_popularity>
[end of quote]

I guess one could use a VPN but I didn't say that!

UK access now blocked as from this afternoon (16/3/25). Shame :(

--
Cheers, Alan

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)