Posted By JAI
I ask

What can we do to stop certain individuals from turning this site into a joke, this is an open forum and anyone can join

if we make it a members only site we loose the input of others

Thoughts please

and no this is no wind up

Jai

Posted By JAI
good

so if the Mods do as you mentioned on the timing thread, they can get rid of that pain in rear once and for all

Jai

Posted By Descarte
In my opinon 6 out of the top 10 threads on this site could be utter rubbish time waisting threads where a question has been asked and then no further response from the original poster leaving more people to trail on trying to help a nonesensical open ended common sense question that anyone could probably find the answer too with either 5 mins on the internet or 30 mins burried in a guidance document

Posted By Merv Newman
jai, haven't counted but I think you are a bit harsh with your 6/10 estimate.

And some people, maybe at the start of their careers, or maybe dumped with a problem outside of their experience, may not know which internet site or which guidance document to go to. So they come to us. (must look at the "ponds" thread)

Chill. please.

Posted By sagalout
D, assuming that you meant my suggested work forum?

I was thinking along the lines that such activity would be easier to moderate in a "work" forum. Whether people are being "lazy" or just effectively using time by referring to others who may already know the answer is a choice of perception, who knows which is right since we know nothing of each other in reality.

My point is that if I know that I am "working" I act differently because I check the context and use appropriate behaviour. When I am "chatting", I am doing jsut that. Both are surely valid activity?

For example, I would view any request for help posted on a work forum as genuine. For example, the one I responded today with JAI and the later pond assessment thread. If I subsequently found otherwise, I would report to the moderator and expect action as you describe if the poster did not change or desist.

In a chat forum, podsing a question just to prompt debate is absolutely aceptable. Offering to tell a joke or start a round robin is also acceptable. I just decide whether I have the time to spend and do not worry about whether it is spurious or not. Helps to exercise the brain occassionally. (are there too many consonants in that word or is it my spelling?)

I think this lack of alternative forum means that much is lost to the forum community. But hey ho, time to put the soap box away and enjoy the weekend. I have said all I need to say and do not want to get charged with running a campaign.

Lomg live discussion.

Posted By Andy Walker
The ponds thread seems quite reasonable to me and as the poster is using his 'proper' address (no lets not do the hotmail discussion again)as many do I can't see the reason to doubt his authenticity.

It's easy enough to sort the wheat from the chaff and as has been said many times before "nobody forces anybody to post on here"

I quite enjoy the light hearted threads and occasional wind up and sometimes they do promote serious debate as they move off at a tangent. If that makes me unprofessional then so be it, but it's my belief that the outside world looking in will only see us as human.

Posted By John Murgatroyd
PC IP can be changed, ISP IP changes every log-in.
Problem solved.
Personally, this site would descend into boredom if occupied only by people who agree with each other.
You only have to read the input from the "pro's" to realise that in a few days it would descend into the usual "all workers are lazy, fiddling, time wasting, compensation-seeking *****"

Posted By John Murgatroyd
No problem.
An "open" forum in which people can express their views freely, and a "closed shop" where views on restrictive practices, such as concealment of accidents books, refusal to let union safety reps have information, illegally letting unauthorised people have access to personal information and other little favourites can be discussed.

It seems to me, after a few years reading this forum, that the health and safety professionals on here need to seek legal assistance on many occasions. That is, those that are interested in acting within the legal framework that society has constructed (which seems to be fewer and fewer by the day).

Several are becoming in danger of being labelled arrogant in their dislike of employees, and their consideration that they are right all the time.

Personally, as someone with a deep interest in H&S (since many employers have NO interest in it at all), I can state (with over 30 years in the same industry) that if I, and others, left our H&S&W in the hands of the "professionals" we would be in dire straits indeed. Fortunately, through the guise of the HSE, and more usually the insurance company that bears the liability for the company/ies, some REAL improvements have been achieved. I would like to reiterate that these have been achieved IN SPITE of the H&S professionals and not BECAUSE of them, since in many cases they are responsible for the continuance of bad and dangerous practices, in many cases conveniently ignoring "long term" risks because they ARE long term.

Posted By JAI
Ok

First some good points posted over the weekend, to show you all I’m no wind up, I have opened my e mail, therefore you can see me and e mail me direct, i only blocked my e mail when posting the "banned from site thread" ( because my company name is in it)

i do believe people put wind up threads on here, But how do we know, in the case of the pond thread, it may pay some to check case law as there is some justification for risk assessment and people have drowned in the past,

The thread I posted is a true event the person was actually banned from site, (is this so unbelievable?)

Again there are those out there who have contacted me via e mail and have received information and help from me, So until the Mods can block time wasters, my only answer is if you don't like the thread don't answer it

Jai

Posted By Rob T
There are some good points accross the board here but my biggest beef is not so much the initiators of threads but some of the responses by people who present themselves as experts when they are totally ignorant of a particular subject. Take for instance the "Turkey" risk assessment thread (last week I think). Three quarters of the respondees offered advice based on absolutely no knowledge and presented it in a way where someone could presume they new what they were talking about. Some of those responses could well get people killed! Why didn't the moderators pull some of those responses particularly the one that said not to do a risk assessment (Anwar). If they are going to remove threads because some poor soul gets upset at being told he's a jerk then why not pull a reply to a thread that is so blatently wrong and could potentially seriously harm someone.

Posted By Edward Shyer
The problem you have is not from the poster of threads but from the responses that are placed. One example is the Timing thread I (no JAI is not me) placed last Friday it was almost immediately removed because most of the responders did not believe the authenticity of the thread. This could be understandable as it was a Friday and people sometimes use this day for joviality.

However the postings I have placed recently with regards to my workplace are in fact scenarios that I have encountered in recent years for instance the Timing thread was based on an actual call centre that as recently as six months ago was using this same procedure as standard.

Another scenario I presented (Paint removal) was an actual incident that I came across where four Polish guys were stripping paint off in an enclosed room using a substance and scraping off paint on the wall.

Unfortunately these are only some of the instances of blatant bad H&S practice that does go on in this world but these go on unnoticed because they are not good press (unlike the bonkers conkers) as they show the true reasons for the need for H&S

So by dismissing a thread as a joke and more importantly the perpetrator of the thread please bear the above paragraph in mind when responding. It is probably down to interpretation and what may appear to be a joke could in fact be serious as someone has mentioned some peoples writing manor could be interpreted wrongly.

With regards to the comments for a separate “chat” arena could the moderators please look at this as I feel it would be a good idea as Friday is a wind down (or is that a wind up) day and be of benefit to users of the forum as a de stressor before the weekend.

Regards
Ted

Posted By gham
note to self read before posting!!!!!!!!!