GDPR - the new rules governing Data Protection

Sat 12 May 2018, 08:06

On GDPR specifically, there are a couple of minor changes which I'll be making to the site before it comes into force - nothing too dramatic, mostly just revising and formalising terms. (What you submit to the site does count as "personal data" and therefore comes under the GDPR. Generally, however, we/I don't actually do anything with the data you submit to the site other than what you actively choose to submit it for: we don't email you, we don't resell the data, we don't analyse it. If you choose to submit an ad, the ad is displayed on the site, and that's it. Most of the additional rights that GDPR requires are already things we offer - for example, if anyone asks for their contributions to be deleted, I can do that at the press of a button - but there's a little more work to do to get fully compliant.)

On full names, this is a requirement of posting to the site and one which I'm absolutely 100% committed to. The idea is that this is not a "virtual community", it's a channel for the existing Charlbury town community. Using real names helps people know who they're talking to, and keeps discussions civil because you might bump into the person in the street tomorrow! In turn, this also reduces the amount of work required of the volunteer moderators. (In a very early version of the site, we did allow pseudonyms and that caused all manner of hassle. I've moderated various mailing lists and forums away from here and it's very notable that those where pseudonyms are common are almost always more difficult to moderate.)

There are a few legacy usernames that aren't full names, and when I finish the new site code, the small number of affected users will need to upgrade these to firstname-surname if they wish to continue posting to the site. GDPR doesn't affect this: it's made clear on signing up and, if you don't want to give your full name, you are free to not use the site but instead use one whose administrators are happy to moderate a pseudonym-based board. (But obviously not Facebook, which also requires real names!)

This sort of stuff is what the Admin board is meant for and I'll move this thread over there later today, but I'll leave it in the main board for a couple of hours so people are aware it's here.