Two New Forum Sections?

[cjp]

It's not about creating a group of elite people that have a secret status, but about a wide variety of things. Questions like "how do I stop the damp getting in the poster boards?" or "what do I type in to TRUST to get... ?" or other little tricks to get the job done, even fares queries with PRIV passes or vouchers for international travel could be discussed. I have no idea how to use TOPS, but could get a few tips, which in turn could help out with the GEN requests here too.

How it works in the Rail industry I do not of course know (except what I have picked up by being on here ) but in my world if I needed to know something I would ask around amongst my colleagues not go on the intranet or internet.

This forum, to me, is of interest, is sometimes surprising and is often a good read with generally friendly people with no real cliques.
I may not participate greatly but its open inclusiveness is appreciated as resource.
That said if a certain group want to go off and mutter in a corner then go ahead either here with the board's blessing or into their own corner by setting up a their own restricted board or, perhaps more simply, a Google Group. Do bear in mind though that there are people at work both in the rail and the rest of world whose employment in that sector does not make them all wise throughout that sector in which they work. Just saying.

 

[cuccir]

Just a note that I don't usually delve into the General Discussion forums, but came here to see if there were any discussions about the possible setting up of a 'Disruptions' forum; so just wanted to add my +1 to that suggestion

 

[DynamicSpirit]

It's not about creating a group of elite people that have a secret status, but about a wide variety of things. Questions like "how do I stop the damp getting in the poster boards?" or "what do I type in to TRUST to get... ?" or other little tricks to get the job done, even fares queries with PRIV passes or vouchers for international travel could be discussed. I have no idea how to use TOPS, but could get a few tips, which in turn could help out with the GEN requests here too.

I can think of loads of times I've shared knowledge with colleagues who didn't know they could do this or that, but it's not particularly something I'd be happy sharing with any tom, richard or harry that can read a relatively open forum.

This sounds like you're saying you'd like to use the privacy of a private forum for some security, so that you can discuss stuff that might not be suitable for sharing with the wider public. I'm not sure that is a good idea: Given the difficulties discussed in this thread of verifying who should be given access to a private forum, there's a real danger that it will give you the illusion of security rather than actual security: You think it's private, but in fact you have no idea who might have managed to get on the private subforum with slightly dubious credentials, and who might be quite prepared to copy and paste stuff outside the group. In practice, when organisations have private discussion forums, access is typically restricted to staff, who will have signed some kind of agreement implying non-disclosure of information outside the organisation (probably in their employment contract).

How it works in the Rail industry I do not of course know (except what I have picked up by being on here ) but in my world if I needed to know something I would ask around amongst my colleagues not go on the intranet or internet.

There are industries in which it would be normal to ask questions on open forums. Computer programming is the most obvious example - you can see that at StackOverflow - a completely open forum for discussing technical programming-related questions. Discussions are generally high quality, partly because of good community-based moderation, and partly because the discussions are so obviously specialized and full of technical language that in general people who don't have the required knowledge simply wouldn't bother reading them. Obviously, when people ask questions on those forums, they'll normally avoid mentioning anything that is company-confidential.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

I also quite like the idea of a specialised thread for discussing disruptions. However, I can see a problem of where you draw the line between a short-term disruption (because for example of a train failure or a fatality on the line) and works that cause disruption but are more appropriate for infrastructure. As an extreme example, the disruption being caused by the rebuild at London Bridge has been going on for a couple of years. But the work is so obviously infrastructure-related that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to remove that thread from the Infrastructure forum.

 

[70014IronDuke]

Personally I disagree, I think there would be somewhere for a staff forum. This is probably one of, if not the largest collection of UK rail staff from different grades and employers accessible to all rather than the official forums which tend to be much more of a management thing.

And no matter how much you like to believe it the armchair "experts" don't know it better. Staff (including myself) have asked technical or operational questions and the armchair gang start piping up with a wide selection of totally incorrect replies.

I think this is hunting for unicorns. Let's say you created your "staff forum" - having somehow decided and agreed upon membership credentials. And you or someone then posts, say, a permanent way technical question. Frankly, no driver, guard, or any TOC staff, traction enginers nor even NR signalling or project management are likely to know the answer - are they supposed to 'shut up' as they are non experts? Because, according to what you've said here, that would be the logic.

If you want and need only expert and reliable (supposedly) opinion, and you are staff, surely you should ask in-house for the definitive answer?

 

[Clip]

And how do you verify that someone works for the railway in any capacity?