IrelandOffline Forum - Lock it or leave it?

damien

I think it should be up to those that use this forum to decide. So, should we lock this forum after IrelandOffline shuts down or leave it around?

mike65

Hardly here these days But that may tell its own tale. IOFFLs best chance for a future is as a consumer/users group rather than pressure point to get BB availible in the first instance.

Mike.

segaBOY

Leave it, still plenty of us offline-we need to keep it imo

dahamsta

Leave it please, it'll always have a place for consumer issues in the connectivity area.

adam

thebman

Keep it open so when IO shuts down and new people who need broadband but can't get it have a place to start and archives to read through for information on what's happened in the past. Keep the blog up in its current state with a point of contact for new people to take over.

I think once IO goes away, someone will take over after a while.

If nothing else this forum gives people a place to get organised to complain against telco's.

If it is going to be shutdown, should have it link to the broadband forums instead with a point of contact to open the place back up in case someone wants to restart IO in the future.

rogue-entity

Leave it, please.

I still do not think IO should go (excuse the pun) offline. They got is this far, no doubt without them, I would not have broadband, a group like IO is needed to keep pressure on Eircom and others to make sure they keep moving forward, and we get broadband to the rest of the population. Not to mention, dropping the prices for us existing customers who already IMO pay through the nose for what is really a basic service compared with our european cousins.

I feel very strongly about this, but I am not in any position to become a commity member of IO, not if it involves travelling around, college sort of ruins that option <_<

1huge1

Yes leave it as it turns out I still don't have an option for broadband yet live in a town of over 2000 people, this forum can still act as a meeting place for people of similar situations etc

Cabaal

I'd say leave it,

cmac

I'm really bahind the curve on this. I didn't realise that IO was going to disband!!!! Please don't remove the forum, there's a huge wealth of information contained in the posts over the years that paints a picture of the real state of bb technology in this country.
Personally I'm on the verge of moving from an area of excellent fixed-line bb to Co. Clare where no cost-effective service is available. I suspect people like me will always be coming along that suddenly find themselves in a position to need assistance/moral-support to try and get a lonely pocket of ireland serviced.
I also think the goalposts are shifting ever so slightly and will definitely need a group like IO to fight the battle. We are experiencing a three tier bb architecture in ireland and I reckon it will only worsen over the coming years:
Tier 1 - Major urban centers, good connectivity with plenty of price/bw oprions.
Tier 2 - Other serviced areas, reasonable/poor (usually wireles) connectivity but at inflated prices without much chance of competition.
Tier 3 - The rest of the country that's going to be magically covered by the new Government tender (although this applies equally to huge ares of the country that the Government deem to already be serviced!) which will start life as a non-scalable bandwidth limited poor relation of Tier 1.

Surely the struggle hasn't reached it's conclusion, merely a bend in the road. Whatever happens, keep the forum!

johnplayerblue

Just found this forum a fey days ago and along with the broadband and wireless forum its my first port of call for news and information on whats happening. Its bad enough that we need such forums but the fact remains and will for a long time that we do....Keep the forum

Ross McDermott

Ok, so did we win the war or what? I've been in Canada for the last couple of years.

Ruu_Old

IOFFL brought me to boards.ie and I used it a great deal when I joined in 02 so I would be sad to see it go. A great source of information.

watty

Ross McDermott wrote:

Ok, so did we win the war or what? I've been in Canada for the last couple of years.

Not yet, no. Some good skirmishes

JTMan

Add my vote to keeping the forum but be renaming it as "consumer telecom/broadband Issues" .

shinzon

Id leave it here tbh, it really is a great resource for people wanting to fight the good fight and get there broadband, both Christian Cooke and Damian were instrumental in me keeping the fight going to get broadband at my home, giving me addresses and contacts to get my story across to the right people to get it sorted

And while my crusading days are well behind me, make no mistake about it without this forum and the organisation and volunteers of irelandoffline id still be hearing dialling tones coming out of my 56k modem

So aye keep it here for the people that still need to fight

Shin

thebman

Any chance of adding the Ireland Offline archives to be a subforum of the digital rights forum?

That way, it can be separated if someone wants to start back up Ireland Offline but won't be taking up space in the mean time and it would allow for searching of the IO archives.

I think it will look bad when we have a practically dead forum here.

cgarvey

What's IO got to do with DRI?

I think the forum should be locked & archived, with a new "Market Watch" forum created under Telecoms.

That way the 4 types of posts here, of late, can be more appropriately posted to:

• Consumer complaints (delays, porting, etc.): Consumer Issues or Broadband
• Availability checks: Broadband
• Market news / trends / discussion: the new "Market Watch" forum.
• IO news/releases: no longer appropriate.

watty

I'd agree cgarvey. Something like you say.

Move it to Consumer Issues.

thebman

That sounds good. My idea with Digital Rights is that the same people with an interest in Broadband, probably have an interest in Digital Rights but maybe that's just me.

jack_christie

Fungus wrote:

Add my vote to keeping the forum but be renaming it as "consumer telecom/broadband Issues" .

I'll second that.

The situation has improved, but the root causes of the problem remain.:mad:

Thanks to IrelandOffline for everything they have done to improve the situation.

mike65

I guess its a measure of how IOFFL has gradually worked some magic that RTE news and aertel all ran with this story. That simply would'nt have happened even 2/3 years ago. Sniff.

Mike.