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Rank: Newbie
Joined: 09/11/2010(UTC)
Posts: 3
Location: Ilford
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Nell wrote:I'm fascinated by a new member who joins a forum to moan and complain about other users moaning and complaining! Just to clarify, I did not join this forum simply to moan and complain about other users, but to answer the question about what I thought of the site. I have occasionally read the various threads on the forum and wanted to explain why I, as a casual observer, never felt particularly inclined to participate. It is a drawback of sites such as this that they tend to be dominated by a vociferous clique with too much time on their hands. I now regret having said anything and will certainly not bother again.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 06/06/2007(UTC)
Posts: 1,399
Location: Too close to Redbridge-i censorship
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kay_tape wrote:Nell wrote:I'm fascinated by a new member who joins a forum to moan and complain about other users moaning and complaining! Just to clarify, I did not join this forum simply to moan and complain about other users, but to answer the question about what I thought of the site. I have occasionally read the various threads on the forum and wanted to explain why I, as a casual observer, never felt particularly inclined to participate. It is a drawback of sites such as this that they tend to be dominated by a vociferous clique with too much time on their hands. I now regret having said anything and will certainly not bother again. The site has changed recently to one of post-moderation. The effect of that change in policy has certainly been that people have more freedom to express their views. I can assure you that is a significant change. A frequent complaint among those of us who have contact through other means was that the "moderation" system that existed previously was slow, heavy-handed, and oppressive bordering on outright censorship. I suggest that you persevere, participate, and stand by your principles even though others may disagree with you, or you with them. Two things that this forum needs above all else: wider participation from residents, and much greater participation from the council (in their official capacities) and councillors.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 14/07/2007(UTC)
Posts: 975
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Kay-tape has elicited a positive response from Morris, showing the true value of Morris.
I must add another positive comment regarding the 'My Neighbourhood' section: If you persist having a look, you can come across planning applications in your area and you realise that quite a few planning applications are turned down. So, it's not a 'free for all' as we might think when we see the weird buildings erected in back gardens. These come from permitted developments. I do feel there is a need for control. Can anybody report perceived breaches in that field or do you need to be directly affected?
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 22/06/2010(UTC)
Posts: 51
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kay_tape wrote:
Just to clarify, I did not join this forum simply to moan and complain about other users, but to answer the question about what I thought of the site. I have occasionally read the various threads on the forum and wanted to explain why I, as a casual observer, never felt particularly inclined to participate. It is a drawback of sites such as this that they tend to be dominated by a vociferous clique with too much time on their hands. I now regret having said anything and will certainly not bother again.
Oh dear! Now I feel like the school bully.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 14/07/2007(UTC)
Posts: 975
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Will kay_tape never bother to look again or never bother to air her/his thoughts?
I hope she/he will not cave in to the bullies and choose to ignore the site, missing the regular positive announcements by the redimanager.
Nell, join the club!
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 30/06/2007(UTC)
Posts: 76
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kay_tape wrote:I thought this thread was about users' opinions of the entire Redbridge website (which I find generally useful) but it seems preoccupied with this forum. As far as I can tell, the forum serves two main purposes: (1) for the Council to make various announcements, and (2) to provide a platform for a dedicated handful who moan and complain about virtually everything. This second lot are constantly suggesting or even demanding changes to the forum but, given their temperment, it is unlikely anything would ever please them. It also appears that many of these members use other websites to post similar complaints. So is this forum really necessary or should it simply become a Council message board? Hi Kay - When I first signed in to the Redbridge-i website and looked at the forum I too thought that it was full of a handful of moaners, in fact I believe I did say something about one topic that I thought the usual suspects were being way too negative about. I found out very quickly that I was quick to judge; that they had some valid points and people being people and all that it's in our nature to moan. It's a good way to vent ones frustrations when one feels that no-one is listening to the citizens. It's a place where anyone can have a voice, make a comment and there are bound to be others with similar views. Anyway I'm waffling. In my opinion the forum is a useful tool to allow Redbridge citizens to interact, share ideas, come together. There will always be small groups of more frequent users, but it should be remembered that people who aren't regular users of such forums may find it very difficuilt just to join in or voice their opinions in a virtual room environment. I know I was. So regular forum users should remember that and welcome new users in and anyone using a forum like this shouldn't judge others or make sarcastic remarks as it will definitely put others off from joining and then user numbers will diminish not increase. I don't think the forum should be closed and should not be merely a noticeboard for council officials. The Redimanager can create any number of other pages to display notices. On a positive note it is the regular moaning about this site, in particular the forum, that has at last led to a more useful facility where we can actually make our own topics for discussion - wonders will never cease! 
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 29/07/2007(UTC)
Posts: 554
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Every year at this time,I have to report that once again that RedbridgeI has failed to make any impact on Soctim "Better Connected" council Websites- a measure of how useable sites are- Soctim measure over a 100 criteria.This year 9 councils have been awarded 4 stars- significantly that 8 of these councils run an E-Petition system.Instead of forever lording the technological part of RedbridgeI,£190,000 executives of this borough may be better employed ensuring that residents get a user friendly, responsive, and cost effective website, that is easy to use, instead of wasting £120,000 of our money for upgrades that fail to work and bells and whistles that are only of interest to website designers.
I look forward to the day when the development of the website, is led by user requirements.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 13/08/2007(UTC)
Posts: 71
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"What I think of this site"?
Well I thought there would have been a lot more registered members / participants to reflect the Boroughs population? However, to my surprise I have found / observed that there is not that many? I wondered why this may be so, until I recently participated on some of the forum threads this year and kind of come to some conclusion / view as to why, as follows;
There are few members / users who have NOT been adhering to the forum's terms & conditions and simply they do not have any regard / respect to other members / users. They start going off the topic and start posting personalised offensive remarks against other users, simply because they do NOT agree to their views and opinions. Even if other peoples views and opinions stand to be corrected, there are one or two members on this site, who still include offending remarks (having a personal dig / grudge) within their comments. Exemplary example of maturity and being a civilized individual?
Given the above, whilst there has been thousands and thousands of readers against the topics already posted, not all are participants or registered members from this forum site. This may be so, because they may be put off in taking part when they see posts of offending nature against others. You will note that my posts has had personal offending remarks against it.....outside the realms of the topic being debated & discussed. Some just can not help themselves, when they just continue to make personalised offensive remarks and do not know when to stop and grow-up. This kind of behaviour and attitude built within the perpetrator's DNA (which never changes), discourages any new members coming on board.
The site itself is very good in my opinion, as it has that potential of bringing people together with their different views and opinions where one another can learn from each other and also the council have an opportunity to improve on their services accordingly where required (building on the users constructive comments). Yes the site has it's constraints (perhaps quick and consistent moderation may be required on offenders); but far and large it is some users who do not help, which makes matters worse. To overcome this, may be the already firm / strong terms and conditions needs to be even stronger and applied with immediate affect when required accordingly?
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1 user thanked ashokdrathod for this useful post.
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Rank: Newbie
Joined: 30/05/2009(UTC)
Posts: 1
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Please can someone enlighten me on this matter –
What’s happened to the ‘report fly-tipping section’ of Redbridge i?
Its ‘apparent loss’ and the loss ‘apparently' of my earlier mailings today
about Uphall Recreation Ground/Green Lane/Ilford Lane
appear to confirm the in-depth responses quoted below*.
I can’t for the life of me see how this is called a flagship site when all
I have experienced is this – hither-to-for useful functioning
facilities which are applauded for their usefulness get taken out
and are replaced by processes that are particularly frustrating/annoying/obstructive to operate
(like, this illustration describes what I mean :
‘’ the street map is out-dated when reporting fly-tipping, so instead of up-dating the map the
fly-tipping-reporting- section is removed?’’)
No web-site manager has (to my knowledge) addressed the points raised to
(A) acknowledge constructive criticism of the site
(B) Helpfully explained, what steps will be taken to pacify the complainants?
(C) Done the obvious, if it’s a user friendly forum – engaged with the inter-face
The site is supposedly helpful according to the hype about it.
When reading the feed-back already received and which
'gets-allowed-to-be-posted', it turns out to be less convincing –
Your adverting /promotion/rhetoric of redbridge i doesn't match the hype.
e-g,*
So, what do I think of this site?
Unfortunately, I can't tell you because the last time I ventured an opinion, the post was blocked. No, I didn't use bad language, far from it - just put it down to over sensitivity to criticism in certain quarters ...
... and now it is infinitely worse.
I cannot find a single link to the forum or any mention of it on the revamped home page, (and not for the want of looking, either) so life is likely to very quiet here for the foreseeable future ...
Under the heading Recent neighbourhood activity I find that: "A local news item was added here 2 days ago (31/10/2009)" points to an item promoting London Peace Week - which will be very useful if September 2009 ever comes round again ...
... there is another, more obvious, link to the same item right down at the bottom of the page, under More local news: ...
Oh, and that forbidden word I used to describe this site before? Using, not the same word, but a synonym for it, the home page tells me that mine is collected on Thursdays ...
I notice the home page says that it is the beta version. Now, in my experience, the beta version of any software is always a new, development version run in parallel with the existing live, working version so that anybody interested can check it out and report any bugs. For example, Microsoft freely made beta versions of Windows 7 and Office 2007 available well in advance of their official release.
However, I can't find the existing live, working version of Redbridge-i anywhere ...
Words fail me, they really do. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!
I tried to quote a short phrase from my previous post and got:
Access Denied
You tried to enter a area (sic) where you didn't have access, if you are not logged in please click the Login button on the top right of the page.
So, I'll have to do it the hard way, then!
If Redbridge-i (beta version) ever struggles back to life, this might get posted ...
"Archived" - the Redi euphemism for banned further discussion.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 06/06/2007(UTC)
Posts: 1,399
Location: Too close to Redbridge-i censorship
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Welcome to the world of Red i reality.  
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 01/10/2007(UTC)
Posts: 124
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@liquidphantom I think you'll be lucky to find many local authorities tolerant enough to host an open discussion forum like this one! The fly-tipping section is accessible from the "reports" section on the home page, under the "rubbish and cleansing" sub-heading. It's here: http://www.redbridge.gov...ort/fly-tipped-material
We're continually expanding the range of custom reports - the latest to go live last week is "report fly posting" The direct link to the Forums hasn't gone anywhere - it's still there in the box at the bottom of the home page, together with direct links to the three latest comments - which is how I found yours just now. Unlike many councils we don't spend a fortune on expensive IT consultants to develop our website, the work is done in-house, and beta-testing incremental changes with live users is an effective way of identifying any glitches. We're currently working on projects to expand the functionality for parking issues - particularly those for residents' permit areas such as renewing permits, changing car, ordering visitor permits etc - and also to significantly improve the mapping functionality of the site tying directly to Google mapping and photographic data. Both expected later this year.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 04/07/2007(UTC)
Posts: 564
Location: Redbridge Eye
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cllrbond;13805 wrote:Blah blah blah open discussion forum like this one! Blah blah waffle blah continually expanding the range of custom reports blah blah blah waffle don't spend a fortune (we can tell) blah blah blah currently working [sic!] on projects to expand functionality blah blah blah and also to significantly improve blah blah waffle expected later this year.
Would that be on the same geological time frame as e-Petitions?
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1 user thanked weggis for this useful post.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 15/05/2008(UTC)
Posts: 186
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cllrbond;13805 wrote:
Unlike many councils we don't spend a fortune on expensive IT consultants to develop our website, the work is done in-house, and beta-testing incremental changes with live users is an effective way of identifying any glitches.
which may explain why the licensing online public register (after being unavailable for months) still can't find an entertainments application that has been displayed on a nearby banquetting suite.
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1 user thanked vfmctax for this useful post.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 14/07/2007(UTC)
Posts: 975
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What does 'beta-testing incremental changes' mean?
And, if I was a member of the IT team I would feel rather offended.
And, I thought the IT Team designed an award-winning format of 'Conversation' with the residents, which was so good it was actually sold to other Boroughs.
I do not have to declare any interest as far as the IT Team is concerned.
My limited knowledge of English might be the reason for the first question.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 06/06/2007(UTC)
Posts: 1,399
Location: Too close to Redbridge-i censorship
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Two posts removed yesterday and today by the Deadbridge Stasi.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 14/07/2007(UTC)
Posts: 975
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Well, Morris is testing the system, successfully! The redbridgei website cannot be dead if staff are still selecting for destruction contributions which they don't like/ or might perhaps enjoy, but think they have better delete them, for obvious reasons.
This proves that they do read our contributions. No automatic system could do that.
Does it make any difference to anything as far as the running of the Borough is concerned?
Euh,...
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1 user thanked annesevant for this useful post.
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