firestop wrote on Nov 15^th, 2005 at 9:20am:


Ofcom has how many employees and BT and NTL has how many employees?  And they know how many friends etc that they can send an email to suggesting that they might perhaps like to respond to this important consultation on their own initiative to ensure these fine and worthy proposals are carried against the views of the whingers.  And all they need to do in their responses is say Yes, Yes, Yes......

I think we may end up having to put in an FOI disclosure to Ofcom asking for the names and addresses of those responding since as you have seen Ofcom feel they are witin their rights to withhold names and addresses and phone numbers and email addresses of respondees, even for those who have not asked for them to be withheld.  Why is this?  If people write to the local council about a planning application then name, address etc are all readily available to view.

I think some market research on the Yes, Yes, Yes respondees and their motivations in responding could prove very illuminating indeed.  And since Ofcom is merely an offshoot of the New Labour apparatus we all know how New Labour is used to rigging surveys and consultations.  It must be annoying for them that they haven't yet found a way to rig the results of the general election the way they want too.

I fear you are absolutely correct NGM. They will stop at nothing to distort the realities, and they are probably already pulling out all the stops, since the total is bound to be over 400 we now know and most of these are not yet the "Yes, Yes, Yes" ones!

Dorf,

Be careful as you have managed to split one response on one issue across two posts there which I fear is not playing the game.  It is of course legitimate to make one post in response to ever post by another individual in the forum.  However I think it will be a sad day if members become obsessed merely by reaching the top of the tree and I have only even previously seen one member of the forum who I honestly felt was motivated in this way.

Along with Tanllan jrawle is one of our most longest standng and most informed members but as with Tanllan he does not seem to be bothered that he is not a Supreme Member.  And is there really much different in the terms Supreme Member and Senior Member?

Now if there was a category such as "Forum Guru" for those with more than 1,000 posts that might actually begin to have some real sex appeal.

idb wrote on Nov 15^th, 2005 at 4:13pm:


This is what is known as short but to the point.  However I think by using equally brief variations on "abolish the whole bloody lot" for each question this person could probably have achieved an even greater effect.

I think this brief response is probably more effective and tells Ofcom how useless their efforts at consultation on this matter really are:-

www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/nts_forward/responses/withheld26.pdf

I am very concerned about all those responses that just copy the Ofcom question grid and put in Yes/No answers.  I just can't see a whole lot of private individuals doing that without also wanting to give some opinions too.  I think we should put in an FOI demanding the full names and addresses of all such respondents and then see if any of the surnames coincide with the names of Ofcom employees with more unusual last names.

There is a very interesting response here from a business called Oracle Financial Services saying how much more 084/7 calls are costing their business:-

www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/nts_forward/responses/mr/oracle.pdf

One thought has just occurred to me which is that even many of the businesses who run 0870 call centres are actually losing out because unless they get vastly more incoming calls than they make outgoing (as is no doubt true for say Sky) then although they get 3p or 4p per minute incoming they pay 7.5p per minute instead of say 1p per minute outgoing.  So everyone loses apart from NTL, BT and other Terminating Call Parties who cream off the other 3p to 4p per minute not given to the call centre operators.

There were 422 submissions on the Ofcom website at 5pm today (Nov 15), an increase of 28 since 4pm on Nov 14. The new ones are listed below.  

(And here's a reminder of where you can read the comments: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/nts_forward/responses/)

Akademir A
Akademir A 2
Bottom I
Campbell C D
Cocking B J
Cox R
Dixon J
Ebling P
Elmes M
Kelly R
Mileto R
Momen M
Name Withheld 23
Name Withheld 24
Name Withheld 25
Name Withheld 26
Name Withheld 27
Name Withheld 28
Name Withheld 29
Name Withheld 30
Name Withheld 31
Name Withheld 32
O L Grainger Associates
Page F
Seabury S
Sharp J A
Steele A
Withers S

NGM, I note that you have spread your last post in this topic over three posts. No wonder you have such a high "number" of posts.

Perhaps the pot calling the kettle black? 

422 is a good number though and 500 is thus not so far off. But has anyone yet looked at the balance of these responses? Are most of them slating Ofcom or are most of them praising Ofcom for getting it right?