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Discussion Board Changes
TheMix
Posts: 3,329 Boards Guru
Hello Community,
We wanted to follow up on our previous update shared in January about upcoming changes to the Community, including the introduction of Pre-Moderation, Age Verification and opening hours for the Community Discussion Boards.
These updates are about making sure the Community continues to be a safe and supportive space for everyone. We are aiming to have it all in place Monday 30th March.
What will be changing?
Age Verification
As shared with you previously, we will be introducing age verification to make sure the people using our spaces are within our age range (13–25) and to help keep everyone safe.
From Monday 23rd March, age verification will be available for all existing members to complete by using YOTI. This process does not store photos or personal images and has been carefully tested to meet safeguarding and legal requirements.
All Community members will need to complete age verification by Monday 30th March to continue using the Community.
Pre-moderation of Discussion Boards
From Monday 30th March, the Discussion Boards will move to a fully pre-moderated system. This means posts and comments will be reviewed by our team before going live.
This additional step will help us respond more effectively to high-risk content and meet requirements under the Online Safety Act. As you are aware we are really pleased to have been able to take on new Community staff to ensure we are able to approve posts as quickly as possible.
Boards Switch-off
From Monday 30th March, the Discussion Boards will be unavailable overnight from 10pm-9am.
This change is to encourage engagement during times when staff are available to provide support, and to help reduce the risk of members posting in crisis overnight when there is no Community staff available to respond.
We understand these are significant changes and hope the changes will have minimum effect on your use and enjoyment of our discussion boards. If you have any questions or concerns, you can reply on this thread or submit a question anonymously via this Google Form: https://forms.gle/sobYaEUFBXKFAqWF7
Please note that it may take a few days for us to respond while we work with internal teams to get back to you with the right information, but we will aim to do so as soon as we can.
Thank you for being part of our Community and making it a welcoming and engaging place!
The Mix Community Team
Comments
what if community members dont have id? how can we do this? bc i cant afford a passport etc.
sry if that sounds darft but community members who are not as fortunate in being able to afford it. what are we supposed to do bc i cant afford a passport rn n ive tried getting a provisional but bc of my mh n physical health i cant.
@eylah you can get an ID from Yoti or birth certificate works
✨ 𝒯ℋℐ𝒮 ℐ𝒮 ℳℰ ✨
i don’t even have yoti downloaded. n i don’t even know where mine is. so it’s impossible.
oh no
This is perhaps the worst idea, in the history of idea's, maybe ever. No accessibility questions have been answered, despite there being 2 months since the announcement. Like @eylah says, ID can be an issue for people, and all the mix says is we hope this has minimal effects on boards, whilst entirely uprooting boards.
agreed @Nathan . like id love to stay on the community but bc of this yoti thing idek if its possible. wish we was told when this was happening instead of fully at once.
I suspect i'm wasting my energy here, and if i ask any more questions they won't get answered. Yet people have one week to sort out age verification/ID when those initial questions are still sitting there after 2 months without an answer?
And if the boards are pre moderated anyway, whats the use in blocking all posts overnight? Why not just approve them in the morning as was suggested on the other thread about this. The posts won't go through until they're checked anyway, so whats the logic in switching them off entirely vs just approving them in the morning as other pre modded sites do?
@eylah for what its worth you should be able to take a selfie to verify your age which wouldn't require a physical ID, but i appreciate you might not be comfortable with this, as many aren't. But if you are and you want to stay on it may be an option for you.
also you guys mentioned you’ll get back to us asap. we have a deadline for the identification etc. what if its after that? then we wont have our access to the community.
thankyou @independent_ . appreciate you replying back to me. n i appreciate it. ❤️
@eylah i second that actually. It’s a major change, and there is one week to do it. Some less active members may not even see that in time let alone be able to action it.
What happens to people’s accounts that don’t stick to this incredibly short deadline? Either because they didn’t know, their questions weren’t answered, or for accessibility reasons as it may be (which we don’t know since that question wasn’t answered). Are they deleted? If so, last time there was mass account deletion, people were given weeks notice and sent multiple emails to remind them to take the action needed.
ETA: and what happens if someone’s currently on a break and they can’t actually access their account to complete the process? Surely that’s unfair, regardless of the reason for the break.
A passport is also going up to over £100 now, and I’m not being funny but Eylah’s comment above about affordability is a real concern for some.
That's affordability questions, because selfie age predictors isn't always 100% accurate and sometimes ID will be needed, that has been ignored, and basic accessibility questions that have been raised by multiple users, across several months that have also been ignored.
especially when you’re having to pay bills n afford food etc ( for me anyway. ) it ain’t easy. but i 100% agree.
@eylah you might be able to get a PASS card much cheaper, but from what i know you have to confirm your identity to get one of those too. But it is worth checking out citizen card etc. Not that i suspect it would come through in time.
The fact I’m having to share this from my own knowledge is a bit crazy. Making such an important post at 8pm at night and being unable to answer questions for a “few days” when the deadline itself is literally a few days really is not what i think anyone meant by transparency