16 responses

1. The RLG does not allow members of the Judiciary to be members. Whilst our ability to comment on discussions is limited, access to the blog, (and I expect the forums) is incredibly useful and I know a number of us read the blog regularly. What will the policy be there?

   1. Hadn’t thought of the judiciary angle. Not averse to it at all but I had heard IJs were discouraged from spending too much time on Free Movement!

2. I think the forum idea is really good.

   I was actually thinking the other day that it would have been nice if ILPA had a practitioners forum to add to the brilliant stuff they already do but I imagine it would take a lot of work.

   So thumbs up from me :-)

3. thumbs*

   An edit facility for posts would be good too, lol

   1. I can edit comments…

      Thanks. That is sort of what I have in mind, but I struggle to see FM forums getting much traction. I can imagine a few hardcore regulars but that wouldn’t make a good forum. The only way to find out is to give it a go, I guess.

4. Well.. the idea of forum is good but moderating a forum is time consuming for someone of FM’s status. If finally going for it, I think you need to make it a subscription based .

   1. I’m not planning on giving up the day job! I don’t really know how much work would be involved. I sort of assume that moderation would be less onerous where it was ‘members only’. A fee might end up being necessary but I’d like to see if the idea flies before taking anyone’s money for, say, an annual subscription for a deserted, tumble weed strewn forum.

5. Would those persons regulated by the OISC be permitted to become members?

   1. Yes, undoubtedly

6. It would be nice to have an overview page… An index of all case law pages and whatnot.

   1. That was sort of the idea of The Closet, but it involves manually creating links, which is a faff and consumes time and effort! The ‘Blog topics’ drop down menu might be more what you are after as it groups posts by topic.

7. I agree with the idea of introducing a forum, especially if I could join it. ;) (I am a “hobbyist”, not an OISC registered advisor or legally qualified, and am not a UK resident, it being one of several countries whose immigration law interest me.)

   Until fairly recently I had been regularly active on the “UK Resident Immigration Forum”. I won’t post a link, not sure if advertising would be welcome, but one can google it. I post mainly on EEA and citizenship matters, sometimes on spouse entry clearance and FLR(M). Though the countless annexes and appendixes are not exactly a simple bedtime read. I’m not much chop on the PBS or legacy or refugee categories.

   I’m also a moderator there, although that’s at the discretion of the administrator, since I am no longer able to be present regularly. Anyone can register, only a valid email address is required. There are incidents of spam, ads and gibberish which don’t have anything to do with immigration. So occasionally spam posts and spam accounts need to be deleted. Less commonly action needs to be taken because of members abusing each other. Topics in the wrong subforums need to be moved.

   Not being an advisor I have to be careful not to cross the line when posting. And my answer might be wrong, so my signature states openly that I’m not an advisor/solicitor. There may be some posts which constitute providing advice as per the OISC definition, but there are also OISC registered advisors on the board who can advise and who correct misinformation. This is good for me and others, it is an important form of quality control providing correct info and checking that others do to. Most members only ask about their own immigration situation. Regular posters are far fewer and pass on their experiences with the HO and answers which they found when researching and applying themselves etc. Perhaps the most difficult part of moderating involves dealing with members providing incorrect answers as conclusive facts even though they mean well and are otherwise valuable contributors.

   All this is fairly easy most of the time with several moderators so FM if your forum is only for regulars here and your colleagues, students etc., then moderating it probably won’t be an issue.

   Also discussions would likely be quite technichal as everyone will be informed rather than asking “How do I apply for a spouse visa?”. But if the forum could be read by the public, it would still be a valuable resource for interested parties. As is the blog, it provides invaluable information, I’ve linked to your articles many times.

   As a side note, I also find this forum interesting. http://swarb.co.uk/phpbb/ I asked a couple of questions there early last year but have no personal interest in advertising it, hence the link, please remove it if it’s not welcome. Interesting though is that anyone can register, but many of the regulars have legal qualifications.

   1. Thanks, that is all food for thought. The idea of having moderators and so on sort of fills me with dread, but I suppose that if the forums were successful then all that would be necessary.

8. Just to make clear (someone emailed me about this) I’m not suggesting closing off the blog to public access, just adding a new ‘layer’, a forum, which would be log in only.

9. Would the forum likely have “read only” guest access for non members?

   1. I don’t think so, I think I would make it private and accessible to ‘members’ only. The idea is to create a progressive and liberal space for discussion and I think that is best achieved by restricting access. The main blog would continue in its current publicly accessible form, though.