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Post by Admin on Dec 19, 2018 12:31:49 GMT
HCR have indicated to forum staff that their post this morning was not a one off statement, and that they will continue to engage on here.
We have suggested that before the end of office hours today they make a short response in reply to the main queries raised during today stating some consise facts.
In particular
a) When exactly (date and time) and by what media (email, post stating 1st/2nd class registered or not) did HCR write to all lenders in the two loans.
b) The number of lenders so contacted (to nearest 100 say)
c) From where were the lender contact details obtained ?
d) When exactly (date) and on whose authority were lenders joined to the case.
e) The number of lenders so joined (to the nearest 100 say)
f) When and how should lenders expect to be served ?
Until HCR's earlier statement is fleshed out with some facts, a degree of caution is required.
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Post by Admin on Nov 14, 2018 18:27:28 GMT
The moderators would like to keep this thread open, however the actions of a small number of inconsiderate forum members means we are approaching the point where we may have to ban all discussion of this loan on this forum for ever as the effort in moderating it is becoming onerous.
The forum rules are clear - it is never acceptable to idenitfy a borrower or their assets on this public forum and that includes linking to external material that does.
We have repeatedly removed quotes from and links to a judgement that lists the borrower, those that persist in doing this will be banned permanently from this forum.
In addition, there must be no refererence to anything that would allow this thread to be linked to the loan (e.g. by quoting the DFL ref), and no reference to details provided to you by Lendy or HCR that you personally haven't had written permission from Lendy and/or HCR to publish on here. This is for your protection.
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Post by Admin on Nov 12, 2018 17:07:21 GMT
Firstly thank you for your patience. For some reason my log in and or IP was banned from the site and I could not log or find anyway of getting this removed. Thankfully sone kind investors rallied round to get it unbarred.
<snip> We are awake ... we just couldn't see or hear what was being said as for some reason our IP was banned by the "independent" forum. There are only three IP’s that have ever been associated with The Bridgecrowd or it’s representatives: IP ONE – thebridgecrowd – account opened on 30 th March 2015 – this account has never been banned – the account appears to us only to have been operated by Louis Alexander. IP TWO – louisalexandersocial & louisommo – accounts opened on the 31 st July 2018 – it appears to us these accounts also belonged to Louis Alexander and were in contravention of forum rule 3a as they were multiple accounts, and we had not been contacted to request their operation. The account louisommo was rejected, but the IP has never been banned and louisalexandersocial is still operational. IP THREE - bridgecrowd account opened 10 th Feb 2017; lukeroughley account opened 30 th Nov 2016; niallhhutchn account opened 31 st May 2017; njrigby account opened 3 rd August 2018 This appears to us to be the “office” IP – this IP was banned on the 6 th June, it had been blocked as part of a wider VPN group that had numerous separate IP 'blocks' registered to it. There was no intention to ban The Bridgecrowd representatives, and we were not aware that they had been impacted at the time. As a result of a forum member contacting us about this it was re-enabled on the 2 nd August. As we have stated here p2pindependentforum.com/post/271204 – this does sometimes happen, but we attempt to address this as soon as we are alerted to it. However, it should be noted that whilst this was regrettable, at no point was the account of thebridgecrowd blocked and yet no attempt was made by them to contact any of the forum staff about this issue either then or subsequently. All The Bridgecrowd representatives have had full access to the forum since 2 nd August 2018.
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Post by Admin on Jul 13, 2018 7:34:54 GMT
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Post by Admin on Jun 12, 2018 12:35:24 GMT
In view of recent events, it seems worth echoing this post from up of a couple of month ago here in case it assists anyone. To share a technical detail re our Collateral account records: each the website originated contract-note emails were digitally signed via DKIM-Signature. Thus each note has a unique cryptographic signature covering date/time contents etc that only collateraluk could have authored. The purpose of these is for mail systems to prevent spam. But the signatures stand and are separately verifiable at any time against the email even when extracted from an email client. I verified a couple of sample mails (23-Feb-2018 and 01-Aug-2016). Thus we each potentially hold non-falsifiable history of amounts/datetime our deposits/withdrawals/loan-part purchase and sales. Except for interest payments and allowing that occasional contract notes were not delivered that would allow fairly accurate account statement to be reconstructed and stronger than any retained statements exported from the website. The company should already hold correct records but they should also know that many their investors have this audit-trail. I rely on this as excuse to not contact & assert a creditor claim with the administrator. One weakness with ongoing verification would be if collateraluk.com domain server lapsed or ceased to publish the DKIM public key - so we can preserve a copy here: dkim:collateraluk.com:mandrill v=DKIM1; k=rsa; p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQCr LHiExVd55zd/IQ/J/mRwSRMAocV/hMB3jXwaHH36 d9NaVynQFYV8NaWi69c1veUtRzGt7yAioXqLj7Z4 TeEUoOLgrKsn8YnckGs9i3B3tVFB+Ch/4mPhXWiN fNdynHWBcPcbJ8kjEQ2U8y78dHZj1YeRXXVvWob2 OaKynO8/lQIDAQAB; (public info retrieved by every mail system when verifying mail)
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Forum Feedback
VPN issues
Jun 10, 2018 20:54:33 GMT
Post by Admin on Jun 10, 2018 20:54:33 GMT
Also had PM's from a few individuals on this subject, this is typical of the response we've sent. "As a forum we face a number of major challenges with spammers - we have very high daily page views and a wealthy demographic. Spamming is now a semi-commercial enterprise employing sophisticated teams (in the far east mainly) to post (if possible) hundreds of spam posts an hour onto forums such as this.
Our only weapon in this war is to ban ranges of IP addresses owned by far eastern ISP's and (global) VPN type outfits. Unfortunately the 3 mobile network has caused us similar problems in the past, and we have had to ban large parts of their IP addreses as well.
If you receive the "You have been banned" message, and you are using a VPN then simply quit the VPN. In time we expect we will have banned the majority of IP ranges used by such services - inevitably its a game of whack-the-mole, it just springs back up elsewhere. (You may find disconnecting and reconnecting the VPN session assigns you with a new IP address on the VPN in address space we haven't blocked as yet)." For a number of months now there have been close to zero spam posts reaching the forum, but that is due entirely to behind the scenes efforts to prevent spammers from gaining access to the forum, one strand to this is to block entire ranges of IP's so spammers can't attempt to register new accounts in the first place. Unfortunately, the internet's IP address space is not especially well structured, and sometimes there are small blocks of IP addresses owned by UK/EU ISPs in the middle of vast blocks owned by ISPs in other countries, and these do occaisonaly get blocked by accident. If you are using a UK/EU ISP and are not on a VPN and you are being blocked, make a note of the IP address you are using (with something like whatismyip.com ) and let admin know that address next time you're able to access the forum so we can investigate. Not ideal, and a major annoyance to all, but that's the way it is.
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Post by Admin on Jun 8, 2018 9:58:28 GMT
We hear the message on KYC loud and clear, thank-you for all the comments and explanations.
In the OP we said it was a longer term objective, so rest assured, KYC will not be coming to this forum any time soon.
It's certainly true that there is no obvious contemporary model for a public access forum which requires id verification before posting. But that in itself shouldn't be a barrier to wondering (aloud) whether such a model might work, and what the pros and cons would be. Possibly the solution would be to trial such a concept on a new brand / domain in parallel with P2PIF at some future point.
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Post by Admin on Jun 2, 2018 12:46:15 GMT
If that were to happen, does that mean our email addresses would have been sold ? transferring the domain into a LTD would also be a transfer of data - prohibited without data subject consent and subject to fine of up to £20m. Not sure if that is per user dandy it is only €20 million so £17 million. GDPR is crazy! Data portability anyone? I checked the slide to see if it was dated 1st April. Every forum member should have received a personal PM from Proboards on 24th May 2018 concerning the revised Proboards Privacy Policy, with a link to the Privacy Policy (the link is also available at the bottom of every page of the forum). Paragraph 1 of the Privacy Policy states the name and address of who controls personal information, namely Proboards Inc. The transfer of the P2PIF domain registration from the current owner to a limited company will not result in any change to the data controller with respect to the personal information of forum members which will remain as Proboards Inc. We will give plenty of notice that the forum legal ownership is about to change to allow anyone who disagrees with this to delete their account. The few individuals who have been banned from the forum can request that Proboards delete their account (via the Proboards support forum as per current Proboards procedures). Not withstanding the above specifics in this case, in more general terms, corporate takeovers happen on a regular basis, and GDPR will not in itself be a barrier for the acquiring company to use the personal data of customers, suppliers, creditors and staff of the aquired company for ongoing trade.
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Post by Admin on Jun 1, 2018 10:44:49 GMT
Many thanks for all the comments and votes on this important subject, they are all valuable input into the discussions that have been going on for a while evaluating the concept of a not for profit company, and the most appropriate means of raising revenue to cover its costs. A reminder for those yet to vote that the polls will be open for another week, and comments/views are still welcome. Some options are clearly less palatable than others, but the business plan needs to consider all the possible fallback options, so nothing is being ruled in or out at this stage. During this week we have received a couple of offers to purchase the forum (one for 1p and one for an unspecified amount) both on behalf of offshore entities (one in a tax haven) at least one of which has stated the intention to run the forum on a commercial basis. If the point comes that the forum has to be closed by the current admin/mod team as being unviable, we will explore options such as these to see if some continuity could be provided for the community. However, for now, the forum staff team believe a not for profit structure with an option for participation by forum members in the company is desirable, along with the transparency that incorporating in the UK provides. Forum members rightly criticise borrowers for hiding behind offshore entities, it would be a shame if the forum itself came under similar criticism. A query has been raised with respect to forum members who have pledged donations (thank-you ) to cover the impending renewal of the domain in November. Our current thinking is the forum will be incorporated before the renewal is due, such that the legal liability as the domain owner from the point of renewal rests with the limited company and not the individual whose credit card would otherwise have to be used to pay for the renewal. Any donations to the forum's not for profit company would then go towards (or pay for) domain hosting and other costs.
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Post by Admin on May 29, 2018 11:28:35 GMT
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Post by Admin on May 29, 2018 11:24:15 GMT
In line with our consultation on the future development of the Forum, and the suggestions made - this is a poll to help assess the likelihood of the Forum receiving subscription payment(s) from forum members to help cover the running and maintenance costs of the Forum. The forum staff team do not feel charging for read access is a sensible long term strategy given it will have a major impact on the awareness of the usefulness of the forum by potential new members. For the avoidance of confusion, the DD Central fee would be in addition to write access if a fee for write access was charged. Should this proposition seem viable we are proposing to have a customised 'Subscribe' page on the Forum/site for members to be able to use.
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Post by Admin on May 28, 2018 11:23:10 GMT
In line with our consultation on the future development of the Forum - this is a poll to help assess the likelihood of the viability and success of a page dedicated to referral links to P2P Platforms where the Forum would receive the referral fee/income without the need to invest in the Platform or it's products. We are hoping to be able to determine Platform appetite for collaboration as well as Member views on this concept.
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Post by Admin on May 28, 2018 11:23:04 GMT
In line with our consultation on the future development of the Forum - this is a poll to help assess the likelihood of the Forum receiving donations from any member to help cover the running and maintenance costs of the Forum. All donations would be gratefully received, but would be so on the strict understanding that no strings would be attached. Should our propositions seem viable we are proposing to have a customised 'Donations' page on the Forum/site for members to be able to use.
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Post by Admin on May 28, 2018 11:14:34 GMT
Proposed Evolution of the P2P Independent ForumThe P2PIndependentforum.com (P2PIF) started out in November 2013, when P2P was a somewhat different proposition, and the regulatory framework for it’s operation barely existed. We received some initial legal advice around regulatory issues which resulted in our much lambasted refusal to allow the publishing of borrower’s names or anything which would easily allow for their identification. Since this time not only has the P2P environment moved on but so has other legislation such as GDPR and regulation around social media. As members may be aware we have lost nearly half of our volunteer staff team in the last year, whilst the number of forum members has risen by just over 25% (>1000) in the same period. A contributory factor in a number of staff departures has been the perceived increase from ‘regulatory’ risk coupled with the awareness that it is our individual personal ‘assets’ that are on the line should anyone ever attempt to sue or litigate against the forum. That we may be able to successfully defend any case is irrelevant as to merely mount a defence would have cost implications. At the present juncture this issue is a serious factor in staff recruitment and retention and, if not overcome, will likely result in the loss of more staff. It is imperative that it is addressed if the forum is to continue to be able to function into the future. To this end we are proposing moving to an incorporated not-for profit structure. In order to achieve this we need to cover running costs for a company limited by guarantee, and to be able to afford independent legal advice so that we can re-appraise legal issues around the forum rules, and the forum operation more generally. The forum staff would not draw any income and would still be volunteers, but it would also enable appropriate professional indemnity and other insurances to be purchased for them. Identifying shills and people pretending to be something they are not takes up a noteworthy amount of staff time. Some members also feel that posters would be much better ‘behaved’ if their identities were ‘available’ should the need arise. Thus, in the longer term we would ideally like to move towards a ‘Know Your Customer’ (KYC) system. Taken together with the need to raise revenue to support a company and this forum from November 2018 onwards (when the domain is up for renewal) this points towards hosting and software independence and is something we also intend to progress in the medium term. Following on from the helpful turn to the discussion after our recent shut-down – here onwards - it has helped crystallise our view that we should attempt to raise most of our funds via the Platforms, and through advertising, thus we are proposing collecting funds in three ways ~ Advertising; A Referral Link Page; & Donations: AdvertisingOnce incorporated we are intending to look at gathering revenue through adverts; this may be arms-length through something like VigLink or Google's AdSense, or depending on appetite we may look at direct advertising from Platforms and other interested parties. We would not anticipate more adverts appearing than Pro-Boards currently have, and would likely use a similar layout. As we would have to 'buy out' Pro-Boards adverts first running adverts would, on the face of it, be much more efficient on an alternate platform and forum software, so we will be looking at evaluating the feasibility of a forum re-location further. ReferralsWe are looking to develop a dedicated referral page where referrals go to the P2PIF(inc) (without the need for it to invest in the Platforms/products). If there seems to be enough appetite for this concept from the Platforms we hope that members here would look to use the links on the dedicated page in order to help us generate an income rather than look to other members or elsewhere for them. If this were implemented it would have an impact on the forum rules as referral type links and/ or touting for referrals would not be allowed. This may also have an impact on the many ‘Bloggers’ who use this site, but we hope that the membership in general would empathise with our need and approach. DonationsHopefully a fairly straightforward concept, no strings attached donations can be given by anyone. A poll to gauge forum membership views on this is also being mooted. We are also proposing two polls which we will run below to help us gauge forum member sentiment.
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Post by Admin on May 10, 2018 19:36:45 GMT
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