Great Western Coffee Shop

As an idea, maybe members who are proven to be staff could get some sort of rank?

Captain Ollie?  :P ;) ;D

I'd go with that :P

Perhaps Captain Ollie RNFGW?

That may be a good idea -  I [grahame] posting this from a test account to show you the sort of thing we could do  ;)

I can only agree, something between name and avatar to show who is verified to be a genuine staff member. I think i've seen 3 people pretending to be staff in the last week now!

Dare I ask what the RN stands for?

"RN" after "Captain XYZ" usually stands for "Royal Navy", to differentiate it from the Army's (lower) rank of Captain.

"RNFGW" just had a nice ring, though I can't come up with a good backronym.

With some of the posters produced across the network it could quite easily stand for Resident (k)Now-it-all. (Meant with the utmost respect Ollie)  ;)

Military style ranks could be problematical though.

What if we get rail staff members joining who are called Mainwaring, Jones, or Pike (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V3SqxUomwk)?

 :-\ ;) ;D

As soon as we get to different rankings, we're looking at how we differentiate.

How about two groups:

a) For staff members who work for national network companies in a rail role for at least 20 hours a week.  Working title - National Railway Team Member

b) For staff and volunteers who work on heritage lines, for companies providing services and supplies to the rail industry, volunteers with community rail groups, etc, who have a knowledge that's at such a level that they can represent their group.  Working title - Supporting Railway Team Member

What if your both  ;)

See what I mean about differentiation problems  :P

Then perhaps you can be both, or take the higher(??) National rank.   Dunno.  What do you think?

I am concerned at the borders.  Volunteer groups can start off with one or two people saying "let's get together to organise xxx" and then it grows - sometimes into something pretty serious.  At what point do the main players in such a group become eligible for SRTM status?  It's a bit of a minefield.  Or perhaps we should ask the members / vote?  Star chamber? (yuk!).

I think something simple such as "FGW staff" or just "Rail staff". Or, if the person doesn't mind giving away their function: "Guard"/"Customer Service"

Or just a simple request to TOC/Network Rail or Community/Heritage/Volunteer staff to include their bona fides (if they so wish - some way wish to retain anonimity) in their signature or avatar text?

Ollie is already quite clear in his signature text:

Quite happy to hint at who and what sector I work for but not happy to be specific

With regards to Ollies signature, if i make any mention to anything related to my sector of work, it is a requirement of my company i state that it is my opinion and not that of my company. This is stated clearly in the social networking policy contracts we have to agree to

Ours is the same, and while I am happy for people on the forum to know that I work in the industry, apart from the regulars I have not been more specific on the more open areas of the sight, it's also worth pointing out that I started in August so there are many others in here with a lot more experience, i have made a decision that from now on I will only be replying to enquirys when I can back it up with a link where appropriate, and inline with our social media policy I also wish to state that my views are my own

Fare enuff: yore apauling speling wood give you away.  ;) :D ;D

Look out for the badly parked car  ;)

I agree with Electrictrain. I work in the Industry and am happy to say so, though would not want people to know exactly who I am employed by. The opinions I give are my own and not those of my company. That is what personal messages are for. Then you can tell people in confidencw if you wish to Divulge details ;)

Site* ..... That was bad even for me

I wouldn't want to go any further than saying more that "rail industry staff member" or "rail volunteer" on the main forum, and only if the people in question were happy with that.  Now that the dust has settled, I'm settling back towards the opinion that it might be unnecessary admin anyway - a sledgehammer to crack a nut, when we have a good set of nutcrackers anyway.

Eh??  :P ::) ;D