Marple Website Pub Guide

[Jo Scarlett]

This is a great service for visitors to the area - but you need to update the information more regularly.  I appreciate that Tennant's are moving regularly through certain 'houses' and I notice that several pubs have info which is up to 3 years old.

[admin]

It's always going to be subjective to a degree, which is why comments will be posted at our discretion. I think "discretion" is the key word here and depending on how it was written I may well reject a claim that Pub X's is the best food in the world too. I'm aware that the whole thing is potentially open to abuse, even from a positive angle, and anything that is over the top will probably hit the cutting room floor. I would certainly try to verify any comments submitted and have already done so for the very first one that has been posted on this new version of the guide. It is my intention to respond to any comments that I won't add to explain why, although I am not going to guarantee that I will always do this. Thanks for your closing comment, it's a nice place we're trying to create

[nbt]

True on both counts. It;s more about making sure that for instance my professional name is not seen by clients. As for coments, do you verify positive comments? If I were to say that the food at Pub X is the best food in the world, that's a pretty bold claim, and Pub Y might be not too happy with it. I just think you need to be careful when setting out terms like "we will only publish a certain type of thing". Having said that I fully appreciate that it;s your website and we are here as long as we play by your rules - which I'm happy to do, it's a nice enough place

[admin]

To answer your second point first, our aim and objective in everything we do on this site is to promote Marple to the benefit of the people who live and work here, not to try and destroy people’s reputations and livelihoods. If there were negative comments all over these pub pages we would not be achieving our primary aim. In addition, we would need to check and verify that every complaint or criticism was justified in order to avoid being drawn into dispute ourselves. You would be amazed at how much grief some of the comments in this forum have caused for us over the years and we are not prepared to get into that kind of thing in the guide, as it will not benefit anyone.

This is not a new policy by the way; it was exactly the same in the previous version of the guide. The way I see it is that if you like a pub you tell us and if you don’t like it you take it up with the management. In the longer term the absence of positive comments against a particular pub, whilst there are lots for others, will speak volumes without the need for negative comments at all.

Having said all that it may be possible to criticise in a positive way (for example loud music might be a positive or negative thing depending on your viewpoint) and you are welcome to send us any comments you think appropriate but they will only be published in the pub guide at our discretion.

To comment on your first point; it depends where you work of course but you should be aware that your boss could have access to more information about what you do at work than you think. Where I work they are able to tell every site we’ve visited, how long we were there and what we were doing. This is pretty standard at medium to large companies (if they have an IT Dept then they are probably monitoring activity) A pseudonym would provide no “cover” whatsoever and it would just be down to the discretion of the company and the rigidity of their policies as to what action that they took. I know several people who have been marched out of the building for IT abuse!

[nbt]

Two things strike me

1) I can understand and appreciate the need for real names to be displayed. I use a pseudonym when online as I do not wish my real life to be affected by some of the activities I am undertaking online, I especially for instance don't want my boss to notice which websites I visit during the day

2) I am disappointed by your statement that you will only accept positive comments. Can you provide a reasoning for this? If a pub does not do well in some area, then potential visitors need to know this.

[admin]

The Marple Website Pub Guide has been relaunched today after undergoing a full revamp that has taken several months. The new navigation system is tied to each of the local pub signs and it now uses a great feature provided by Google Maps to help visitors to zoom in or out to find their way to each pub's location. You will need Javascript enabled for all this to work properly!

With the "retirement" of our previous tour guide, Egbert Mackereth, we have also taken the opportunity to rename the guide as a tribute to Marple's greatest benefactor, Samuel Oldknow.

The guide no longer includes our own ratings as these can be very subjective and depend on what you want and expect from a local pub. However, there is provision for regulars and visitors to have their own POSITIVE comments added to each page. Only positive comments will be accepted and you must be prepared to have your real name displayed against them. Anonymous comments will not be accepted and inclusion will be at our discretion.

When the Pub Guide was first created the Internet was a fairly new thing to many people and most pubs did not have email addresses or web sites. That has changed greatly now and we hope to be able to interact more easily with Landlords and Landladies to keep details up to date via email. We would encourage them to "say something about themselves" and let us know if there are any omissions or errors on their page. We wil also include two extra photos on each page if they are provided and web links will be included if a reciprocal link to the Marple Website is added to their sites.

If you are a regular at one of our pubs then please let the Landlord/lady know about the new guide and ask them to check that we've got all the details correct, or let us know yourself if you are well enough informed.

The link to the guide is : www.marple-uk.com/pubguide

Please let us now what you think of the revamp and if you have any difficulties with the pages or suggestions for improvements.