The AB Electronics UK Forum is Back
Good news - the AB Electronics UK forum is open again for new posts.
Back in 2025 we took the difficult decision to close the forum to new posts while we worked out how to comply with the UK government's Online Safety Act 2023. The act introduced new legal requirements for any website that allows users to post content publicly, and we wanted to make sure we were doing things properly before reopening.
After spending some time reviewing the act and Ofcom's guidance, we're pleased to say that the forum is now back up and running with a few changes to the way it works.
What's changed
The main change is that the forum now operates a pre-moderation policy. This means that when you post a new message or reply, it won't appear publicly straight away. Instead it will be held for review and will only become visible to other users once it has been checked. While your post is waiting to be reviewed, you'll be able to see it in the thread yourself, greyed out with an "Awaiting Approval" label so you know it's been received.
We apologise for the delay this will cause. We know it's not ideal, and we're sorry for the inconvenience. The honest reason for it is that the Online Safety Act requires us to take responsibility for content posted on the forum, and we simply don't have the resources to monitor the forum around the clock. Pre-moderation is the practical solution that lets us keep the forum running while meeting our legal obligations, the alternative would be to leave it closed permanently, which isn't something we wanted to do.
We'll do our best to review posts as quickly as we can. The forum covers a fairly narrow range of topics, so in practice we don't expect this to cause too much of a problem for most discussions.
We've also updated our forum Terms of Service to reflect the new rules. You can read them on the forum registration page.
Thanks for your patience while we sorted this out, and welcome back to the forum. We look forward to seeing your projects and questions again.