WE at The National are no strangers to the BBC Press Office, certainly in Glasgow, but occasionally we’ve had to contact their counterparts in London.
These communications are often by phone but more frequently by email, and our address books are full of the addresses of various BBC staffers.
Imagine our surprise today when we had to contact the London media team using an online form that required our email address.
The missive sat stubbornly on screen, gong nowhere. Underneath it, in red lettering there was a series of messages, telling us the system did not recognise our .scot email address.
“’thenational.scot’ is no valid hostname for email address … 'thenational.scot' appears to be a DNS hostname but cannot match TLD against known list … 'thenational.scot' appears to be a local network name but local network names are not allowed.”
We’re waiting for someone from the BBC in London to get back to us to explain why, when governments, corporations and law enforcement agencies around the world accept .scot emails, the BBC cannot.
Scotland is in lockdown. Shops are closing and newspaper sales are falling fast. It’s no exaggeration to say that the future of The National is at stake. Please consider supporting us through this with a digital subscription from just £2 for 2 months by following this link: http://www.thenational.scot/subscribe. Thanks – and stay safe.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel