The demise of Talkcoffee

dfk41

I see that there is an announcement over on talkcoffee that they are shutting down, as from February 22nd. They are inviting members to migrate over to coffeeforums.co.uk Of course the real reason for this is the expansion of LSOL (Lighter side of life) where those good people run a non profit subscription service for members where you subscribe on a 3 monthly basis to an unknown coffee, roasted lightly (sometimes) and supplied without any notes leaving you to guess the origins. What capers! This must be a tremendous amount of work for some folks bearing in mind it is non profit……..whatever that may mean. Perhaps they all have big hearts!

Coffeeforums.co.uk dismantled because of the commercial pressures exerted by some folks whereby they treated the forum like their own personal prospecting ground. It is so refreshing to see so many of the old faces migrate back there. I can only think that this non profit exercise imagines that a bigger forum membership means they can increase membership whilst making no profit……or perhaps I have it wrong and am just confused!

Bon voyage! I remember Richard Branson’s Virgin Group bidding twice on running The National Lottery. They were also running a non profit model. You know the sort of thing where the CEO earned hundreds of thousands of £'s but the company made no profit

wintoid

You seem to be expressing a bad feeling of some sort, but it’s gone over my head I’m afraid. I’m obviously unaware of what has been done to you to require this response. If you want me to understand, you’ll have to be less subtle. I hate this sort of factional shit, though. One of the worst things about the internet IMHO.

I am a member at both sites, although I drink decaf now only, so don’t participate in LSOL, but I did it and enjoyed it. I doubt I’ll go back to coffeeforums. I wish them well.

dfk41

wintoid Yes, the internet ca be a funny place matey. I do no think I said anything horrible. Perhaps just a hint of sarcasm but as far as I know we still live in a free society……just

Uncletits

I use both sites still. There’s been a large influx of returning members in recent days “not been here for years” and announced this morning the return of LSOL.

Doesn’t really bother me as I enjoy the other site for simpler, cheaper machines and this site for fabulous info on refining my workflow, advice on equipment and water for example.

This site has also been a lot quieter since we lost Dave but happy to go between both and always have.

Cuprajake

ive just asked the mod to delete my account on there

cba with it now, esp the timing of it, really stinks, accidentally or purposely.

the other forum was a ghost town, talk coffee is mainly bots and hidden mods bumping 10yr old threads, the guy who sold it played a blinder.

as regards to here, its difficult when you loose someone like dave, his input and knowledge as well as the stuff he did behind the scenes,

when the forums split ways he had a horrible time blocking and deleting spam users.

hopefully we can continue what small community we have, but the technical knowledge will never be the same.

dfk41

Bye Bye…..closed down…..failed to even get the date of closure correct!

Platypus

Does this mean that all the information people have ever posted has disappeared ?

dfk41

Platypus I believe that I read members were encouraged to download their own data (no idea how!) but all the posts are lost. So sad when this happens…..all that important chit chat lost

Cuprajake

well they have all jumped on to the other forum

all the smart arse replies have started,

really sad that again all it is about is money

saving money not paying to host talk coffee and second trying to get money off people on there

its a really odd site woth old posts from yrs ago getting bumped. i smell bs somewhere.

Platypus

dfk41 I believe that I read members were encouraged to download their own data (no idea how!) but all the posts are lost.

Blimey!

MediumRoastSteam

dfk41 - what would happen if Freeflarum stops?

dfk41

MediumRoastSteam dave did tell me but I cannot remember. I believe there are ways of admin downloading the database but not sure if it is in a format that is of general use. I will try to find out though since thats a fair question

dfk41

Seems like the usual charm offensive is going on. They used to do this on TalkCoffee. Every now and again private messages would be sent out to the usual suspects who for a couple of days would start posts in the hope that they could generate some traffic to look good. It never lasted long though as boredom and lack of interest crept in and posting reverted back to inane LSOL talk consisting of ooh err missus and the like!

Adrianmsmith

dfk41
I thought cfuk was just a more trusted version of ebay just for coffee equipment 😎🤔

Platypus

It’s a shame because there was some really useful information and chat when it first started up, I realise this was partly due to the pandemic with people working from home .
I could never understand how it all just became a LSOL forum with very little contribution re anything else. It just seemed all take and no give and I was surprised this was tolerated.
It did nothing to welcome new folk to the forum or to keep old ones who hadn’t bought into the LSOL subscription.

dfk41

Platypus Hiya, I will try to explain, objectively. Both the members there and here used to frequent CFUK. This forum was sold twice and the first owner was an IT chap whose sole intention was to sell it on with zero interest in posterity. Over a short period of time, the LSOL principle was founded. The group behind that tried to take the forum over for their own financial reasons. The forum admin was in the pocket of these people. They managed to convince the forum owner to appoint their members as mods. The good guys were outnumbered and the bad guys wreaked havoc.

As a result both Dave and I received life bans. At this stage, their true hand was revealed and Patrick managed to get himself appointed as head honcho. He banned many of the ‘cabal’ when he realised that LSOL was being run as a business and they had the sole intention of allowing their own friends to use the forum like a sales market with no interest in coffee.

This caused TalkCoffee to form which had the sole intention of housing LSOL. There was never an interest in promoting coffee information. With time, the actual forum side of things failed with very little coffee chat, other than LSOL related stuff. Every year, the limited company behind the forum had to raise the funds from members to keep the forum going.

Remember, all of the people in LSOL have never been known for their charitable help yet apparently LSOL is non profit making. Are they doing this from the goodness of their hearts? Make up your own minds.

So, the big announcement that they are shutting down TalkCoffee and migrating on to CFUK who will now cover all their expenses whilst CFUK with a larger database expands their sales. Presumably having no forum expenses to cover the subscription price to their coffee will drop substantially?

Former members have established themselves into mod and admin roles meaning they can do what they like. They are openly talking about bringing back on board former forum members who were barred with good reason. They now view the forum as their own.

I have tried to stick to the facts as I understand them and not just opinion. If anyone from over there disagrees with what I have said, then you know how to get in touch with me, or better still, give me a pass and username and let’s debate this out in the open on your forum.

Cuprajake

Platypus i still belive there was an invite only area for discussion in the clique

Platypus

Regardless of the politics and in-house splits the real tragedy is the loss to the coffee community .
With these forums seemingly fractured beyond repair , information from a wealth of experience from good people is lost or no longer offered and the community is a much poorer place because of it.
It seems ridiculous that if you’re “seen” to be on the “opponents” forum you’re a traitor. This ridiculous nonsense should end . I mean it’s just coffee , look at what’s happening in the world and the tragedy people experience daily.
It’s a shame everyone couldn’t just try to pull together in the same direction for the greater good but that’s humans for you!

Adrianmsmith

Platypus It seems ridiculous that if you’re “seen” to be on the “opponents” forum you’re a traitor.

…. And receive a life time ban!!

You cant even comment on there with any sentences containing any variation if the word coffeetime or it gets edited to *************** ridiculously

Not good

Unfortunately it does attract some nice used coffee equipment to consider purchasing, otherwise its a waste of server storage space 🤔

dfk41

Platypus Okie dokie…what causes division and split then? Usually it is to wield power over people….why?

CfUK under Glenn bumbled along. There was a good membership and knowledge base. Glenn though used it as a place to promote products including his own TempTags. Londinium were there and contributed by loaning Glenn a prototype lever and he bigged it up, depite all of its failings like it was the latest fashion item. Even I bought one as a direct result of his influence.

So, when the power balance becomes interrupted the fun and games started. CFUK did not exist for the benefit of its members and coffee knowledge. It existed for the benefit of a few selected members who made money from having a large captive audience.

Along comes Dave into this affray. He hated commercialism in anyway, hence why on this forum no one promotes their goods other than by recommendation of one member to another. The forum is hosted by FreeFlarum, a community based group. Dave existed to help people, not to make money. Look at all the folks who since his passing have chipped in to tell others how Dave helped them, yet no one else knew as he sought no acclaim. All of the work he did on coffee equipment for manufacturers was done out of love for the industry.

So, our forum without real expense or ulterior motive will exist for many a long day I hope. Compare this to LSOL which is now on its 3rd home. I see admin on CFUK have banners associating CFUK with LSOL so it is easy to see the direction that ship is travelling in.

Platypus, it is impossible I am afraid for these two coffee forums to co-exist peacefully when the aim of one is to help and promote coffee and the other to promote a business. They are under pressure, not us and I predict that the LSOL bubble will again soon be burst.

Platypus

Adrianmsmith

“It’s ridiculiculiculous”!!