Think this thread has run its distance but I will end it with some context.
I was a mod on CFUK for many years when Glenn ran it. He sold it to a company whose owner, Tait, had a slight but not strong interest in coffee so it became more focussed as a commercial concern. Due to some rather unpleasant internal wrangling behind the scenes which led me to take a back seat to avoid it, things eventually came to ahead and led the owner to sack a couple of mods. The owner then asked me to take on the role as head mod. I said I would only do this if Dave Corbey, who had been banned on CFUK, could be not only reinstated as a member but also as a mod. Dave had been the focus of a rather unpleasant campaign by a small but vocal group that peddled the trope that his equipment reviews were pay for play. When he became a mod, Dave put in a prodigious amount of work behind the scenes to make CFUK, which was now a commercial concern, a success - his rationale being to keep the forum coffee focused meant a pragmatic relationship with the devil that is advertising. Having to be mindful of this fact and that CFUK’s owner looked at it as an income generating concern with paying advertisers, albeit all being coffee related, I had to have some difficult conversations with those running LSOL under CFUK’s banner. We had the ridiculous situation of coffee roasters paying to advertise on CFUK but never being invited by LSOL to take part in the coffee of the month promotion. This lead to the LSOL organisers setting up Talkcoffee which became the home of LSOL.
When CFUK was sold to VerticalScope, Dave and I didn’t want to be part of it. Dave then set up this forum. He wanted to keep it free of third party advertising and focus solely on all things coffee related. Again, Dave put in a lot of effort behind the scenes to make this forum what it is. It is his legacy. To guard that legacy, means keeping Coffeetime coffee focused and member friendly and respectful.
Just prior to Talkcoffee closing, I was informed that an offensive and unpleasant trope appeared. As Talkcoffee’s website has closed, it’s no longer visible but, sadly, has been repeated in CFUK and even more sadly, liked by some CFUK members including mods. It seems that some cannot leave things alone even in death and feel the need to perpetuate untruths. Happily, in Dave’s memory, that won’t happen on Coffeetime.
