When a forum is sold to the corporates like Vert\*\*\*\*\*\* this is what happens, because it's the database they want, not the users. The database is the honeypot for the search engines. https://www.hockeyforum.com/ This was a huge active forum now it's absolutely dead…like the Parrot. [URL=https://i.imgur.com/m9uQzag.jpg][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/m9uQzag.jpg[/IMG][/URL] It's had 8 posts in the last 4 months, mostly by people who join, post a couple of times and move on because they get no reply. [URL=https://i.imgur.com/5DHw4Hj.jpg][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/5DHw4Hj.jpg[/IMG][/URL] This is when the head admin last posted, The other admin appointed 7 months ago has made 19 posts the last one to a 1 post wonder 22 days ago. The whole place a monument to how the corporates can destroy online communities…do they care no, because it's slathered in adverts, it's a billboard sprayed heavily in search engine attractant. Effectively the forum itself is like a huge spambot. It's quite depressing.

Thank goodness Dave, that you have publicly stated that this will never happen to this forum. You ensure that by using a totally free hosting. By not forming a Limited Company…….let us talk a little here. It is just my view but to turn a forum into a Limited Company suggests either the owners are worried about being sued, therefore seeking to limit their liability, or more likely, they think it is easier to sell on one sufficient growth has occurred. Sometimes it is much easier to be transparent akin to the way we have tried to raise funds from the forum to be passed on in entirety to Flarum, than raise funds which are passed on to the Limited Company then lost from view. I wonder which business model will be around the longest?

@"DavecUK"#p736 It’s sad the way the established forums become irrelevant. Some good observations and questions from @"dfk41"#p748 IMO, which we all know, limited companies despite their limited liabilities, have to be profit driven. The firm will also have to discharge the responsibilities, governance, file tax returns, … within the defined set of parameters; these costs money and hence the profit motive. It’s difficult not to give-in to the temptations of selling, if a good offer comes around. The current model, I think, is better, although it creates a dependency, setting in motion a what if scenario. We don’t know how much it costs to keep them going. The third option is a non-profit organisation route, whose duties and responsibilities are similar to that of the limited firm. Is there a fourth option, which is not profit-driven, not requiring non-profit org registrations and legal responsibilities route, free us from the dependency and yet continue what we do? It will cost though. The biggest challenge is finding finances to keep it afloat. We know some one will have to pay to keep the forum running. Either the forum members will have to fund enough to cover all *a to z* costs or let it funded by sponsors and adverts. There are no free lunches, I am afraid. 😊

let’s not forget we don’t have any control over this. At any point our hosts might decide to switch their servers off and we will need to find another home. What coffeetime shows us is that there’s no second intentions behind the scene here. We are here because we enjoy coffee. If our hosts go - we hope they never do! - we will just have to find another home and start again. We have a community, we proved to ourselves we can do it and that’s what it matters: the community. As the saying goes, it’s about the people, not the building.

@"MediumRoastSteam"#p758 Exactly

@"MediumRoastSteam"#p758 I have considered that possibility and already identified a paid hosting plan should anything happen. We can simply take the database, they already have flarum loaded, I could probably have the basic forum running in a day and all extensions functioning and configured by day 2. I would then put a signpost on Tapatalk coffeetime.

@"DavecUK"#p761 Without wanting to appear a sycophant I am impressed mightily by your grasp of the forums complexities and what lengths you are prepared to go to achieve your aims. Well done. Ian

@"DavecUK"#1 Must agree with Eyedee you have put a lot of work into setting the forum up and working hard for it’s continued success. Thanks again Steve

@"DavecUK"#p761 brilliant bit of disaster planning.. straight Sod's Law…if you make all preparation for the worst, it never happens, lol

As others have said, a huge thanks to Dave for his time and efforts setting this place up it's very much appreciated

When Glenn set up CFUK in 2008, I like to think he did it to further a community spirit for all things coffee related. That said, it became clear, as time progressed, Glenn's focus began to shift IMO. Glenn was adept in maintaining the image of a forum focussed on a community aspect whilst building the forum as a profitable business evidenced when he sold it for a five figure sum. The new owner bought it as a business which understandably hacked off a number of members who bought into the community myth Glenn fostered. That said, the new owner, after getting his fingers well and truly burned, ceded responsibility for day to day running to the mods. This proved to be a two edged sword. It enabled the mods to ensure the forum wasn't taken over by a small vocal minority and, as a consequence, it thrived and attracted more paid advertising. Mods knew this would likely mean that at some point the new owner would seek to cash in and sell on which happened recently. The new owners have a very different agenda. They made no attempt to get in touch with CFUK mod team to start a dialogue/relationship - clearly it would seem the past was of no importance to them. It's a sad story but that's life - everything is reduced to monetary value - community is a term that is bandied around like confetti but the reality is the opposite. CFUK may continue but its heart has gone IMO which is why the mods decided to withdraw completely and set up this independent, not for profit, coffee community focused forum.

What corporates can do when they monetise a forums data

Rob1

I think it’s important to stop contributing to the other forum. As tempting as it is to say something in some threads. Hopefully, people will find everyone has left come here and elsewhere. I’m not giving them the traffic as it’s a stat they use to get advertisers on board.

DavecUK

Rob1 Agreed and what’s worse it just adds more bait to the database for advert impressions from Google ads. They really don’t give a crap about the user base. An admin I believe covers 30 or 40 forums.

If I’m honest, it’s a mystery why the people who are left keep posting there. One day 3 big corporates will own almost all the forums…except ones like ours. Their money is no good here. This is our community, not a commodity!

dfk41

Quite agree Rob…..as much as I want to log on and argue, what’s the point? There are certain folks logging on there and just posting defamatory remarks, looking for a scrap……feck ’em is what I say!

LMSC

dfk41 I do look at some of the posts. However tempting it may be to post, I have resisted the temptation by not even signing in.

A good example is the our old Vostok thread. It’s losing the relevance, if not already. It’s a shame some experienced long timers don’t even get it. 😊

MediumRoastSteam

I’m still posting there, mainly raising awareness of the takeover. I’ll stop in the new year.

dfk41

Best way of raising awareness, is to set up auto reply on your pm’s……..changing your signature to redirect here, and just sign out!

DavecUK

dfk41 I think only silver has auto reply on Their accounts.

hornbyben

I couldn’t see a delete account option, to so I’ve just emailed their privacy department removing my consent for them to hold my personal data and requesting they delete my account.

It’sa small act but it’s one less member on their numbers.

I’ll let you know how I get on

MediumRoastSteam

hornbyben couldn’t see a delete account option

There were questions about this before on CFUK. My understanding is that such a thing cannot happen as there’s no personal information.

Do a search on “remove account”. It says it cannot be deleted as it disrupts thread continuity.

LMSC

I no longer login elsewhere. I haven’t posted anything since we all left that place.

DavecUK

MediumRoastSteam it’s a bit academic as no one will read the email or pm. Took them over a day to read mine (with all the mods copied in) about the advertisers announcement and their mess I had to clean up. They never ever replied!

Gagaryn

MediumRoastSteam

Your profile has fields for email address, telephone number and name - all of which the user needs to voluntarily provide - but if one did and they hold it they are holding personal information as defined by GDPR. They are obliged by law to respond to requests for deletion of your data.

On top of that they log your device identifier, browser and location. You can see the log at Settings > Recently Used Devices.

LMSC

MediumRoastSteam there’s no personal information.

If you are even a bronze sponsor, PII — name, email and address — will be captured from your credit card / paypal and stored.

I found this when I cleaned them out weeks ago (when the notice of sale was announced).

MediumRoastSteam

DavecUK - there were data deleting requests from 2020, and even before. One of the mods replied saying it cannot be done due to the reason I said above. I can link the post here, but I don’t think it’s worth the while. Happy to email.

MediumRoastSteam

Gagaryn - I’m not saying they are right. I’m just reporting previous posts requesting it - and subsequent failure.

JahLaza

LMSC I found this when I cleaned them out weeks ago (when the notice of sale was announced

How do I ‘clean my details out’? I started sponsoring because I wanted to give something back due to the help I received on my machine, but literally about 2 days later ‘it happened’ and the people who had helped me are here so I wanted to cancel my donations there and bring it here but it proved impossible to contact anyone. Can you advise how I ensure more money is not taken from my account as I have no way of knowing at the moment and it said that the donation are auto renewal

Cheers

hornbyben

I don’t expect them to delete posts, but they are holding my email address on file, which is definitely personal information according to GDPR.

DavecUK

JahLaza Just check PayPal and cancel any repeating payments. If your payment was recent, you could try and reverse it due to the changes.

LMSC

JahLaza Sign in, hit Store and go from there. Also check billing and purchases.

All purchases are managed out of your paypal account. If you paid without setting up a paypal account, you may call paypal to help you with cancelling.

If you use apple products, you can use their hide my ip to get a unique email address; all emails will be auto forwarded to personal email id.

DavecUK

All payments were PayPal.

JahLaza

Yes was PayPal,I didn’t set it up as recurring and it’s not in there as one so should be fine from that perspective. The forum states that they are auto renew that’s why I ask

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