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

DavecUK

lineupChocolate If the worst happens, and we need to move to a paid host, we will find a way. This forum will never be sold by me to any purchaser, and I always keep my word. I am pretty sure VS won’t try and buy us, because they truly hate me and the other mods for what we have done/said.….🤣

I have also built a Linux platform/with screen at home in case we need to self host, I have installed everything but am missing something as I can’t seem to get flarum to run (yet). Hopefully at some point, someone with a bit more skills than me will help me. If I get that up and running as a just in case, we simply need to make sure we point the DNS to my home IP as it’s not static…this can be a dynamic process that happens automatically. In that case we would only need a domain name.

EasyRawlins

I have tried three times now to get the other forum to delete my details, with three different arguments. I received very aggressive responses each time. So I have given up. Mark @DavecUK comments on what has happened. We are grist in the digital mill as far as the new owners are concerned. I decline to even sneak a look over there, they won’t get one more click from me to support their traffic stats. Let’s hope Coffeetime develops into a more positive place than our old forum.

CafeNoir

EasyRawlins Well from what I’m seeing, it’s already doing pretty well, good and wide ranging stuff and truly (from my perch on the other side of the world in Oz) I don’t believe that it’s being run with the same money-driven motives that it seems CFUK devolved to. I did visit the old forum once, to change my email to a junk address, lol

MediumRoastSteam

CafeNoir yesterday I made sure I logged off CFUK and cleared cookies.

dfk41

It is interesting to see the user names selected. CFUK are so obviously paying for people to post. Folks come on, after all having recently joined and start topics that they hope will lead to discussion. Just now, you had to go down the New topics page an awful long way to find a username that you recognise. They are also resurrecting old threads and sales threads. Once you get over the shock of what happened with the sale, from one bloke who did not give a toss about the forum to a corporation who do not give a toss about the forum, then it is hard to have ANY sympathy

MediumRoastSteam

There was a new poster there, from Canada, who caught my attention. The poster posted about the Behmor.

The temperatures quoted were in F, but the poster suffixed them with C. So it read like: when the roaster gets to 360C… and that was consistent.
The post was odd at best, saying how the person is now using manual mode etc - in a very strange way! it was just too weird.
Maybe yes, maybe not, I do wonder whether it was a paid poster.

DavecUK

VS bought up Proboards (forum software) as well last October.

If they keep on, soon you won’t be able to run a forum without it being run on VS (or one of the other big 3) software. Think about it harder…if they own the software, they almost certainly own the stats that comes from it and control its development. There are a lot of other things they can do as well….this is not good for the forum communities. When any company owns too much of the chain….of any activity, it’s never good..

MediumRoastSteam

Are you sure VS owns vBulletin? I can’t see anything related to this. I do see, however, VS owns Proboards.

DavecUK

MediumRoastSteam Are you sure VS owns vBulletin? I can’t see anything related to this. I do see, however, VS owns Proboards.

I think you are correct, Internet Brands own Vbulletin and VS own Proboards. The point really is there are a few large corporates buying all the forums…well the database really. Monetise it..the forum survives or not. If it doesn’t make enough money it’s closed. It not run as a community and they have no interest in the subject matter of the forum.

I’ve seen some forums owned by VS that have descended into cess pits, I linked to one. They don’t care as long as they get new fish and posts to keep their traffic levels high. If they don’t, they will fluff the forum and have paid post creators. They try and find people from the forum to run it so their paid admins can pay even less attention to the forum. For many of the forums, there are so-called “members” who are just taking advantage of the members (,mainly new ones) to sell stuff, or hidden businesses. Often these sales are under the table and not good deals at all. Limited commercial activity is allowed if the forum needs posts. If its becomes busy that is all heavily policed…to make more money.

I have edited the post, don’t want misinformation on the web.

thewelshvet

Wow, this stuff is very interesting. I realised a lot of the members of CFUK had disappeared, but didn’t really know what had gone on. So glad to have found you all over here as the old forum used to be so helpful to us newbies starting out. Having read the above, will be coming off the other forum asap!! Keep up the good work everybody and thanks to all those who keep this going. It really is invaluable and the vibe of the place is great.

DavecUK

thewelshvet Wow, this stuff is very interesting. I realised a lot of the members of CFUK had disappeared, but didn’t really know what had gone on.

On CFUK you will only get the created narrative, not the truth.

dfk41

I wonder if anyone thinks CFUK is now a better place sine VS took them over?

DavecUK

dfk41 I wonder if anyone thinks CFUK is now a better place sine VS took them over?

I think that there are a few people that love it, advertisers certainly do because the place has so little traffic and activity now, I “think” they let the vendors advertise free. Other than that, it’s people selling machines and wall-to-wall advertising (not just coffee related), plus some spam.

VS have certainly changed the place for the worst.…I guess they don’t care, it’s all about clicks and advertising for them. If it doesn’t pay it’s way….they will eventually just shut it down (as they have other forums).

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