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.

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    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.

      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

          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

          https://www.suddencardiacarrestuk.org/2024/02/thank-goodness-for-madeira-cake/

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

          1. 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.
          2. 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.
          3. Maybe yes, maybe not, I do wonder whether it was a paid poster.

          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..

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          7 days later

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

            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.

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              23 days later

              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.

                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.

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                  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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