se23.com - an exile from the north speaks out

[michael]

Lacb is that you?
The answer is that tiropita will not have a stall but Man Made Foods are bringing great pies, Aga is bringing excellent cheeses, and there are lots more good stalls worth visiting.
In addition there are all the local shops which I can mention on this forum. I'm looking forward to trying a crepe at Berries Bagels which is right by the station, and B-Cards has Valentine's day cards that are a bit different from your standard stuff from Smiths.

And as far as the SE23 Mag goes, you are very lucky to get it! I'll see if we can get added to the listings. Thanks.

[Rachael]

There's an SE23 magazine?

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[michael]

There's an SE23 magazine?

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Well there is an SE22 magazine which replaces the 2 with a 3 and is distributed to a few houses in Forest Hill. It is a great magazine if you are interested in adverts for East Dulwich businesses.

[Rachael]

Ah, I suspect I live on the wrong side of the railway for such a publication.

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[Bluesman]

At the end of the day, it's his forum and he can run it how he likes.

Yes, clearly. So it isn't a Community Forum then as claimed. I had some contrbutions to some locally pertinent threads today which I am not even sure are going to appear or not. And if they do, they will probably appear out of context now. Time for a new forum!

Yes it is lacb. Real shame about lack of tiropita at fair, they were truly outstanding - thanks michael, will try and pop along anyway.

I didn't realise that we were lucky to get SE23 mag. It has come along a lot in recent times (new editor IIRC) and lists the SEE3 fashion event and gigs at the Hob for instance. Also, has ads for HOP and FH businesses. Quite handy actually - if you want to chase up missing copies they appear to be on twitter @semags.

[michael]

I wasn't sure tiropita were, but when I looked it up on Wikipedia I realised it was the great Greek stall. I do miss them, but work commitments have prevented them from continuing.

It isn't just a railway line divide for SE23 Magazine. I've never received a copy where I have lived for the last 5 years. I occasionally read copies when visiting other peoples' houses and I never feel I'm missing much. It used to be much better, before it merged with SE22.

[Bluesman]

Sorry, I thought I said cheese pie. This is literal translation of tiropita - those people do the best I have tasted outside of Greece.

Yes, don't want to big up the mag too much. There is one events page that is quite handy. I imagine it could be much more useful for people who don't go online much (imagine!) so still good to get listed in it IMO.

[Rachael]

Okay, I'm really quite cross this time.

I started a topic on SE23.com yesterday about The Butchery. There hadn't been much discussion and I wanted to remind people that it is now permanently open. I added a link to the Butchery website as it listed the opening times, which are not standard. There followed a few comments about how good their meat is compared to the supermarket, and no more expensive.

Another person started a similar thread on the main part of the board and I commented to say there was another thread.

Then both threads were removed. Presumably because Admin thought I was trying to give The Butchery free advertising.

As an experiment, I added a comment to a thread about an awful Chinese takeaway. I recommended the one we have used for about 10 years. Pfft - thread gone. Apologies to the OP.

What makes me cross is that this is not the first time that the SE23.com Admin has either deleted or locked posts about The Butchery. As one of the first of the SEE3 pop-ups to set up permanently, it is absolutely vital that the wider community knows about it and has the chance to support it. This is about much, much more than the local forum losing a bit of revenue (which is not actually the case - I'm not in the pay of The Butchery, there is no attempt here to circumvent the forum rules). Moreover, if other businesses are interested and check the SE23.com forum, they might be dismayed at the apparent lack of interest in new businesses.

Grrr.

[squashst]

Rachel
Couldn't agree more. It seems bizarre not to be able to place posting on a recommended shop / restaurant or to give a bad experinence. I certainly found the Butchery posts interesting as I didn't use it in "Pop-Up" phase but will certainly give it a go now.

OK there is some risk that comments on business can get out of hand or offensive, but to delete any reference to a business seems to make a local forum pointless. To be honest you'll get as much, if not more info on SE23 from the SE26 site which does have a lighter mod touch.

[Bluesman]

Rachael, squashst,

Agreed with all of that. There has been a similar deleterious affect on some specific Honor Oak issues: the Old Bank springs to mind.

Rachael, which Chinese were you recommending?

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[Rachael]

We quite like EXP in Brockley Road. It's fairly standard stuff but the quality of the food is reliably good (except on Sundays when I think they have a different chef). Delivery is usually very quick, 20-30 minutes on a Friday night and the staff are always very pleasant.

[Bluesman]

Thanks will give that a whirl.

Have resorted to learning some of the cuisine myself, with some modest success, so perhaps have set the bar unreasonably high. It is still very comforting to have it made for you

[michael]

Okay, I'm really quite cross this time.

I started a topic on SE23.com yesterday about The Butchery. There hadn't been much discussion and I wanted to remind people that it is now permanently open. I added a link to the Butchery website as it listed the opening times, which are not standard. There followed a few comments about how good their meat is compared to the supermarket, and no more expensive.

Another person started a similar thread on the main part of the board and I commented to say there was another thread.

Then both threads were removed. Presumably because Admin thought I was trying to give The Butchery free advertising.

As an experiment, I added a comment to a thread about an awful Chinese takeaway. I recommended the one we have used for about 10 years. Pfft - thread gone. Apologies to the OP.

What makes me cross is that this is not the first time that the SE23.com Admin has either deleted or locked posts about The Butchery. As one of the first of the SEE3 pop-ups to set up permanently, it is absolutely vital that the wider community knows about it and has the chance to support it. This is about much, much more than the local forum losing a bit of revenue (which is not actually the case - I'm not in the pay of The Butchery, there is no attempt here to circumvent the forum rules). Moreover, if other businesses are interested and check the SE23.com forum, they might be dismayed at the apparent lack of interest in new businesses.

Grrr.

Clearly admin is targeting them for a contribution to the forum before 'free' speech is allowed ever again on the subject of The Butchery. It is a mean way to treat new businesses - pay up or else your existence will not be tolerated on the main online forum for the area.

If the forum was any other business this would be perfectly acceptable business practice, but a public forum is meant to be more than just a money making venture. The first priority is meant to be the contributors and readers of the forum with the expectation of minimal censorship and I variety of opinions.

[Bluesman]

Yes, quite. It rather negates the page title claiming the site to be: "The Community Forum for Forest Hill and Honor Oak, London SE23". I think if you swopped the word Community for Sponsored it might work better.

[michael]

Hi, It might be worth posting on the se23 forum website if you haven't done so already:
http://www.se23.com/forum/

I wouldn't bother. Most regular forum contributors now seem to have jumped ship to STF or EDF.
Real discussion is now limited to lamposts, launderettes, and broadband connection speeds. You would think that nothing else is going on in Forest Hill

It is going to take some work by the administrator to rebuild the reputation of se23.com - the site which saw the formation of the Forest Hill Society and tracked every development of the fight for swimming. Today it seems about as relevant as MySpace.

[marymck]

That's a shame. I've only recently joined! It seems a much less argumentative site than here. More polite and friendly and people don't run forest hill down in the way people on here often run sydenham down..

So please don't give up on se23.com

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[Rachael]

Interestingly, SE23.com used to be hugely argumentative, much more so than here, and there was a strong cohort of posters who dominated and said pretty nasty things without Admin doing much about it. A lot of those posters seem to have disappeared which is certainly making it quieter. There was a time when the very mention of having a nice shop in SE23 sparked huge debates. Likewise there was a very nasty spat over a nursery.

The main problem with SE23.com is the idiosyncratic way Admin organises threads. If you post anything about anything even vaguely commercial, Admin will put it in the dead zone of Trading Post, the equivalent of the Offers and Wants section here. AND he will add anything about any local business on to the Mega Thread that is called Local Businesses. Ask where the best place to get Japanese food is? It will be added to that thread. Want to know about nurseries? It will be added to that thread. Asking about opening times of a local shop? Added to that thread. It will disappear from where you put it without notice and get tagged onto the Mega Thread. There are a lot of people wandering about wondering a) where their post went and b) why no one has answered.

The other thing that Admin does that is very frustrating is that he will delete (again without notice) anything you post if you are praising a local business and he feels that breaks the rules about commercial posts. Businesses must pay (fair enough). Personal recommendations should be the life blood of a local forum (especially now that FH is on the up and has so many new businesses) but you can't say anything nice about them without Admin deleting it. It is stifling the forum to the point where there is nothing left we CAN discuss.

So, it's quiet and polite only because it's pretty much dead.

[michael]

That's a shame. I've only recently joined! It seems a much less argumentative site than here. More polite and friendly

That's mainly because there are so few contributors and too many people have fallen foul of the ruthless administration as described above.

and people don't run forest hill down in the way people on here often run sydenham down..

There is a good reason for that, everything in Forest Hill is perfect now , other than the online forum.

[Tim Lund]

So, it's quiet and polite only because it's pretty much dead.

Would it help if I revived the thread about FH Soc and affordable housing?

[JulietP]

Nooooo!

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