Watching the wheels go round on SE23.life and the on the laptops that FHSoc is gathering up and are being upgraded for children deprived of devices for home learning. So a little time for reflection.

A history of calumny exists in the management of SE23.life and it is substantial.

To ignore this history would be a failure.

A failure to learn the lessons of what happened and why and how.

There is a new owner. There is a moderation team in place, one of whom many will recognise as a protagonist in several attacks on contributing founders (and no, Chris Beach was not the sole founder) and once more after several previous and short lived periods of hiatus, members are being invited to participate in "open discussion" once more.

Except it is not. Why? Key members of the community are not engaged.

Some choose not to, borne of experience of being attacked by the known protagonists mentioned before.

Others have been banished - and our Norfolk moderator posts a huge whopper that he knows nought of the many banishments. And there is no sense emerging from the moderator "team" that whilst they tweak the rules they will not - for they are prevented from or cannot - address the history in the full.

And set solid ground for a realistic fresh start. Not the flawed ground of a poor analysis based on a partial "lessons learned" exercise that has participants involved in its conduct who have a vested interest to make sure the banned stay banned.

Not for me a return to SE23.life - that engagement is history.

But there are many deserving cases who were treated badly - and perhaps maliciously - and to whom the forum should apologise, offer them a chance of return and an opportunity provided to them to fully engage in the dialogue about the future of the forum.

An abbreviated few examples of malicious and mendacious activities can be found here.

https://twitter.com/OneRealJGD/status/13...20992?s=20

There are many more available - including a full history of the former owner's self-confessed, numerous, deceptions about his actions in the Flava Baker fiasco.

A series of events that the forum still elects hide away.

Shamefully.

Treating forum members as if they were not mature adults and who can assimilate a few facts, distasteful as they may be.

And make their contribution on any way forward in the full knowledge of how this forum got into this current state of disrepair and ill-repute.