Sad to see the demise of any community forum.

All I can say is I appreciate Foresthull's work in keeping them alive in the difficult circumstances after the previous owner decided to dump it. It's a thankless task. It's unfortunate that no way could be found to continue it in some other form. It looks as if a significant archive of Forest Hill' s history will also disappear.

This post was last modified: 25-04-2022 08:09 AM by StuartG.

Do we have any context on why this happened?

It seems to have come out of nowhere with almost immediate effect.

Nope. Came as a complete shock when I checked my RSS feeds this morning. The admin said personal reasons and clearly wishes these to be private. I, for one, respect this and any speculation may be unkind. If he needs help in preserving his legacy I'm sure there are many he could reach out to.

This post was last modified: 25-04-2022 11:03 AM by StuartG.

To its credit SE23.life had highlighted issues that would not have otherwise been publicised, however some topics seemed to become "hobby horses" for some.

SE26.life had and continued to be very inactive.

Clearly unfortunate of its sudden demise/closure.

It's a shame the 'other place' is finishing. There's definitely some content that would be useful to archive (eg local history, especially photos). Can this site do photos if we continue the theme of some of the threads?

Hopefully traffic on this site will pick up again - amazingly I remembered my password from years ago.

Yes - while posting, click on the icon circled below and insert the link to the photo you wish to appear.

Like what?

Ugh yes

Genuinely saddened by this news.
Totally agree, I would hope that there were some desire to preserve some of the memories made on there, and help is no doubt available to do this.

There is clearly a need / desire for a local forum.

Likewise

Bit of a shock to go on there and see it's closing.

I still check this forum regularly, and have noticed it's been very quiet of late - like others I hope it picks up as I always preferred it.

Very shocked to see it closed without warning.
I for one will miss the helpful posts about weekend travel,
As the emails from TFL dont include southern and often are hard to make head nor tail of.
That said I joined this forum just before we moved here but the lack of traffic on it in the past few years made me migrate.
I too amazingly remembered my username (different to on the other forum) and my password!

'but the lack of traffic on it in the past few years made me migrate'

Don't bring up traffic in your first post back!! You'll have some of the SE23 lifers up in arms.....

I too hope we retain a local forum that everyone feels comfortable contributing to.

Was Chris Beach still part of SE23.life? I wondered if his involvement had anything to do with the site closing?

No, CB stepped away a few years ago and handed over the site to someone else.

Train information: yes, I value that too. The information at the station about changes to services is awful. Despite using the station daily I was often unaware of weekend closures unless I had read about them on the forum.

Happy to hear suggestions on how SE23.com can help with serving the community.

I am a relatively infrequent poster on this and the SE23 Life forum (I am posting under a new name as could not remember my account) but I have followed both sites over the last 5 years or so. My thought is that it is best to look forward and not back - especially regarding the original setter up of SE23 life who I know was very contentious; but that is now history.

I think with the cessation of SE23 life there will be more posters coming back here, though it may take a little time. I think the transport information on SE23 Life was very good, especially given the various issues arising from the pandemic, cutting of services etc. You may therefore want to consider a separate transport section?

Possibly there is an etiquette reminder as well - or perhaps asks forum members what the etiquette should be.

In the longer term, perhaps have a think that increasingly people will accesss this site by smartphone / tablet, not PC. That may / may not require some changes in due course.

Good luck!

Thank you for your suggestions.

If you email admin@se23.com from your original email address I can send you a new password to revive your original account (same for anyone else who wishes to do so).

Yes..Information at the station or online is confusing or scant to say the least.
As someone who commutes to W1 any 5days out of 7 I really relied on the updates on SE23.life.
Also cutting of frequency in busses is something we are often unaware of until after the fact.
With the ULEZ and high petrol costs in this area of London people rely heavily on good public transport
(or those like myself in their 60's who are unable to ride a bike!

I'm disappointed both in the fact that se23.life is closing, and also in the manner it's being done.

I understand the person running the site is (was) under no obligation to keep things running, and was doing so at a cost (both time and money). However...

• The site has been closed down with very little warning, there was no apparent attempt to pass on ownership. I for one work with websites as a profession, so I could have possibly helped, but there appears to be no where to get in contact with the se23.life owner.
• Although one person runs the site, it has been a collaborative effort from everyone involved who contributed by posting to it. So to simply pull the plug is a little disrespectful to everyone who took part (IMO).
• The site is apparently going to be permanently removed, so all of the current posts will be lost, forever. Would have been nice to at least run the site as "static" so that old posts could still be viewed. There's lots of useful bits of information on there that will stay relevant for a long time.
  

Sorry if this sounds like a rant at the se23.life owner, I do understand the level of effort that's involved running something like this.
It was possibly not ideal to have two separate se23 forums, as now efforts have been split. It would have been nice if both could have collaborated over one place, and ideally using the software from se23.life (which I'm sure everyone can agree was very modern and user friendly).

No, I don't agree, the software used by SE23.life created a site which was disorganised. IMO SE23.com is much more succinct and easy to navigate.