Administrator

There is deliberately nowhere to enter your phone number, name, address etc anywhere when registering an account on this forum. There never has been. There is no way to attach this sort of personal information to your account. If someone says that EDF has given your phone number, then this is a lie. No personal information is sold to any third party and it is not collected in the first place.

Agree. I've just split this year's posts into a new 2024 topic.

Hi Moovart, Sorry to hear that. So firstly, let me make it clear that I have a number of methods at my disposal to ensure reviews posted on EDF are legitimate. I'm not going to go into detail exactly the techniques as this will make it easier for people to game the system. However I would like to make it clear that: Every single review posted is checked, especially for newly registered users. Any reviews posted via IP hiding tools (VPNs) are removed. If you have multiple accounts on EDF, you will be detected. If even one review get detected as fake or originating from a person connected to the business, all mention of the offending business is completely removed from the forum and permanently blacklisted (even if you have 100s of legit ones). In the last 1.5 years since owning the forum, I have blacklisted 8 trades businesses. All reference to them have deleted and they will never allowed to be mentioned on the forum again. One of these businesses I mentioned (an Electrician) had around 100 reviews, probably many of those legitimate. But as soon as I found a evidence of a review posted by the owners account beyond all reasonable doubt, all reviews were removed. If a business is genuinely posting fake reviews, then they are taking a huge risk especially if they have years of feedback on EDF already. One slip up and they are gone. So this is a valid observation to make. What I'd say is that on EDF, we get thousands of people visiting the forum per day but only around 50% of these people have accounts and actively post on the forum. Many people even register accounts on the forum but prefer to stay as 'lurkers' (and there's nothing wrong with that!). Many people who visit the forum don't live in East Dulwich (e.g. landlords, people living in other areas of South London) but still visit with the sole intention of finding tradespeople. The benefit EDF has over other review sites (like Checkatrade, MyBuilder etc) is that if you want to discount the '1 post' and 'newly registered account' feedback from your research, then you can. On those websites I mentioned, don't get to see profiles of people who leave feedback so you have no idea where these are coming from. Just to add, I absolutely do not trust Checkatrade at all (I will provide evidence of convicted scammers who currently have active profiles when I get time in the future!) This is a good example of why we see more positive than negative reviews in the trades industry. One scathing review for a tradesperson can be very bad when its someone's only source of income. While leaving a bad review for a restaurant, bar, product etc is not so bad and can be done relatively anonymously. To be clear, you are welcome to post 'average' or 'negative' reviews of anyone on EDF and it won't be deleted, as long as its honest, factual and (if possible), with evidence. If you do not want to post it publicly, you are welcome to send me a private message and I will note it - if more such feedback is given then I'll look into it further.

The last few posts were off-topic and sour, so removed.

This is a very old thread, but I'd like to bump it up because 'Will' (aka Scott Pike and various other names) has recently become active again and is offering handyman services in the area. They recently registered an account on the forum called HandymanDulwich which I have banned immediately as soon as I discovered the connection. I will be messaging anyone who appears to have been in contact with him recently. I have had no reports of him scamming people recently, but based on the feedback from a few years ago you'd be well advised to stay clear.

Removed and modified the last couple of posts due to one containing a persona jibe. It has been dealt with. Post with respect towards other forum members at all times.

Hi forum members, Recently I've had people contact me about issues which have happened in the 'East Dulwich Forum Facebook Group'. I would like to make it clear that this website (eastdulwichforum.co.uk) has absolutely nothing to do with a Facebook Group called 'East dulwich forum'. The reason I am posting this notice now is that my reputation is seemingly being damaged by dubious comments made by the admin(s) of this Facebook group. Many people are still unaware that the website and Facebook group are not the same and have emailed me with accusations related to what has been said by the admins on Facebook. The latest accusation against the Facebook group admin is related to them making a racist remark against a mayoral candidate who the Facebook admin has unscrupulously described as a 'relative' of Sadiq Khan. Similar scenarios have happened a few times over the last year, which has lead me to make this announcement. The Facebook group of the same name was created by a cleaning company a few years ago. The owner(s) of that group have maliciously attempted to pass off as the same entity as this website, going as far as copying the same slogans which were or still are present on this website ("General ED issues / gossip", "Discuss life in London's East Dulwich. Talk about local restaurants, pubs, shops, services, transport, planning,"). This website has been online since 2006, well before the concept of Facebook groups even existed. My understanding is that the previous admin of eastdulwichforum.co.uk (Mark) requested for them to change their name and stop trying to pass off as this forum but with no success. While it would be ideal for a legal route to be taken to achieve this, it would be expensive and not a clear cut case. Its clear that the cleaning company uses the Facebook group to spam advertisements for their own cleaning business and seemingly some other linked businesses (e.g. a builder and handyman one). They actively shut down and delete posts of any other members making honest recommendations for these types of business. I would encourage anyone part of this Facebook group to leave it. Facebook have a page where you can Leave groups here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/joins/?nav_source=tab&ordering=viewer_added (click the ... icon under the East Dulwich Forum group and press 'Leave group') Just to be clear, I do not want to stop people using Facebook. There are other legitimate unconnected East Dulwich related Facebook groups around which are not called 'East Dulwich Forum' - I recommend joining those instead if you enjoy using Facebook groups. Thanks, Joe

The link has been fixed.

I have removed some comments which were getting personal and not relevant to the wider topic being discussed here. Please be mindful of the rules in the orange notice notice at the top of this board, especially this one: Debates around this topic area can be made without making things personal.

No further mention of Westminster level government or classism in this thread please. It was going off topic.

This topic has been split from the "20mph in Southwark" one and renamed to "Should cyclists have the same speed restrictions as motor vehicles?". The other has also been renamed to "20mph for motor vehicles in Southwark" I have removed most of the replies related to the discussion being off-topic due to the pivot towards cycling discussion. Some replies which did not add anything to the topic have been deleted.

The last few posts have been removed. Please, no more comparisons or rankings of the Palestine situation vs historical atrocities. Its further provocation in an already contentious topic and not relevant to the debate.

I believe 'Save As Draft' was a feature of the old forum software which allowed you to save a post message you had started typing out. The forum software was changed in April 2023, so you may be looking at a post prior to then. The new forum software doesn't have this because 'drafts' are automatically saved as you type. If you enter a post without submitting, then close your browser then come back, it will automatically restore your post message.

If you are using a laptop, click the name at the top, then 'Account Settings' If using a mobile, click 'More' at the bottom menu -> Account -> Account Settings Or use the shortcut here: https://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/settings/

@vladi Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. The ads in the classifieds forum are by Google, who supply much of the internet's advertising. The reason you might still be seeing personalised ads is because you are logged into your Google account, and you have personalised ads switched on. You can check this and disable it here: https://myadcenter.google.com/home Disabling personalised ads there will turn them off for every website, not just this website.

You have personalised ads enabled in your browser. Most browsers have an option to disable personalised ads for all websites. If you're using iOS, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Apple Advertising > DIsable Personalised Ads If you're using Chrome, there is an 'Ads Privacy' option in Settings

Absolutely no personal 'jibes' will be tolerated from now on, however small they are. A personal jibe is when you reference the name of another forum member directly in a post and make a comment about their intelligence, attitude, political alignment, or any other personal attribute. Regardless of how small or insignificant this can seem to you, a personal jibe always causes escalation. It is absolutely possible to get your view across in a debate without making a personal jibe. Regardless of how passionate you are about the debate, please think and re-read before you post and remove any personal jibes. From today onwards (22nd Sep 2023), it will not be tolerated in this forum section. A warning will be given the first time for minor offences and more serious action will be taken for major offences (how serious these are will be deemed by the Admin). All second or future infractions will cause your posting rights in here to be suspended for the next month. As a side note: Since the forum began in 2006, debates around LTNs, CPZs, ULEZ, cycling, climate change etc have always been heated. We have always had groups of forum members with differing views. I could take the easy route and not allow these debates in the forum at all. But I don't, because this is an open public forum and these are important topics relevant to the local community. The forum does not have moderation 24/7 so I rely on people posting here in good faith. If you as a forum member cannot be trusted to debate these topics sensibly, you will be restricted from posting in here.

Please read the notice here: https://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/29-roads-transport/ As stated, this is temporary.

FYI: Today's High Court ULEZ decision discussion has been split into a new topic to avoid derailing the existing CPZ and LTN ones.

It means they've recently registered on the forum in the last few days.

Today, I have made a few tweaks to the forum boards. These are summarised below: New Roads & Transport forum board Due to the high number of topics and debate created around issues like CPZs, LTNs, cycling, a new dedicated Roads & Transport board has been created. These are important local issues so I absolutely do not want to suppress discussion of them, especially considering the recent developments. But it has got to the point where the majority of recent topics in the General ED forum are related to one of these subjects (I counted 13 out of 25 on the first page today about CPZs or cycling). Its great to see the forum become so active recently, but I felt other questions and issues outside of these subjects were quickly being buried towards the bottom of the page and didn't get the views and comments they deserve. The new forum board will ensure they can be discussed together at length by the people who are interested, while not crowding out other East Dulwich related topics. Tidy up of underutilised boards To avoid the list of forum boards on the homepage becoming too long, I have removed the "Politics and Current Affairs" and "About This Forum" boards and moved all the topics in these to The Lounge. These were the two least viewed and used boards in the forum. You are welcome to use The Lounge to discuss general non-ED related political discussion and issues related to the forum.

The 'General ED' section of the forum is designed to be a useful resource for the people in the local area to discuss the latest topics specific to East Dulwich. This topic (regarding Turney Road closure) was a reasonable candidate to be in this section because: It is new information The road closure probably affects some ED residents (the road closure is in SE21, but its few 100m away from SE22, so would still affect nearby roads). The reason for the LTN Discussion topic being moved to the Lounge is not a conspiracy - its because its a long running, general topic which ended up up being filled with information not relevant to the area. Furthermore, a massive 2,200 reply topic is pretty inaccessible for anyone new to the forum, so it ends up just being a back and forth between a few forum members who are passionate about the subject. In general, I'd prefer the General ED forum to contain shorter lived, focused topics about breaking news, rather than seeing the LTN Behemoth topic constantly resurfacing to the top being bumped by a handful of contributors. The Lounge is still one of the most viewed sections of the website, so its not like all LTN stuff is being suppressed. The people who care enough about LTNs will find and contribute to it (the EDF topic is on the first page of Google for the term 'LTN Discussion'!). If in the future there's any significant breaking news which directly relates to an East Dulwich LTN, then of course it might be deserving of a new topic in General ED. So hopefully that explains my point of view.

I've merged all of the 'Chipotle replacing Hisars' discussion from the 'New Shops in Dulwich' and 'Wagamams' topics into this one, to avoid it being discussed in multiple places 🙃