SE23 Rocks has been created as a space for the community of residents in Forest Hill, Honor Oak & Kirkdale in order to share news, answer questions, and generally get to know more about the area and each other.

General Site Rules

  1. Treat everyone with respect. This should be a relaxed, positive and friendly place. As such, we have zero tolerance for:

    • Personal attacks, threats, or abusive language toward any member or individual

    • Trolling, or deliberately starting arguments just to provoke or upset others

  2. No illegal or harmful content. Posting anything that violates the UK Online Safety Act is strictly prohibited. Members who post illegal content in any format will be banned immediately and their posts removed.

  3. Stay on topic. Keep your posts relevant to the topic of the conversation. If you want to explore a different subject, feel free to start a new topic instead.

  4. Keep it local. This forum is for discussing matters relevant to our local area. Please try to avoid discussions of national or international politics, finance, or other issues unless they have a clear local connection. We’re all neighbours here with different views on many topics. We want lively conversations, but ones that focus on what brings us together and how we can improve our community, not what divides us.

  5. Post in the right place. Always choose the most appropriate category when creating a new topic. Posts that are in the wrong category may be moved.

  6. We may edit or remove posts. Moderators and administrators can edit or delete posts when needed—for example, to improve the title of a post, or to keep the conversation on track.

  7. One account per person. Multiple accounts aren’t allowed unless you have a business reason (see Business posting rules below). If you’ve been banned, you cannot return with a new account unless administrators have given approval.

  8. Protect your privacy, and ours. Content on this site is public. Don’t ask for or share personally identifiable information like email addresses, phone numbers, or home addresses in public posts. Use our personal messaging system to share such details with other members if needed.

  9. Post only your own content. You may not post anything digital that belongs to someone else without permission. You may not post descriptions of, links to, or methods for stealing someone’s intellectual property (software, video, audio, images), or for breaking any other law.

  10. Do not spam or try to sell via Personal Messages (PM). The direct messaging service is designed to allow personal conversations to take place away from the public boards. It is not a means to send unsolicited messages of any sort to other members. Those who abuse this will be removed from the site

MORE DETAILS

Who runs SE23 Rocks and what is the link with the Forest Hill Society?

SE23 Rocks has been created by Robert McIntosh - who can be contacted either as @admin for site-related queries, or as @rob for any personal conversation.

Forest Hill has benefitted from other online spaces in the past, but there is currently a need for a new, more dynamic and practical place to build community, and also showcase what is happening in the area. As such, the Society has decided to support the launch of a new community space.

SE23 Rocks is a tool for members of the Forest Hill Society to interact and share news, and also as a way to run the Society more effectively. But it is also a general space for residents, visitors and anyone who cares for the area, to celebrate our rich local diversity.

This space is for anyone who has an interest in this area of London - there is no need to be a member of the Forest Hill Society, but members may have access to additional exclusive content.

Our hope is that by bringing us together in a single space, we can achieve even more.

Organisation profiles

SE23.rocks is for all those who live, work and visit Forest Hill, Perry Vale, Honor Oak Park, Kirkdale and all places in between. As such we would love to have input and knowledge from business owners, and for this site to support vibrant local retail, charitable, artistic and commercial communities.

BUT … and there had to be one, this is NOT just a free sales and marketing channel. Indiscriminate promotions and pushy sales discourage participation, and can make people leave. It would be counterproductive, so we will actively stop it.

We ask that if you run a retail, charitable, artistic or commercial organisation, that you follow some basic house rules.

If you want to post on behalf of your business:

  • Create a separate profile!

    • Use a dedicated account for your ‘business’. The business name must be the username, and your logo as the profile photo. We want it to be VERY clear who is posting. We will also act to close accounts that claim names that are not their own.

    • Include a link to your website in your bio, but not in every post! These links are useful references and will save people asking or searching, but repeating it all the time just creates noise.

  • Rules and requests for posting:

    • Topics you start that are business / organisation related should be posted in The Exchange, a dedicated space for such content.

    • You can post as the business to share news that is relevant to the community that uses this site. It is not a place for generic advertising, but you can let people know about events, products, changes, etc.

    • At launch there is no fixed limit on the number of times you can start a new post each month as the business, but we ask you (kindly) to limit this to no more than 2 or 3 posts per month. How “noisy” this will feel will depend on the general level of activity. However, as we grow and more businesses join, we may look to be stricter in future.

    • Please avoid using replies to others’ topics as a means to promote your business. If a user specifically asks a question that you can answer or mentions your business, you are welcome to reply, but if we feel that this is being abused, we will consider removing these posting privileges.

  • Some best practice for your posts

    • Include images to maximise their impact (but please make sure you are allowed to use these)

    • Encourage discussion, feedback and engagement rather than push sales. This is a space that is built to create connections between us. We want to help and see the area improve. Find ways to involve the community rather than treat us as targets.

    • Do not overreact to negative feedback, but allow the community to speak. You may find others will respond on your behalf (which is often more effective), and there may also be value in listening to this. Think of it as free consultancy from those who care and will actually spend money if you get it right.

You can always participate in a personal capacity

  • If you want to participate in general discussions, you are welcome to create a separate, personal account.

  • This should be quite separate from your business profile, and not include either the business name or imagery.

  • You can reference the connection to your business profile in your bio, but please avoid using your personal account to promote the business activity. We will remove such content.

  • Do not use these for “sock puppetry” to artificially promote or attack other accounts. This content will be deleted and all the associated accounts will be deleted for breaking the community trust

For the avoidance of doubt, we do hope that this site grows into an active and well respected local community and as we grow we may have to find ways to fund the cost of this. We reserve the right to change or update these rules at any point, and may ask business users to contribute in some way.

If you have an idea for an activity that would support the community as well as your business, then please get in touch as we would be happy to discuss any mutually beneficial plans.

If You See a Problem, Flag It

Moderators have special authority; they are responsible for this forum. But so are you. With your help, moderators can be community facilitators, not just janitors or police.

When you see bad behavior, don’t reply. Replying encourages bad behavior by acknowledging it, consumes your energy, and wastes everyone’s time. Just flag it. If enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by moderator intervention.

In order to maintain our community, moderators reserve the right to remove any content and any user account for any reason at any time. Moderators do not preview new posts; the moderators and site operators take no responsibility for any content posted by the community.

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