Like this? 
ā ā ā
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Hello everyone! Could anyone explain what happened to FTT - did something serious happen? I feel like I missed out on some drama. 
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Welcome aboard, Andre, long time - no see.
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No drama, itās just that Liam (who ran the site) took the decision to close, partly due to abuse he was getting behind the scenes. Hopefully that wonāt be happening to anyone on the new site.
It was discussed on a now-closed thread over on the Monzo community.
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I completely missed out on the drama that unfolded. On the Saturday FTT ādisappearedā, my Wife and I had left home early for a day out, we were gone for almost 18 hours before we returned home. On the Sunday morning, I went to view the site, and it had gone. I only found out what had happened when I viewed the Monzo forum. I have to say, I was and still am deeply saddened to see it closed.
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I donāt think you realise how nasty the trolling was for Liam.
There was one guy in particular (who used the alias āLiam Bowersā - a failed attempt at doxxing Liamās real identity). You wouldnāt believe the number of accounts created by this troll on FTT that we had to track down. And each one of them designed to needle Liam. It was never ending, and it wasnāt just on FTT either.
From my time running local forums, I still have a determined bunch of anti-fans that follow me around the internet everywhere I go, trying to sabotage my endeavours. One of them contacted every local business in my area on Twitter to exaggerate my political views and paint me as a monster. Iāve received an email listing my entire extended family, with photos of my baby son with each of my relatives, a photo of my flat, and a promise to āpay my wife a visitā. Iāve had my fair share of aggro from people whose nose has been put out of joint due to me banning them from the forum. And the doxxing of my company details and photos of my wife that appeared on the Monzo forum was pretty harrowing as well.
Itās absolutely insane, some of the nasty stuff that can happen to people that have the appearance of āinfluenceā or āpowerā on the internet - or simply people with different political opinions to the forum groupthink. Tribal behaviour is really problematic on the internet at the moment. Over the last decade, Iāve gone from being starry-eyed about the internet to fearing it, and the impact itās having on society.
I donāt blame Liam for his āstraw that broke the camelās backā moment. We should be thankful that he put up with the abuse for so long and ran that forum for our benefit.
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My god, some people really are sad pieces of sh*t.
Yes. I donāt know if I speak for many of the regular users of FTT, but I had no idea of the extent of what he was subjected to behind the scenes until the whole thing came down.
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Yes, I want @Mathew to succeed, and that means we all ought to keep an eye out for trolls and do something about it. We should have done more to support Liam
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Itās the same as far as Iām concerned, I genuinely had no idea the extent of what was happening behind the scenes. Yes, some of us mentioned about the whole banner thing, but what was said by most was in no way super inflammatory in my opinion. But anyway, if Liam has been reading this new forum, for what itās worth, you still did a great job and I for one appreciate all the effort you put in.
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Iād of course like to second this. If you are reading and you feel comfortable, it might be nice to experience things from the other side of the admin panel for once! 
But equally if you never want to lay eyes on a Discourse forum ever agin in your life I totally understand that too.
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Yep, completely agreed. I had no idea what was happening behind the scenes and the story explained by posts (on the aforementioned Monzo Community thread) was insane. I wonder what was the motive behind all that abuse?
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I completely agree with this.
I wonder if it might have been better all round if Liam had felt able to be more public about the messages he received. There are obviously likely to be downsides to this approach, but the community might have been more supportive had we known the extent of what was happening in the background.
In any case, I was glad FTT existed, Iām glad this place exists, and I wish Liam well.
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Admitting that a troll has upset you can be counterproductive though, given thatās exactly what the troll wants to achieve. Usually better to ignore them rather than have them revel in the attention.
When I wrote publicly about the abuse I had, and that Iād reported a stalker to the police, a number of other trolls clubbed together to take the side of the stalker and publicly attack me, claiming Iād pretended to report her to the police in order to intimidate her. Because there were lots of trolls and only one of me, and because other local forums benefited from damaging my reputation (as a local forum competitor) the situation escalated to the point where there are now literally hundreds of posts claiming all sorts of things about me, and supporting the troll that stalked my family and threatened my wife.
@moderators can I politely suggest these posts are split into a different topic?
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Sure. Henceā¦
Everyone has their own approach to this sort of behaviour, and they are not wrong.
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Letās leave FTT where it is. I appreciate the work Liam and the mods put in over there to make it the site it was. Itās unfortunate that itās not here now, but this is a different site, albeit based on the same topic. Different admin, different mods, different setup.
Letās focus on the positives and the new and keep things moving forward 
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Decisions on mods and forum layout are for @Mathew. Any messages about these sort of things should just be ignored.
Simply no need for these things to be debated. It wouldnāt happen on any other forum.
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Back on topicā¦
Iām another refugee from FTT and hoping to continue on-topic discussion in a polite and respectful manner.
I have both High Street and Fintech current accounts and have dabbled with Fintech investments and crypto, although the vast majority of my investments are with traditional accounts.
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@Mathew
Have you thought about mentioning this site on some of the individual fintech forums?
The likes of Dozens, Revolut, Tymit, Curve, etc. who all have their own community.
I would think that many on there would be interested in other views and conversations.
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Certainly could give it a go! 
Just to add - please feel free to share yourselves, or just comment on my threads here and there. No pressure though!
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Loving the navbar at the bottom of the app version of this site on my android.
If only the Monzo forum did the same
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