Long Story short I am glad to have found an alternative

I have to admit, the way that the new forum was set up — no warning, no consideration of the value or love the community had for the old forums, and most of all, no THANKS given to the volunteer mods who had put in substantial hours every day on Squidoo’s behalf for well over a year — is really what put me off.

(Also rule #3 on the new forum, that spamming or flaming could result not only in a forum ban (fair enough) but also having all ones lenses locked (gack!) That SEEMS fair, except that in the past, when SquidStaff moderated SquidU, they banned a couple people who created great lenses, and who in my view could be somewhat irritating or make posts I disagreed with, but Spook being goofball or Makingamark making pointed, constructive criticism was NOT (IMO) banworthy offenses. Time out, at worst. Under the new rules, they might lose all their lenses. And so might I.

So I’m very grateful to have an alternative. As you say, Squidoo can’t be “everything to all people,” and I don’t expect it to be (although I plead “leave me alone to let me try things my own way, even if it’s not HQ’s way”).

I believe having different groups is actually healthy for Squidoo, providing those active in indpendent groups do not use them to try to circumvent Squidoo TOS. I dont see that happening in the new Squidn, particularly with the group of moderators we have.

My biggest issue with how the new Squidoo HQ Forum was set up, is that I was extremely disappointed that HQ did not take the opportunity to thank the unpaid Volunteers who have kept the old SquidU free from spam and unkind behavior, making it a place I was happy to visit.