By Ralph Barnett

THE MUCH-LOVED—and much-missed—Arbroath online community forum The Shoppie has been revived two months after it was forced to close down in the face of threatened legal action.

After 14 years of providing a resource where Red Lichties of all ages—both locals and ex-pats around the world—could discuss and debate the issues of the day from an Arbroath point of view, the forum’s founders, businessmen David Spink and Howard Cargill, had no choice but to pull the plug on the website when potentially defamatory remarks relating to another unnamed local businessmen prompted the involvement of solicitors.

But an ex-pat Lichtie—and unashamed fan of The Shoppie—now based in Ontario, Canada, has acquired the forum’s domain name from Messrs Spink and Cargill and brought the website back to life.

In his opening “welcome back” remarks, David Nicoll said, “We are now running on a server in Ontario and will see how that goes for the next little while.

“I want this website to be an asset to Arbroath, a tool for its business community, an archive for stories, local lore and photographs, an excellent reflection on our home town, an interesting forum for Red Lichties near and far and a positive experience for all visitors.”

Born and brought up in Arbroath, Mr Nicoll told The Courier, “The first home I remember was the Crown Bar, at that time owned by my grandfather, and what became the lounge bar upstairs was our sitting room.

“I finished my apprenticeship with Gilman Fraser, the last incarnation of ‘Shankies’ and we moved to Canada in 1976 due to the lack of engineering work available in the Arbroath area and to seek pastures new.

“I always had a soft spot for Arbroath and consider it home.

“I joined The Shoppie forum mere days after it came online and found the whole website a great way to keep in touch with the goings-on in Arbroath and to rekindle some friendships that would otherwise have been lost.

“I especially enjoyed the historical data that was posted on the site.

“When The Shoppie closed in April, I thought there was a bit of a void left.

“I realised there was more to The Shoppie than just the forum, and the growing database of memories, opinions, photographs and local lore was just too valuable to lose.

“The website was just coming into its own as a local business tool and this area deserved to be explored further so I entered into discussions with David and Howard and we realised that one option to get the site back up and running was a change of ownership.

“My hope is that we can live up to the high standards that they set and, in the hope of avoiding any unpleasant issues in the future, my benchmark for anyone posting on the forum will be ‘if you wouldn’t sign your name to it, don’t post it’.

The forum can be found at http://www.theshoppie.com/arbroath where members new and old are already making themselves heard.