Frequently Asked Questions
Site owner Phil, answers question put to him by various readers over the years.
1) Why build a site like The Black Presence in Britain? (Blackpresence)
blackpresence owner-Phil
When I had the idea to build the site, there were very few black british history resources on the Internet. It was hard to find out anything at all about the lives of black people who lived in Britain prior to the 1950′s. I thought it would be great if there was one place on the web that students could find information about black British history. ? It is my hope that black British history will be integrated into school history lessons in in the United Kingdom, thus giving children a clearer view of how multicultural Britain has existed through history.
2) Who is this site aimed at?
This site is intended to be used as a starting point for anyone who is interested in black British History. So teachers, students and researchers will benefit from the existence of this site. The main purpose of the site was to make British history more inclusive.
3) Isn’t it racist, what if there were a site called the White presence in Britain, surely this is double standards?
The site is specifically focussing on one area. History topics in Schools and Universities do this all the time. There are lots of sites and thousands of publications about history that largely exclude the contribution of black people. This site seeks to make the information available to anyone who wants it irrespective of race. Inadequate and incomplete history books do not give a true representation of ?history.
4) Why have you changed the name from the Black Presence in Britain to just blackpresence, what are you hiding?
Nothing at all, the site has changed it’s name and that was widely publicised. After 12 years on the web there are now lots of sites focusing on black British History. I decided that as many of our visitors were from overseas, that it might be more interesting and challenging to broaden the appeal of the site and write more about events and news in the diaspora. ?Black British History is quite a narrow focus and I want to expand.
5) What happened to the forums, they were really lively and buzzing?
Well, I’m afraid they were killed by spammers 3 times. I was using the free software PHPBB to run the forums and though they were lively a few years ago they were slowly strangled by Russian spammers. The Spammers send out small programs called bots. These programs register on the forums as real users and then proceed to fill the forum with links to porn and viagra and other such nonsense. Sadly this began to drive the regular posters away from the site.
Despite installing several anti spam measures, they kept getting through, my moderators were emailing me ever day about the influx of spam. In the end I decided to pull the plug because it was taking up too much of my time. My first child had just been born and I didn’t have the time to maintain a site that should in theory take care of itself.
5) You have forums now though, Won’t the same thing happen again?
Good question, but just because we get knocked down a few times and occasionally feel down about it, shouldn’t mean we never try again.
The new forums are a different brand of forum, so far the spammers haven’t gotten in. I’m hoping that the sit’s users will take the chance and register. Web technology has moved along in the last few years and my knowledge of how to maintain the site and back it up, revamp it e.t.c has grown too. Remember Blackpresence isn’t a large company, it’s one guy doing the whole thing from home. I do the best job I can do with limited funds and time.
6) Why is your Identity a mystery?
Is it? I’m Phil. I don’t reveal my full name and address because I enjoy my privacy. I get hundred s of emails from all the web sites I work on, and I couldn’t possibly deal with snail mail and phone calls too.
7) why does the site have a googlemail account and not a normal @blackpresence.co.uk address?
The site did have blackpresence addresses however, these were again choked with spam. Googlemail has a brilliant spam filter which keeps my email time down to a minimum. Before I swapped to googlemail If I went on holiday for 2 weeks, ?I’d get home open outlook and have to download about 900 spam emails, it was a nightmare.
Given that there are so many black websites out there now, and black people are using the net much more. ?Is there still a need for your site?
Absolutely, remember there’s a difference between quantity and quality. ?It’s a slow road but visitor numbers are growing and the site is turning a corner now, There’s still a way to go yet but I aim to mmake blackpresence one of the best sites on the Internet for black related information. All I need is time and the will and interest of the people. As long as they click the adds every now and again the site will pay for itself and hopefully still be around in another 10 years.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
The fact that this question is even raised, given the already established history of slavery and forced black Diaspora around the world, is itself racist. The fact that black people feel the need to apologize for attempting to recover a history taken from them as a justification for their enslavement and disenfranchisement–that they feel the need to make white people feel better about what they did is ludicrous. as Malcolm X would say “That’s not intelligent.” Did you hear Jews apologizing? The Japanese? The Red Native American? Why do we? The first step to restoration of lost history is to reclaim your right to know. The last thing you need to be doing is getting permission to know from those who suppressed that right in the first place. The liberation of black minds is the restoration of their history. The liberation of white minds is to acknowledge it.
Peace,
Melanika, Olmec-Mayan, USA