A message to guests and non posting members

I have little experience of other forums but I like this one just the way it is. I think I would lose interest if it ever became commercialised in any way.

I upgraded to windows 10 now I find that hard to navigate This site on the other hand being used by a (semi) old person, ie me find it quite easy .

There lies the dilemma, it's not that we haven't thought about it before .

It would be nice to have a slicker interface, better searchability etc but upgrading involves spending dosh as a minimum, or potentially lots of work to overhaul, while keeping content; the forum need not be a full blown commercial set up but arguably, any move made involving finances is then subject to further pressure to head that direction.

We might be able to handle some investment to improve technology but quite where that comes from then opens the door to influence from interested parties, these issues are possibly manageable on a 'not for profit or personal gain' basis but then it's a fine line to manage things impartially - for example, at what point should people get their expenses covered? How about time working on technical issues? I've seen all sorts of complexity along these lines in various roles as a charity trustee, head of school governors, various other clubs, Scouts and other organisations / businesses, many of which would make the mind boggle on the level of hassle involved.

Nothing that couldn't be resolved if handled carefully but the biggest issue is switching from volunteer lead actions, to admin having greater responsibilities / being accountable for good governance with money involved, which would demand more time from our moderators, who all give their time pretty selflessly already (as do many of the non moderator members).

Personally, I remain open minded but there's lots of conversations that follow behind the scenes and consulting the membership on here, not disrespecting the query but popping up the question shortly after joining doesn't do justice to the thousands of successful hours of input that have gone before.

Fire away though by all means, so far the guys just above appear happy enough with the status quo. Please keep it constructive though and spare a thought for the admin / moderators. @davefy7, myself, other mods and core members already chat away on management issues (both good and bad) into the small hours more often than people probably realise as it is.

I can't see what the problem is to be honest.

My opinion is that a forum is a forum which are basic by their nature. The only way to titillate it is to change the header and colour schemes and put a bit of code in to add scrolling message panels etc. The only other way is to integrate it into a website and why would we want to do that? It would cost money to operate, require web skills, regular input and the long term good will of the people who run it.

The forum has been running to the satisfaction of members for 3 years now and serves its purpose well.

Completely agree with the other comments, nothing wrong with the forum as it is as far as I am concerned.

I am a member on loads of forums and there is nothing significant missing from the features on here so happy with the status quo

I am very pleased that the majority enjoy the forum, it's simplicity, ease of use etc.

The initial format at conception wasn't a great deal different to the forum you see today. We've smartened it up a bit with "easy on the eye" backgrounds and smart header etc. this was all done with the general con census of the members opinions. Obviously the finer details were discussed at length and instigated with the cooperation of our excellent moderating team.
At present I certainly have no plans to change things and I presume the team have no such aspirations either. In short, I believe everyone is happy with things just the way they are. Many thanks for your valued input, it's always nice to receive suggestions.