Dear Ansis and other members,
Thanks very much for your member analysis which I found interesting. I thought you might find some interest in this historical perspective.
The original 1997 forum was a simple long listing notice board which we cleaned periodically. There were no message threads, the posters email address was published for direct responses. The sections were: Accommodation Wanted, Property Wanted, Flamenco, and General.
This was upgraded in 2000 to a proper “Message Board” software by Matt Wright based on the leading ‘Web BBS’ public domain cgi scripts provided by Selina Sol (pen name of the programmer(s) which originated from the spelling of Los Angeles backwards). Each post was listed on a threaded contents page. Every post appeared on its own page. It very simple to use.
The sections were Accommodation Wanted, Property Wanted, Flamenco, General, and later also Job search, Situations Vacant, Services Wanted, Classified Advertisements. We also later tried Spanish Exchange and News (Comments on daily news posting) but they were not embraced.
Unfortunately there were few version updates and security became an issue. Here are a couple of screenshots from the very last entries on 4th June 2004.
Top and
bottom of page
I had asked Edward Chaudry, a computer science student from Nottingham University who was with us for a year (and is now an airline pilot) to research a replacement software. He recommended the ‘phpBB’ software and installed it rapidly. Edward contacted about twenty users of the old software to beta test. Of these, Marina, underwater, avellana, brenda, Kelly, Beachcomber are currently active members. I remember many complaints from members at the time of the change over with a general preference for the older and simpler system.
Edward created the rank names Newbie, Tourist, Resident, Amigo, Guru in the configuration of the software.
The original sections were General, Travel, Tourism & Destinations, Moving to Andalucia, Living in Andalucia, Food Drink Recipes and Gastronomy, Restaurants and Bars, Entertainment Nightlife Ferias and Culture, Parents in Andalucia, Health Beauty Fitness and Sport, and About this Forum.
Unfortunately the oldest posts of the present forumwere lost due to a technical issue. The forum design had a make over in 2006 and the advertising banners inserted. The Amigos lounge was added in March 2007 and the Gurus Den in August 2008.
The software is frequently updated as new versions are released. Long standing members El Cid and Beachcomber became Moderators in May 2011.
Chris Chaplow
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