Glynis
do you have any pictures of the old site to give lance an example ???

I don't Ray sorry.

That's ok - There are other reasons we need to expand and improve things with what we have now but I agree we need to look at the older site also.

Ray - can you go to https://archive.org/web/ and type in the website (holidaytruths.co.uk) and choose a date and then tell me the date from which I need to look at so I can see what you mean. This allows you to go back in time on any site and you can see what it looks like..

L

Lance
While Ray is looking-
The home page was a list of forums( as it is now
When you clicked on to a forum you could then see a list of topics posted, much the same as the like of flyertalk.com for example.
It makes it easier to scan to see what you are interested in. I do understand why you have it set up as you do though.
Quick other suggestion- helpful button for reviews?

LANCE...20th February 2005...some time after that the look was brightened up a little, but not too much in your face, think it was a little red added.
think you will get the drift of how easy it was to find and view things.

It was PhpBB board : Subsilver style.
For many years the site ran on version 2. It was upgraded to version 3, with the help of MarkJ. ( a member at the time) whom Van publically thanked for his help and time ( that obviously took place behind the scenes).

If you go onto page 3 of the link below. The Caribbean style ( I believe) it is Mark J's...I somehow remember him running that by some of us at the time . (regarding the colours and banner design).
https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/styles/board_styles/subsilver2_based-20?start=48

I'm not into all this teckie stuff, but I do have a good memory (long term).
So, after doing a bit of Googling, I believe that there are the latest versions of the PhpBB styles that are very similar to how HT used to look and perform (especially regarding all the things that come with the PhpBB system and we seem to have lost). EG: the lay-out of the site, the PM system and being able to preview this post before I hit the "post" button, and the various themes being installed, if you so wish) .
Latest lay-outs that ( I think) now accommodate all the different appliances/users, and also satisfy Google's tantrums.

The lay-out/system was really good for pinning stickies in the various forums.
I don't envy you trying to sort out (IMO) the mess that was created by the previous owners. I now see very informative posts that were (at one time) pinned at the top of the various forums ....sticky posts that have been "unstuck" and allowed to fall off the page and disappear way down the site.
Sanji

If you look at the screenshot from the 29th May 2011 via the archive link that Lance has posted, and go into (for example) the Costa Blanca forum. It shows how posts regarding things like local markets, emergency numbers, airport info, currency exchange etc....were made into stickies

To further explain what I mean, I'll chose two of my stickies, simply because it is easier for me to try and locate them.
The Costa del Sol forum, I had two stickies that were informative regarding Consumer Rights in Spain and a long list in the other stickie giving emergency numbers, days of the markets, etc.

The one regarding Consumer Rights is now residing on page 9 and has been horribly corrupted with squiggly nonsense.
http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/forum/when-things-go-wrong-t148863.html

The other one is now residing on page 10.
http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/forum/local-info-emergencies-markets-transport-t148856.html
The Admin and Moderators spent a long time composing most of those stickies for the benefit of the members.

Sanji

Just playing around with the archive site....
If you look at the screenshot from Tue Apr 13, 2010. It states that HT is now .......

HT now available on iPhone, Android and Blackberry Mobiles

Mmmm, I'll keep my big gob shut at this point, because making/editing videos, messing about with photos and making avatars is my limit....Anything else and I break out in a cold sweat and phone my son, I don't 'do' teckie stuff, but it seems to me that HT was accommodating several appliances, way back in 2010.

Sanji

I have to agree with Sanji about the Sticky – these werealways a very important part of HT pre 2012. Some members spent a great deal of
time researching to produce these, even revisiting them to update when
information changed.I have over the last few weeks when I had time been tryingto identify items that I consider important and in need of reinstating. I call
it “lose the will to live time” wading through all the dross. I do like the
intention to lock topics so we do not see a 10 year old post being resurrected.
People also need to consider that people who posted all those years ago may not
even be around to answer the question besides the information in the topic
being well out of date.I said the Dross and there are thousands of posts that arejust that, in the Complaints there is post after post about particular TOs that
could so easily be combined into one post – the number of times the same firm
comes up time after time but somebody feels the need to start a new topic.
Weas members got fed up of answering the same question time after time and in
many cases we pointed people in the direction of a Sticky which is all we could
do. We also had what we called the “One Post Wonders” who basically used the
forum to have a rant, we tried to help but either never heard from them again or
were often abused because we did not give them the answer they wanted. I might add that none of us ever claimed to be “experts” buthaving been members for a long time, seen all sorts of problems/complaints and
put time into researching and helping others we became what might be termed gifted amateurs. I do know that some people decided
to walk away after one to many insult. The posts asking “what plane am I flying on need to bedeleted, the question was answered years ago so is just cluttering things up – the
same applies to many of the old reviews. What a hotel was like 10 years ago
does not mean it is the same today. In many cases the hotel no longer exists or
has changed. An example would be the Luca Costa Lago in Torremolinos. It was
taken over by Riu six years ago; it closed last October together with the Riu
Belplaya. The hotels are being combined and refurbished. Any review is totally
meaningless.Comments about the layout have already been made and I doknow you are looking at this. No matter what some might say the “old fashioned”
image was far more user friendly than the one we currently have.
Not your faultyou have inherited it –but to be fair it is very refreshing that you are asking
for our help.

For our part, as long standing members if we want HT to once again become what yearsago I called “The Premier Site” we need to play our part.

Ray, this date may help you.
On this particular date ( 28th August 2007) there are over 1000 screenshots taken, which allows you to go past the forum index and into the first page of various forums......it also looks better in colour.
I can't get the link to work....it looks OK before I hit the post button, but then it appear on the board with a line of code.

Sanji

Thanks - all of the above I agree with, as does Matt who will help lock the older threads.

The only real issue which we need to look into further is the layout to tweak that. I do not want to go back as what we have in terms of code is far superior than any PHP BB forum and if we need to change things then we have the ability to do that without operating within the constraints of another companies code and support framework. For example, I have today seen the first iteration of the Media Gallery....

Soon the be shown to you for feedback and comment...

Lance

To be honest the old board was starting to look just a bit dated and was in need of a major revamp however navigation was a bit simpler than what we have and the layout was a bit easier to follow.

The stickies were good as long as they were maintained which I know most of the mod's tried to do if it was one of their forums.

I know it is still early days and more tweaks are in the pipeline.

"To be honest the old board was starting to look just a bit dated and was in need of a major revamp however navigation was a bit simpler than
what we have and the layout was a bit easier to follow."
agreed !!! but a lot simpler.

In regards to the sticky posts mentioned where members had put info together for others to make use of, if there are particular ones that need to be promoted then let me know via a private message - what I'm thinking is that I can put together some kind of page to include this information that sits alongside the forum rather than within it so as to not get hidden amongst the forum posts

Stickies definitely have their uses but we also do want folks to post. If they are too comprehensive then it may remove the need to engage on the forum.
Also lumping similar posts together can make members annoyed. In addition it may become difficult to follow if there are a few members posting at the same time .

Yes we need to take care with Stickies, but often when answering a query being able to point someone in that direction can be of more use than our trying to type out a full answer.
Regarding merging topics when people keep posting the same question often when the same question is being asked and answered below three, four and five times then they do need to be brought together. Sometimes it seemed as though a complaint about X was the only topic.
The other problem was having given the answer the person asking did not even bother to come back for it, almost as though they expected it to appear like magic within a few seconds.

Edit - Just to add Lance and Matt are asking for help in sorting the forum and get things back on track. I am sure people are reading what some of us are saying and would urge them to put forward their comments/suggestions - HT used to be the best place to go for help and advice, it can be again if people help it.

Stickies are fine for general information, bus/train timetables, local weather sites etc. These can be locked to postings & a link provided when necessary. If members wish to add a link then a team member can add it on their behalf.

Merging, I've never really been a great fan of. Simply because if 2 similar posts are running, & a merge was made of the two, they used to merge in date & time order which meant the sequence of conversation could end up jumbled.

Also if you merge,members often can't find their posts and get annoyed. Obviously you can find it by going to your profile but not everyone is aware.
Where there is a current problem involving multiple people then it is best to provide a thread or even a sub forum. For instance the Daily Express £10 cruise offer.This was our longest thread and brought many new members. These people were able to swap stories and work together.
Also things like daily weather forecasts or exchange rates can be merged.
But overall, members like their own thread and they are used to that in Facebook.

Jump to last post is not as good as being taken to your last unread post.
We did have that before and it's a feature that is really useful.