Moving Hua Hin Forum to a smaller site (HHF2): Poll

[VincentD]

BB, happy to see you giving oversight to the 'new' iteration. What I'm worried about is the legacy content that has the potential to be lost. I had a hard time finding the pictures from the 2004 HHAD get together, finally found it on the way back machine, and not great quality either. Those were the fun days when you could wander around Bintabaht and run into many of the members out on the piss. Not much these days. Last I ran into anyone was Nereus in Bangkok over a year ago. He's usually quite active, but haven't seen his presence for a while.

[dundrillin]

one thing that may be of interest would be a follow up of active past members and where are the now. Vital Spart was always interesting, also H H Farang, Oakdale etc

[2/cb]

Let’s do it.

[Ralfredo]

I don't think you'll really spot the difference.

Will Tapatalk work?

[Big Boy]

I honestly don't know. Hopefully one of the developers will see your question, and provide an answer.

[buksida]

I don't think you'll really spot the difference.

Will Tapatalk work?

No, that is a phpBB plugin and the forum will be moving off this software.

The new place will be a 'lite' version of here so it is kept as simple as possible with 'no frills' to reduce the software and maintenance overheads.

We can't keep the legacy content online because the 20-year database is huge, it will be archived offline. Members will have the opportunity to copy over anything they want as the two will run in tandem for a while, there will be more from Lev on this next week I think.

[Lost]

BB, happy to see you giving oversight to the 'new' iteration. What I'm worried about is the legacy content that has the potential to be lost. I had a hard time finding the pictures from the 2004 HHAD get together, finally found it on the way back machine, and not great quality either.

I, also, like to visit year's ago posts, legacy content and the like. Will you be archiving all the posts before moving, with given access to members, or no? I've a lot of time on my hands at the mo, I could archive stuff... but using a wayback machine, website crawler or, god forbid, manual archiving ( ) is fiddly without access and permissions Mr. Lev has.

Be a shame to lose our last few decades of discussion.

Edit: apologies if addressed already, may have missed some posts

[buksida]

As mentioned above, the database will be downloaded and archived offline (no public access once this site is shut down). But you'll have plenty of time to copy what you want or move it to the new forum.

Personally, I'd want my trip reports, but they're already posted on my own site, so no need really, and I'm happy to lose the rest of my rambling! Others may want other things to keep.

[404cameljockey]

For me it's a not question of 'keeping what I want', it's more about reading previous useful posts by other contributors. The current tax residency thread contains useful information going back to last year. I wouldn't have a clue how to download an entire thread in any useful format. But also other threads, for example about where to get different services in HH (I don't mean 'After Dark') also will be lost.

It's just a shame and it degrades the usefulness of the forum. I wish we could again make financial contributions to keep the current form of HHH somehow, even at the least retaining posts up to say 2-3 years ago.

[Lev]

Moving forward
Thank you to all who responded to the poll and in this thread with thoughts and suggestions. It is clear that there is still a demand for this forum despite the dwindling contributions, so we are proceeding with a new HHF2 different software and server.

We have taken on board all comments and suggestions, and will address them below.

Reasoning for the change
There are a number of reasons that we need to change the current way this website is operated:

• Lack of input, contributions, and discussion from members - more than half of the content is posted by moderators

• Zero revenue and no advertisers - this website has been running at a loss for years

• High overheads in terms of server costs - large database, high resource usage, regular bills to pay

• Dated software that needs constant upgrading - phpBB is constant work to maintain

• Incessant attacks by bots and spammers - the mods are usually on top of this, which is why you don’t see it, but it happens daily

• No active tech support staff - they need to be paid to fix things

• Reducing workload for volunteer moderators - they’re not getting any younger!

A much smaller, free forum should alleviate most of these problems while allowing us to continue with a similar format that you’re familiar with.

Donations and subs
We held a donation drive before, and it was successful, but we do not feel it would be appropriate to hold another one, considering the lack of activity and input to the forums. Moreover, more donations or subscriptions would not necessarily solve some of the problems listed above. What we’re asking for is “contributions” in terms of being active on the boards, and not just lurking - this is an online community after all, not a digital library!

Social media
Setting something up on Facebook is out of the question because there are still many people (including some of our key team members) who do not use it. Besides, there are already countless Hua Hin forum/expat/buy & sell/nightlife/events groups on the platform, so we’d effectively be competing with them for no tangible gains or purpose.

Archives
The forum database has been running and growing since 2002. Needless to say, it is huge (over 582,000 posts and gigabytes of attachments) and needs a substantial hosting package to support it (which has recurring bills). Therefore, we cannot keep the database online without incurring many of the problems listed above and having to pay for hosting services. The existing site will be archived offline, but there will be a transition period to move posts over for those who wish to.

The next steps
We will launch the new forum at the end of July, where those who wish to can register and participate. Contributing and participating are vital for it to survive and remain online as an active Hua Hin and Thailand community. We know most of you prefer social media, but we are willing to keep this platform running while people still want it. If we find that activity has dwindled again and there is very little in terms of member contributions, we will shut down the new forum in 2026. It really is up to you guys whether HHF survives or not.

The existing forum will remain open for a week or so after the new one is launched, then locked for new registrations and will be read-only access until the end of August while you copy over what you want to keep. In September, it will be archived offline, removed from the server, and set up as a domain redirect so anyone arriving at the dot com will be automatically routed to the new forum.

Our team of volunteer mods has brainstormed extensively and found this to be the only viable solution to keeping this platform alive while eliminating all of the financial overheads and other technical headaches associated with managing a large website.

Thanks again for your input.

[2/cb]

Moving forward
Thank you to all who responded to the poll and in this thread with thoughts and suggestions. It is clear that there is still a demand for this forum despite the dwindling contributions, so we are proceeding with a new HHF2 different software and server.

We have taken on board all comments and suggestions, and will address them below.

Reasoning for the change
There are a number of reasons that we need to change the current way this website is operated:

• Lack of input, contributions, and discussion from members - more than half of the content is posted by moderators

• Zero revenue and no advertisers - this website has been running at a loss for years

• High overheads in terms of server costs - large database, high resource usage, regular bills to pay

• Dated software that needs constant upgrading - phpBB is constant work to maintain

• Incessant attacks by bots and spammers - the mods are usually on top of this, which is why you don’t see it, but it happens daily

• No active tech support staff - they need to be paid to fix things

• Reducing workload for volunteer moderators - they’re not getting any younger!

A much smaller, free forum should alleviate most of these problems while allowing us to continue with a similar format that you’re familiar with.

Donations and subs
We held a donation drive before, and it was successful, but we do not feel it would be appropriate to hold another one, considering the lack of activity and input to the forums. Moreover, more donations or subscriptions would not necessarily solve some of the problems listed above. What we’re asking for is “contributions” in terms of being active on the boards, and not just lurking - this is an online community after all, not a digital library!

Social media
Setting something up on Facebook is out of the question because there are still many people (including some of our key team members) who do not use it. Besides, there are already countless Hua Hin forum/expat/buy & sell/nightlife/events groups on the platform, so we’d effectively be competing with them for no tangible gains or purpose.

Archives
The forum database has been running and growing since 2002. Needless to say, it is huge (over 582,000 posts and gigabytes of attachments) and needs a substantial hosting package to support it (which has recurring bills). Therefore, we cannot keep the database online without incurring many of the problems listed above and having to pay for hosting services. The existing site will be archived offline, but there will be a transition period to move posts over for those who wish to.

The next steps
We will launch the new forum at the end of July, where those who wish to can register and participate. Contributing and participating are vital for it to survive and remain online as an active Hua Hin and Thailand community. We know most of you prefer social media, but we are willing to keep this platform running while people still want it. If we find that activity has dwindled again and there is very little in terms of member contributions, we will shut down the new forum in 2026. It really is up to you guys whether HHF survives or not.

The existing forum will remain open for a week or so after the new one is launched, then locked for new registrations and will be read-only access until the end of August while you copy over what you want to keep. In September, it will be archived offline, removed from the server, and set up as a domain redirect so anyone arriving at the dot com will be automatically routed to the new forum.

Our team of volunteer mods has brainstormed extensively and found this to be the only viable solution to keeping this platform alive while eliminating all of the financial overheads and other technical headaches associated with managing a large website.

Thanks again for your input.

Thanks for this comprehensive overview and plain speaking. You have my support.