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

[Lev]

Hua Hin Forum has been in operation since 2002 and was once one of the largest websites in Thailand. Times have changed since, and it has probably not gone unnoticed that participation and contribution to the forum have dwindled recently, predominantly due to social media becoming the preferred medium of communication and source of news for most people.

Nevertheless, this website still has overheads and running costs, not to mention the countless hours the moderators have volunteered over the years to keep this place free of spam, scams, and abusive and offensive content that remains prevalent on today’s social media platforms. Additionally, more than half of the daily content here is provided by just a handful of moderators.

In 2023, we ran a donation drive, which resulted in enough donations to cover our overheads for the couple of years that followed, but those funds have now been exhausted, and we feel it wouldn’t be prudent to ask for more donations.

In its current state, the forum has more than 20 years of content and a large footprint in terms of server resource usage. It also has software that needs constant upgrading and securing at a further cost and is under constant attack from bots (which are causing the current "resource limit" errors).

Our next option is to downgrade and downsize the forum and move it to a free hosting provider and free software. This would involve starting from scratch on a much smaller version of what we have here; all content on this site would be archived or deleted, though both boards can run in tandem for a couple of months.

There would also be limitations on things such as posting attachments, bandwidth, and speed because it is a free site, which would have its own advertising banners to cover costs.

However, this also needs setting up and lightly moderating/cleaning, so we would like to gauge interest via a poll to see who would be willing to re-register for free for a new, experimental HHF2, loosely managed and moderated by some of our current team, as I would step down as Administrator.

HHF is a free online community for us to share experiences, recommendations, news and updates, and even our favorite TV shows, and for it to survive, it needs members and contributors, not lurkers. Unlike Facebook, we do not make billions in revenue by scooping up your personal data and bombarding you with ads and spam.

Most of the current team would like to keep this place alive as they have been with it for so long, and it would be a shame to terminate it outright, but very few of them are interested in dedicating more of their time to dancing on an empty floor.

Thank you in advance for your input and consideration.

[REEM]

I am not a regular poster here, but have been a member for over 10 years averaging a post or two a month, but I do come here regularly for local info and recommendations, and so it would be a great shame if this asset disappeared completely.

As an alternative to a forum, and in spite of the disadvantages, have you considered having a members only Facebook or WhatsApp group?

[georgy]

A lot of people like forums as it is more easy to use and more safe than all this socalled social media crap
For me Fakebook is a no go, not even if they would pay me

[Dannie Boy]

It’ll be a sad day if the Forum were to cease operating, so one way or another I’d definitely like to see it continue. I was a contributor a couple of years ago and would be will to do so again if it was deemed to be the best way forward, but let’s see. Over the years I have found the Forum extremely helpful in providing so many answers and information regarding Hua Hin, Thailand and subjects of general interest.

[Hahuahin]

Will eventually an annual membership fee makes the forum viable in its current state?
hahuahin

[2dandan]

I like the format of this forum however it’s membership and use appears to have dwindled over the last 20 years.

You used to be called HHAD prior to being renamed huahinforum.com.

There are currently 2 Hua Hin forums on Facebook, one of which uses the logo previously associated with this forum. It also shows the web address huahinforum.com. It’s last entry was in September 2020. It has 3.3k members. Is this page controlled by the current moderators? If so it could be reactivated easily and quickly.

The other one has 33k members so is very well established.

Having 2 Facebook groups with the same name is confusing and a challenge to the smaller group to re-establish themselves.

Maybe it needs to retitled as “hua hin gossip and news” to attract new users as everyone likes to know whats happening or might be happening.

I’m not sure if whatsapp is the answer either. My bowling club has a group and it’s filled with useless annoying comments about weather, congratulations and other trivia, non of which interests me but is impossible to avoid. I find it really irritating and have switched off all notifications on it.

In short, I don’t have the answer but I will support the continuance of the group.

[caller]

Personally, I'd like to see it continue in it's current format. It's become more of a mates forum, or club. I like the idea of an annual fee to cover costs, but ultimately I would just like to see it continue, and would contribute to that in any way needed, financial or otherwise.

I am concerned about losing the archive, as that is a major difference between a forum and FB, where stuff disappears into the ether, unless it can be saved individually.

[HHTel]

It's not viewed only in Hua Hin. My daughter reads stuff on here sometimes before I do. She lives in Hampshire.
Everyone know 'Lost'. He was in Thailand for a decade or so but has lived in London for quite a few years.

[Dannie Boy]

Not to mention a certain Welshman who’s a regular contributor!!


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[Bamboo Grove]

t's not viewed only in Hua Hin. My daughter reads stuff on here sometimes before I do. She lives in Hampshire.
Everyone know 'Lost'. He was in Thailand for a decade or so but has lived in London for quite a few years.

Sorry, I am a bit confused, you talk about your daughter and then again about lost. Is lost somehow related to you?

[Dannie Boy]

I think it was simply a case of highlighting that many readers/contributors of the Forum are neither Hua Hin or Thailand based.