[Franco Cozzo]

A lot of the stuff thats been modified into this forum has native support in newer software, stuff like the embedding youtube videos but also other things like no more BB code to embed images into posts but extra functionality like embedding Twitter posts as well so it can be viewed internally in the forum without having to click links et al. Also stuff like the search functionality which doesn't work too well here works quite well on the modern forums with the thread tagging and much more indepth search abilities.

It also has integrated functionality like a content management system/portal so forum sponsors could have front page real estate rather than being buried at the bottom of the forum near the sales area - but its still easy to navigate to the forum, that might be valuable to them as they're getting much more exposure in a community with 90,000 members and around 700 viewers.

I think there's a migration tool with the above forum software that supports this version of the forum AFF uses to move all the content and accounts across.

But the technical database would probably be an issue and it would have to be set up manually which would be a pain in the ***, it would probably have to be done as new posts in a section of the forum, I'm part of another community with that software I've linked which has something similar to what AFF has at the moment, but its got over 2500 'folders' with threads inside them all, so its possible, maybe it could be done by volunteers from the community - I'd put in the hours to help with something like that if that was on the table.

It is coming from a good place, the scene as a whole (not just AFF) has been bleeding members towards social media groups - facebook blows goats in comparison to a forum because its not set up for indepth discussions or a technical database like a forum is, but thats where the scene has been moving to for a long time as its a better user experience.

I understand it costs money but I think its worth a discussion internally between the admin team and a look into it for pricing, then make a decision once the facts are known.

Maybe it won't cost as much as we think, maybe there's some volunteers or people who would chip in towards a refresh of AFF in the form of a fundraiser to cover it and to bring it into the 2020s - Its not the looks of AFF, its just the other stuff thats either janky to use because its patched in or just the functionality we don't have that would be nice.