Has there been any discussion regarding a forum software upgrade? Seems every once in a while I feel like pulling my hair out (what is left of it) due to a lack of functionality with what is in place. Almost feels like 1995 with the technology.

Back when I used to post more on the Europe boards in the late 90s there was much talk of upgrades and many threads where people discussed and put forward their suggestions for improvements. A few were duly implemented but very few and I know the team who were then looking after the boards and were more hands on in terms of discussing things with regular members, have long since gone.
Trouble is, any signficant upgrade would involve a significant cost and as I doube Random House make much, if anything, from hosting this board, other than minor brand awareness, I doubt they'd pick up the cost!
To be honest, most places I use on the web have some issues and this one is better than most simply because the search function works, pretty much.

I guess I am being more sensitive to features such as email replies, seeing more threads on my screen, etc etc etc. It is a great forums that can certainly be improved in certain areas.

They should have automatic trip report saved archives from over the years........instead of us creating threads with a link to induvidual reports.

Hari

I'd love to see RSS functionality added to these forums. RSS allows new posts/replies etc to be automatically downloaded and stored to your own computer, that you can read in your own time without requiring an internet connection.

Ooooh there's so much they could do to improve the functionality here... my response was purely to let you know that they had gone through a phase of consultation and upgrades some years back but seem to have dropped that in recent years and I imagine it's down to cost benefit issues.

There are some forum software that is completely free. I imagine all the time/money/effort would be migrating past content over, as well as making a new forum have the look and feel, as well as integration with the fodors.com web site.