What do you think of the AoS forum?

[Pigmy Pony]

Actually, "Marco was right about everything" would be a better fit. Certainly right more times than Draft-dodging, war-losing, hopefully-not-long-for-this-world Donald.

[Barry]

Afternoon All,

As someone who joined/engaged relatively recently – and who was frankly a bit nervous about dipping a toe back into the hi-fi world after decades away – I hope my perspective might be useful.

What's kept me here: The patience. Honestly, I came in knowing almost nothing about modern gear, streaming, or even what I wanted. Not once did anyone make me feel stupid. The advice has been thoughtful, the disagreements civil, and the collective wisdom genuinely staggering. That's rare online, and it's worth protecting.

What might put newcomers off – and I'll be honest here: The forum looks old. Really old. The colour scheme, the layout, the fonts – it feels like a site that hasn't had a visual refresh since the early 2000s. For a younger or more design-conscious potential member, that might be enough to click away before reading a single post. I don't say that to be cruel – just truthful. A cleaner, more modern skin would work wonders.

Structure-wise: It could also do with a bit of a reorganising. There are a lot of sub-forums, some of which feel very quiet. I'd suggest:

• *Archiving threads that haven't seen a reply in, say, five years. Not deleting – just moving to a read‑only archive.
  *Regrouping similar topics.
  *A single, prominent "Start Here" or "New Member? Read This First" sticky. One place, not more.

Ideas to enliven things:

• *A monthly "listening diary" thread – what did you actually *listen to* this month, not what gear did you buy?
  *A show-and-tell for second-hand bargains. Everyone loves a good "look what I found on gumtree/FB/ebay for £50" post.
  *Maybe a buddy system? Pair a newer member with an old hand for a few weeks to help with a specific project. I'd have killed for that.

One small thing: The "Jokes & Funnies" section is great, but it's a bit buried. A weekly pinned humour and a 'Rant' thread on the main board might remind people that this hobby is supposed to be *fun*.

But honestly? You're doing something right. I came here lost, lonely in a new house, and not sure I still loved music. Now I have a system that makes me smile every evening. That's down to the people here, not the software.

Happy to help if any of these ideas are worth pursuing.

All the best,

Alistair

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Thanks for your reply Alistair. A lot of your suggestions make sense: too many sub-fora; archiving old threads, and simplifying navigation around the Forum.

I'm not sure I agree with you regarding the look of the Forum. Maybe we could update the banner, but the background colour is easy on the eye, and I can't see anything wrong with the font. To be perfectly honest, I wouldn't know how to make those changes if I could - it's all above my paygrade.

We already have threads for Bargains on eBay (which I originated) and a similar thread for car bootsale bargains. Agree the Jokes and Funnies needs to be more prominent. A 'Rant' thread might be promising, but it would have to carefully monitored to prevent it getting out of hand.

Thanks for your suggestions, it is exactly the response I was looking for when I started this thread.

[Barry]

It has just dawned on me that your comments about the font only applies to "The Art of Sound" title in the banner that heads each page. As to the background colour and font of the posts themselves, well I find the very pale cream colour restful and easy on the eye - I don't like a pain white background, apart from when composing replies. Maybe the ochre colour of the border could be changed.

Are you in the design business Alistair? If so perhaps you could come up with some alternative 'looks' for us to consider.

Thanks again.

[CageyH]

At some point, the forum also needs to be made GDPR compliant?

[Pigmy Pony]

No idea what that is.

[CageyH]

It is a General Data Protection Regulation.

In today’s digital age, data protection has become a crucial concern for individuals and organisations alike. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) plays a significant role in safeguarding the privacy rights of individuals within the European Union (EU). However, with the United Kingdom’s departure from the EU, it has introduced its own version of the GDPR known as the UK GDPR.

Basically, more hoops for forums to jump through to make the data safe.

[Barry]

At some point, the forum also needs to be made GDPR compliant?

I think we already are: apart from forum names, members are asked for their given names and that is all. Addresses are only given in PMs, and if inadvertently given in a post (for example when buying or selling an item of gear or a record or CD), it is deleted a.s.a.p.

We did have a case recently of a member who contacted me by PM (it's a mystery how) stating his membership had been cancelled and he could no longer login. He asked for all his posts to be permanently deleted as was his right under the GDPR. His wishes were carried out.

But to make sure I'll talk to appropriate parties to find out how the GDPR applies to specialist fora.

[Pete The Cat]

If we were looking at this as a business we might begin by looking outside first, as in what is being consumed and how is it being consumed.

I say that because AoS is a hi-fi forum that includes music. But as a general consumer interest one of those is not what it used to be.

It's among three forums that I look at every morning. The other two cover music and hi-fi - and for them music comes first. It feels to me that the liveliest thread in AoS is Spinning Today...

So one message from this would seem to be to expand the coverage of music. That's what's ultimately being consumed.

Back to my first point and 'how', a lot of folks access great quality audio much cheaper than we used to (and hence don't bother with big box hi-fi) because of desktop units and headphones. So another message would seem to be to get into small/mobile hi-fi.

Finally though, while Barry's original question is welcome, I think it's also for us as members/visitors to contribute more. I sometimes wonder where the 'users online' figures comes from, it can't all be bots or North Korean surveillance.

Cheers.

[Macca]

Finally though, while Barry's original question is welcome, I think it's also for us as members/visitors to contribute more. I sometimes wonder where the 'users online' figures comes from, it can't all be bots or North Korean surveillance.

Cheers.

Members logged in is never a high figure but the numbers viewing is usually in the hundreds. It's possible to check how many are bots. It's about 10 percent of the total. Lots of people read forums they are not members of, or they are members but view without logging in.

Shouldn't be underestimated how many read the forum even if they are not members. For example my review of the TEAC 701T transport has been up for less than three years, there's only 99 posts but there's 56 thousand views. My review of the Sony TAE-1000ESD preamp has been up for two years almost to the day, only 9 replies, but over twenty thousand views. For a pre-amp that was discontinued in 1990.

Cheap upgrade for Michell Gyrodeck - 9 years, half a million views.

Allo Audio Streamer review, 9 years, over three hundred thousand views.

If you compare to a newspaper (at least in their heyday) you had millions of people reading but only maybe fifty contributors. Forums are similar.

[Pete The Cat]

If you compare to a newspaper (at least in their heyday) you had millions of people reading but only maybe fifty contributors. Forums are similar.

That sounds logical.

With a lot of issues people ask 'what's the person in charge going to do about this'. My point is that with many things in life the answer isn't just to look to someone in charge to sort things out, part of the solution is on us, the people. Be the change that you want to see in the world, and all that. So maybe as well as the practical stuff like refreshing the website etc another part of the answer is for contributors to see it as their role to contribute more new threads.

I should just add in answer to the original question that there's much to like about AoS. Above all the culture is very welcoming.