History of the site
People sometimes ask where the site came from and who looks after it. The simple answer is that it was set up in 1999 by someone who thought it seemed like a good idea at the time. That person was me.
In the beginning problems were accepted by e-mail and the site was built in HTML. At first, when only two or three problems a week were arriving, this was managable. It didn't stay that way for long.
Eventually I realised that I was going to have to make the move to a database driven site. This was OK for a while but the amount of problems being received continued to rise gradually.
The next thing I did was invite visitors to the site to become Agony Aunts so that I could get some help with answering the problems. This was OK and lots of people did become Agony Aunts. However, I was being very careful about which problems got sent to which Agony Aunt.
People sending in problems were able to choose who their problem went to, Agony Aunts were able to specify which type of problems they received, I was determined that younger agony aunts didn't get problems with bad language and sexual references.
I had to read every e-mail, send it to the right Agony Aunt, wait for the reply, sort out the spelling, then put it on the site. With around 70 e-mails arriving each week this became too much for a single mum with a full time job to handle. So...
I decided to develop a system where Agony Aunts could log in and collect their own problems, then answer them on the site. This would cut out e-mails altogether and replies would appear on the site right away without me having to vet every single problem.
After doing this it dawned on me that It might as well be a forum. So I rebuilt the site again, this time with the emphasis being on the forums.
Now, the forums are the heart of the site, and e-mail problems are a thing of the past.
I have been amazed at the way the atmosphere in the forums has developed. There is now a very friendly and supportive community that regularly uses the forums.
So, in answer to the question of who looks after the site, the people who use it look after it. They are the ones who moderate the forums, answer the problems, offer support and welcome new members.
All of this happens with very little intervention from me. I just pay for the hosting, tweak the site a bit now and again, lurk in the background and backup the database occasionally. And that's the way I like it.
So thank you to all of you people who make the forums what they are, and thank you in particular to the moderators, who are the best moderators in the world ever, Amen!
