A quick update about this website
Further update after the removal of support for legacy versions of PHP.
What happened?
Our hosting company has disabled support for the version of PHP that this website was written in.
This followed broader developments around the end of support for older PHP versions. You can read more about the wider context in this BBC News report.
Any Progress?
DBF was based on a highly customised version of the SMF forum software. I have been investigating whether it is feasible to restore DBF and bring it back online.
I have successfully updated the forum so that it now runs on the default version of SMF, the front page is unlikely to survive in it's old form but I will be putting this site back into operation by December 2026.
Apologies for the downtime, I'm working on this in my spare time and my PHP is a bit rusty. That said, this site has given me and all it's visitors so much enjoyment over the years that there is no way I will let it die.
The data is safe
Please be assured that all the site's data is safe. Nothing has been lost. The forum is actually working now, there is just a few more weeks work to do.