Dear All who feel like participating on this forum or who already do so,

I have been asked many times why have I created this forum; what am I trying to achieve with it; is it for making money, etc. So I decided to write a sort of mission statement (don't giggle I know it sounds awfully pathetic and it'll only get worst from here on ) to give you an idea of my concept of the Budapest forum.

I personally regard forums not only as a place for discussion but also as a special form of contributing to overall knowledge on well defined topics. Every forum must have a theme otherwise it looses its function: information gets lost among general chat. Which is by no means a disaster; many people enjoy chatting without higher ambitions than having a good time. However, keen observers might have realised that I don't really belong to this group. I am - let's say - impressed by the immense quantity of information available on Internet. After just a couple of years of intensive surfing on the Net, it is now difficult to imagine life without being able to look up whatever information one needs on the Net. I use it for work, for recreation, to shop and to pay my bills, to prepare my holidays, to meet new people, and not least of all: to make friends. What else could I say, I'm a devoted addict.

Nobody does anything for free - so they tell me. Not true. There are hundreds of thousands of people out there putting up photos, information, art, poetry, etc. on websites for all to see and read - very often for the sole purpose of contributing to this gigantic information network in the hope of helping whoever might chance upon their sites. Just to point out an example take a look at Wikipedia - the biggest free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page written and edited by volunteers. Truly amazing. And there are many more.

One of the most efficient ways of constructing information resources is, according to my experience, by way of forums. Most people have neither the drive nor the time for writing careful essays or translating long articles like is needed in Wikipedia, however they are generally eager to answer short questions and share their own experience while discussing certain issues of interest to them. Other keen observers might have stated that I belong to this former group. Little by little this all ads up to a massive information resource that anybody is free to profit from. Not always accurate, that's true, but this is what's so great about forums: one always has the chance to ask and verify whether the info is still up-to-date.

As I already mentioned every forum needs a theme. (Mind you some have very exhaustive themes or various sub-forums.) I choose Hungary and in particular Budapest as theme for this forum. The reason is quite simple. First of all I was born in Budapest and lived here for the greater part of my life. Secondly because I spent a much smaller but still significant part of my life abroad making me realise what it is like to be living as an ex-pat or to be travelling around as a tourist in a foreign country with some bizarre language. Before setting up this forum I had a look around on the Net but could not find any English forums about Budapest that would have met my criteria of a useful and user-friendly forum. Here you can easily insert links, share photos/images, edit your messages, write private messages (pm) to any other members, e-mails too if the person has authorised it. Your postings will not be deleted after a certain time - they will stay up to help others even a long time after you have departed from Budapest.

At first this all might seem a bit complicated; you can find assistance in the Technical help thread here: http://budapest.forumactif.com/viewtopic.forum?t=98
but if you need further help just contact me and I'll be ready to sort out any technical problem you might have.

One more important thing, this is a non-profit forum, which means that I don't earn any money with it, nor does anybody else save the forum hosting site: http://www.forumactif.com/en/ (the google ads that you may or may not see on the main page belong to the hosting site). I intend to keep it this way - the forum will stay "independent". I will be much pleased if anybody decides to put up the link of this forum on their private site, in exchange you can put up short ads or links in the "Ads and links" section. However this forum will not become an "official" forum of any commercial site. (I tried at the beginning but it didn't work out.)

I might one day decide to set up a different forum with a different theme (I will let you all know ) but at the moment this is the only one I'm seriously involved in and I don't think I would have time for a second one right now.

Whishing you all a great time on the forum,
Alice