Just did a check how the site looked after the first update I think. This is what i got my hands on: Before that, they had the PhPBB logo showing on their site, so I thought I'd take a snapshot of when they actually had created their own and got the forum started. I myself joined today and I really like this forum. (Which you may notice on how many posts i've written already) :S What I'm wondering is: were you one of those few thousands of people who joined DP in 2004? Share your history with the forum!
I knew of DP back then but didn't join until just recently. ( I had been on SP). DP need's to develop it's Buy/Sell Forum more.. at the moment it's too messy and not attractive for new users.
I used to find answers to many questions I had back then.. But I was on Sitepoint before it went all snazzy, and didn't join DP until a few years after when Sitepoint became a chore to navigate..
I have known DP ever since 2007 and joined a year after when I started to educate myself more on SEO. So far, everything was uber different back then compared to what it is now. As they say, the only thing that is constant is change.
I joined in 2008 and love its easy navigation and friendly members. I guess there's been lots of changes lately, the forum's skin has been changed and the server response is a bit better. I remember sometimes it used to lag due to overuse.
I would agree with your statement about that area of the forum being messy but I think it would be awhile before there is a method to fix it
Users always complained how ancient DP is. I guess the latest vb version transformed DP to a better forum than before. Very sleek and nice. I miss the barcodes.. lol..