As you're probably aware, we've been offline for a few hours over Saturday evening/Sunday morning to do some upgrades and maintenance work on the TT forums.
In that small amount of time, the TowersTimes team have worked hard to bring you the latest phpBB forum software, phpBB3
There are a few changes with this new forum software, however we've worked hard to maintain the old look of the forums to try and make it familiar as possible for you. That said, there a few small things to familiarise yourself with, but pretty much everything is simple or simpler than before to use!
There are also some changes that we have implemented in the forum:
- The Gallery has been put to rest - it was little used, so we have decided at this time to temporarily remove it for another exciting feature in future.
- The Events feature again has also been put to rest, for the same reasons as above.
- The Security control panel has been removed, as phpBB3 (our forum software) provides us with increased security protection as well as some other custom modifications we have made.
- Post counts have been removed from the forum. Our new forum software allows us to remove post counts from profiles, and we have decided to take this option as we feel that post counts do not offer any functional use to our members. They have been used as a "status" tool unfortunately by some in the past, and we work hard to make TowersTimes open, friendly and inviting to all, and we feel this aids our quest in making TT a better place for all members, new and established.
- The scrolling News Ticker at the top of the forum index has also been temporarily retired, again to be replaced in the near future with an improved feature.
- The Traffic Boost board will now only be viewable to registered members, and ALL new topics will be moderated by one of the team beforehand to ensure that the rules of the board are being adhered to.
- There is a new Friends & Foes feature that allows to add people to your friends and foes list. If you have a user on your foes list, their posts will be "collapsed" and hidden from view in the thread.
- Theres also a new RSS Feed for the forums, which will allow you to keep updated with the latest topics in your favourite RSS feed reader. Click on the orange RSS icon at the bottom of the new forum page.
If you do encounter any problems using the new forum, please do not hesitate to either PM one of the Team TT members, or email us via the "I need help / Report a bug!" link near the top of the forum menu.
Here's a few common problems that you may encounter and we are aware of:
- There's no Birthdays showing for today on the board index!
We are aware of this issue and are looking into it with phpBB, and are hoping to fix it shortly. There is a work around fix for this issue however - simply re-update your profile with your date of birth and it will display as normal on the birthdays list. - My username or password doesn't work!
This appears to be a unfortunate occasional bug with the forum conversion software. All you need to do is reset your password via the "I forgot my password" link on the login page. This should fix the issue for you and you should be able to login as usual. - The forum is saying my username does not exist!
Hopefully this should not happen - however unfortunately again in the conversion process data can be skipped/not converted due to a irregularity in the conversion process. Please contact one of the TT Team members in the help section below who will manually convert your account from the old forum to the new one.
We'll be working to fix and improve the forum constantly over the coming days, weeks and months so please bear with us if you do spot any little things that we may have missed.
Finally, on behalf of all the TT Team, we'd like to thank you for your support with the TowersTimes community, and here's to the future!