Changes to forum

[Firejack]

As you are all no doubt scratching your heads wondering what these Usergroups you have joined mean I will now attempt to explain.

The previous system for new registrations on the forums required either Niels or myself to approve the application. The approval system was needed because in the past we have had problems with random people signing up and spamming the forums or creating arguments on the forums. These people obviously weren't invited and we thought it necessary to keep them out the forums with the Admin approval system. This system has turned out to be very time consuming though. Each application needed a divisional leader to confirm this member was valid and request an Admin to enable the account.

The new system using Usergroups allows anyone to sign-up to the forums but they will have limited access to the forums until they join a Usergroup which is controlled by the divisional leader for that usergroup thus bypassing the need for an Admin to approve the application and hopefully speed up the registration process.

With users now in Usergroups I'll be assigning certain permissions to each group to allow extra abilities like Polls to be created. Before I needed to do this individually and it was a hassle.

Post any problems with access issues in this thread.

We've tried adding everyone to at least one group so you should be able to browse the forums as normal but many people will feel they should be in two groups.
I've updated the Info :: Joining The TNGC thread with these changes that also explains how to join a Usergroup.

[Firejack]

Following Darks Petition I've also made these changes....

Free Chat Returns! Replacing "Off-Topic".

Some others changes..... The low traffic forums "Computer Tech" and "Hardware and Modding" have been merged into "Computers and the Internet" with "News and Events" being deleted (no one visited it).

The "Machine Shop" category has been replaced by "Off-topic" that includes "Free Chat" and "Computers and the Internet".