Forums Update: We’re Back on bbPress!

Hey everyone!

If you’ve noticed a few quick changes around the site over the past couple of days, you’re not seeing things—our forums have officially transitioned back to bbPress.

I wanted to give you a quick update on why we made the switch and what it means for the community moving forward.

Why the Switch?

Recently, I experimented with Jetonomy as a potential new framework for our discussions. On paper, it seemed like a solid choice, but in practice, it ended up causing site crashes and stability issues. You couldn’t even access the discussion forums anymore – and worse, you would earn no points for participating there!

When it comes to our community, stability and uptime come first. Rather than constantly troubleshooting a buggy plugin, I decided to revert back to bbPress. It’s lightweight, rock-solid, and integrates seamlessly with our setup. Plus, when I brought it back, all of our previous structure was right where we left it—making the recovery quick and clean. I just had minor adjustments to make and now the forums are ready for you once again!

What’s New in the Forum Layout?

I took this opportunity to clean up the taxonomy so the community is much easier to navigate:

• Arts and Artists forum: This is where you’ll now find the Books and Writing forum! Writing—especially fiction and world-building—is a pure creative art form, and it belongs right alongside our other creative crafts.
• Technology forum: Home to system-level and software discussions, including a dedicated spot for Linux. We also have forums for Apple lovers and smartphones – so if you need help with either of those, you know where to look!
• Food & Restaurants: Located in its own forum to cover everything from local dining and recipes to general food culture.
• General Discussions & Public Feedback: We have an General Feedback forum open to everyone for site-wide suggestions, as well as a dedicated The Lounge forum for topics that don’t fit into a specific category – but certain topics are covered for members only so if you aren’t certain, please ask me first before you post (or staff members in the future). I’d rather answer a thousand questions then have to issue a thousand strikes on various accounts – three of those and your account is banned!
• A dedicated Introductions forum: You now have a place to introduce yourself to the community here – please be sure to do that when you join us!
• Members-Only Feedback: A private area set up specifically for our members to provide feedback and bug reports on the Beta Modpack Feedback forum as well as topics that I feel should be restricted to our members.
• Signatures added: You can now add a signature to your posts – as long as it follows the rules! If you want to add a link to your signature, keep it classy or risk having it removed and your account hit with a strike!
• Marketplace removed: Unfortunately, I had to remove the Marketplace from the forums. I feel that it will not work with bbPress, so it will not be returning. I may consider adding it to the site in the future as it’s own dedicated space, so stay tuned for future site announcements (and consider subscribing)!
• Earn points for participating: You can now earn points towards the annual points race by posting in the forums and replying to others posts. There are limits to prevent abuse, but now forum participation is just another way to grow your total!

Community Rules Updated

I’ve also posted a clean set of updated community standards to keep the forums safe, fun, and constructive for everyone. Make sure to check out The Rules of the Community when you get a chance! (Quick tip: If you need to hide a plot twist or a punchline in a post, please use [spoiler] tags rather than invisible text!)

Thank you all for your patience while I smoothed out these technical bumps behind the scenes. Everything is back up, running fast, and ready for your posts!

Jump into the new boards, introduce yourself if you’re new, and let me know what you think!