The first step of the migration of this Message Board from phpBB version 2 to version 3 has completed today. Over the next weeks we will implement several more additional modules/enhancements to the basic software.
First a small warning about this upgrade; during the process early this morning something went not completely as planned and we had to use last nights backup for the migration instead of the 'live data'; this means that any changes (postings, private messages and the like) which were made between 2 AM and 05:30 AM Central European Time have been lost. You are kindly requested to post those again!
For now a short list of changes -apart from the obvious like the layout- and other noteworthy issues;
- By popular request we have (partly) returned to the division between civil and military logs. But the separation between those spotters logs and the more general aviation news will be kept. And while we are at it, more "airfield specific" forums have been created (like Brussel, Ramstein etc).
As a side note; the introduction of several new forums and sub forums (see below) means a lot of previous postings are still in the old, but now incorrect forums. They will be moved as much as possible over the next few days, but be aware they might still be in a place you would not expect. - With this new software we also have introduced so-called "sub forums". For instance the more general spotting forum "Netherlands & Belgium Civil" has three sub forums; Amsterdam - Schiphol, Rotterdam - Zestienhoven and Brussels-Zaventem. Logs, movements and news for those specific airfields can be posted in those dedicated sub forums, just like before. All other posting should go in the general top forum.
- Languages; in this new Message Board only the languages English and Dutch are supported. This means the languages in which your menus etc are displayed, not the languages in which your postings are allowed (although those in general happen to be the same two of course).
Note that during the conversion process all users reverted to the default language of the software (English), so if you prefer Dutch you have to change that again in your profile; click on "User Control Panel" in the top left corner and then click on "Board preferences" where you change your default language setting. - While you are in this User Control Panel, you will notice this is a much more enhanced version of the "Your profile" from the previous version. Apart from your personal settings (ranging from your language to the "type of spotter"), this is now also home for your private messages, all your subscriptions are assembled here (more on that later) and some more goodies which will be mentioned below.
- Please check your Profile though, as some settings (like signature and type of spotter) have not been converted and you have to enter them again.
- With this version of phpBB it is now also possible to save your post (public as well as private messages) as a draft. This means that when you have not finished your post you can temporarily save it and resume at a later moment. You can find them again in your User Control Panel.
- In the previous version you could subscribe yourself to specific threads so you would receive an email as soon as something was posted in this topic. By default this was already done as soon as you posted in that thread yourself. But now it is also possible to subscribe to complete (sub) forums; just click on "Subscribe forum" (just below the "New topic" button in each forum).
- Besides subscriptions you can now also bookmark a specific thread. You will not receive emails with new postings, but -through your User Control Panel- you will at least be able to find them again.
- With private posts you will now be able to add multiple recipients for each message you write. Also you can now create several folders to store your messages in, although a maximum number of messages for each folder is still in place.
- When sending a Private message to another user using the "Priv.Msg." button below a public post, the content of that post will automatically be used for this private post. So no need to to copy-and-paste that yourself anymore.
- Below each post you will now also find a small button with an exclamation mark; by clicking on it you can report this post to the moderation team without the need to send a private message. Note that abuse of this feature will not be tolerated!
One final note for tonight; it may happen that in the migration process not all permissions were set correctly. This can be both ways; not enough permission to do what you were used to do, but also permissions which you obviously should not have... Please do not abuse that, but just notify me as soon as possible!
Kind regards and much fun on this new Message Board!
Hans
Hans for getting up VERY early and spending your whole day on this - plus all the preparations and work that will follow. Thanks! 
