I have recently upgraded the forum software to the latest and most secure version available.


Most of the benefits are administrative ones, making it more future-proof.


The code is cleaned-up, hacking attempts made by earlier admins have been removed. And the template is now table-less, relying on CSS to give it its more post-modern appearance.


Users may find the new "Info Center" more useful, with Recent Topics instead of Recent Posts being displayed. In your Forum Profile, you will now find a set of options, including the ability to enter your "Scuba Certification".


But there was one very disconcerting issue I discovered while upgrading. It was the fantastic administrative negligence... and the solution I was forced to implement to correct it.


In the period of late 2008 till October 2010 when I took over the admin duties, the admin of MUW was faced with a deluge of spammers attempting to create accounts and posting spam links. There would have been dozens of attempts every single day.


But the admin's attempt to rectify it was extremely disturbing. He made new registrations allowable only on "admin-approval". His approvals came rarely and inconsistently. That meant that hundreds of legitimate scuba divers did not get their accounts approved. Or approved too late.


This damaged the MUW brand very badly. Enthusiastic new registrants would have been disappointed, turned away from the forum.


And these accounts were to left to me to clean up. I had to delete about 400 real scuba divers from MUW. They tried to register but were not allowed to log in until days or weeks later. So they stopped trying.


Which is why the forum registry has dropped under 3000, from a high of 4000 (a lot of spammer accounts still made it into the database).


This will not happen again. I have cleaned up the database. And future admins who come after me will now have an easier time of managing the forum.