Important changes coming December 1 -- Please read

[JohnCh]

Given the criticality, I'm placing this as a sticky post in the General forum for the time being to maximize visibility. The migration to Invision Community V5 is scheduled to begin shortly after midnight PST on December 1. The forum will be offline for approximately one day while the upgrade is completed.

 

This is a major platform upgrade, not a routine update. Think Windows 10 vs. Windows 8 or iOS 26 vs. iOS 25. Invision used this release to make significant changes to its underlying codebase, which means some aspects of the forum experience have changed.

 

What You Need to Know

 

• You will now log in using your email address, not your username.

Beginning December 1, the forum will require the email address associated with your account for sign-in. This change improves security because usernames are publicly visible, while email addresses are not.

Please verify that your email address is current and update it if necessary: https://usa7s.net/ips/settings/ Failure to do so could leave you unable to access your account.

 

• The editor has changed.

The editor toolbar is no longer customizable by the Admin, so some functions have moved or are now located within submenus. For example, to create a bulleted list, click the + icon and select Bulleted List from the menu that appears beneath.

The Preview feature has also been removed. Invision's rationale is that the editor now functions as a live preview, with formatting changes such as bold, italics, and color displayed immediately as you type.

 

• Forum view is now permanently expanded.

The Expand/Condense toggle remains available in the Activity Feed, but it has been removed from the Forums view. Thread listings will now always display a brief snippet of the opening post beneath the title.  RESOLVED

 

• Unread Content has moved.

The Unread Content link is now located in the top navigation bar, next to the Reported Content icon on the far right.

 

• Club Membership has been renamed.

The navigation item formerly labeled Club Membership is now called Support USA7s. Club Membership remains available as a submenu under that heading.

 

• The home page has been redesigned.

The layout has been updated to address usability issues present on mobile devices.

 

Final Notes

I've worked to keep the overall look and feel of the forum as close to the current version as possible. However, some differences were unavoidable because of changes introduced by Invision.

After the migration is complete, please report any problems, bugs, or unexpected behavior in this thread so I can investigate and address them.

 

Edited Monday at 02:26 PM by JohnCh
Marked Expanded Forum issue as resolved

[Timothy Keith-Lucas]

Thank you for all your hard work to the benefit of all of us.

[pethier]

On 11/6/2026 at 1:35 PM, Timothy Keith-Lucas said:

Thank you for all your hard work to the benefit of all of us.

Sam ting.

[32eachtime]

Very difficult to understand what to do!

[JohnCh]

The expanded forum issue identified in my initial post has been fixed in testing. The list of topics in each forum will now appear condensed by default as it does today. To (hopefully) avoid confusion, I've struck through that item in my initial post and marked it as resolved.

[JohnCh]

13 hours ago, 32eachtime said:

Very difficult to understand what to do!

@32eachtime I'm not sure if this is sarcasm without an emoji, or if you really do have a question. Please clarify.

 

Thanks,

John

[32eachtime]

6 hours ago, JohnCh said:

@32eachtime I'm not sure if this is sarcasm without an emoji, or if you really do have a question. Please clarify.

 

Thanks,

John

No sarcasm. I simply do not understand all the technical details. I certainly can’t be the only member who just wants to know what is the next step for each of us…in layman terms.

Thanks for your help.

[anduril3019]

@32eachtime

Summary:

Think of it as a courteous heads-up. There will be some minor reorganizing, minor visual changes, and minor editing changes which should be pretty intuitive if you are posting or commenting, all accompanied by some major background upgrades that you won't see but should appreciate.

 

In terms of what to "do," only this:

 

 

Quote

 

• You will now log in using your email address, not your username.

Beginning December 1, the forum will require the email address associated with your account for sign-in. This change improves security because usernames are publicly visible, while email addresses are not.

Please verify that your email address is current and update it if necessary: https://usa7s.net/ips/settings/ Failure to do so could leave you unable to access your account.

 

 

[JohnCh]

The only step you have is the following, which was also the primary message on the alert you should have seen when you logged in:

 

On 11/6/2026 at 7:16 AM, JohnCh said:

• You will now log in using your email address, not your username.

Beginning December 1, the forum will require the email address associated with your account for sign-in. This change improves security because usernames are publicly visible, while email addresses are not.

Please verify that your email address is current and update it if necessary: https://usa7s.net/ips/settings/ Failure to do so could leave you unable to access your account.

 

If that is confusing, click the link provided, then look at the email address which appears in the middle of that page. If it is your current email address, then you're good. That is the email address you will use to sign in and also is where you receive notification emails. If it's an old email address, then click "change" to the right and update it on the next page. The rest of the information was to apprise you of things that will look or operate slightly differently than they do today. This way when you visit the site after the update, you won't be surprised and incorrectly think there is an issue.

[32eachtime]

2 minutes ago, anduril3019 said:

@32eachtime

Summary:

Think of it as a courteous heads-up. There will be some minor reorganizing, minor visual changes, and minor editing changes which should be pretty intuitive if you are posting or commenting, all accompanied by some major background upgrades that you won't see but should appreciate.

 

In terms of what to "do," only this:

 

 

 

Kool. Thank you.

[IamScotticus]

damn hackers 

I hope the BADH emoji stays 

[mrmustang]

Thank you John, I personally know the pain you will soon be going through 

 

 

Bill S.