You’ve got a problem or a question, and chances are, the answer you are looking for is listed in the FAQ below. If it’s not, then you can send an email for help at the bottom of this post.
I tried to log in with the same account I had on the old MEPBM Forums, but the password isn’t working. What do I do?
When we migrated the user accounts and posts from the old MEPBM Forums, we did not migrate the passwords for security reasons. You will need to assign a new password here.
You will need to reset your password to login with your old account here. This will send a temporary password to the email address we have on file for your account (please check your Junk folder as it might be marked as SPAM). If you no longer have access to the email address associated with your old Forums account, you have two options:
- Create a new account.
- If you want to keep using the historical account you had on the old MEPBM Forums, you will need to to contact MEPBM Forums Support and provide some proof of your ownership of that account. Access to your old MEPBM Forums account will associate the Forums posting history to your account.
I registered for an account but I never received the confirmation email to activate my account. What do I do now?
We have done everything we can possibly do to avoid Forums emails getting marked as SPAM. We’ve even added SPF entries into our DNS records. Ultimately, whether an email gets marked as SPAM is entirely dependent upon your email provider. We’ve done what we can, but if you still aren’t seeing the email, odds are likely that it’s sitting in your Junk folder. Please look there, and ideally mark it as not Junk/SPAM to help reduce the chances of this problem in the future. If you still don’t see an email, please contact MEPBM Forums Support.
How do I quote a post or part of a post in my reply?
You have two options:
- With your mouse or finger (if you using a mobile device), select the text-on screen that you want to quote in your reply. A grey Quote button will appear next to the selected text. Click or tap that Quote button, and it will insert the selected text into the compose window.
- Click the Reply button to compose a response. In the row of icons shown in the Reply window, click the left-most icon that looks like a speech bubble. It will quote the entire post you replied to.
Can I use the MEPBM Forums from a mobile phone?
Yes, you have two options:
- Visit this site from your mobile phone web browser.
- Dowload the the Discourse app for iOS (iPhone & iPad) or Android. You will need to enter forums.mepbm.com as the forums address from the mobile app.
How do I customize my account on the Forums?
Click (or tap) the circular user icon in the upper-right corner of the page, and then select your username, and then select Preferences with the gear icon.
Can I send a private message to another user on the MEPBM Forums?
Yes. Click (or tap) the circular user icon in the upper-right corner of the page, and then select your username, and then select Messages with the envelope icon.
There are bunch of new buttons in the Forums user interface and I don’t know what they mean. Can you help?
Yes. Push the button and see what it does. I’m serious.
Is there an easy way to jump between posts in a thread?
Yes. You can use the J and K buttons on your keyboard to move between individual messages in a thread. This is useful in a long thread with many messages.
Where aren’t there any sub-forums? Why is this one long lists of posts?
There are two answers to this question:
- There is not enough activity here to warrant sub-forums. The MEPBM Forums only get a few posts per week (it would be great to see an increase in Forums usage). If we added sub-forums, the the Forums would feel empty.
- The way that people use social services online has changed over the years. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all use a (mostly) chronological stream of content and the new Forums uses this pattern by thread. Newer posts are listed at the top.
When you post a new thread, you can assign a category, which is essentially a tag. You can also view posts by categories, if you prefer, which is similar to having sub-forums.
What happened to all of The Library content that used to be hosted on the old MEPBM Forums?
It was migrated to MEPBM Wiki.
What software is being used for the MEPBM Forums?
Discourse hosted on Digital Ocean. Mail service is being provided by Mailgun. DNS service is being provided by EasyDNS. So far, we are quite pleased with this combination of online services.
Why did you pick Discourse?
-
Most of the Forums software out there is getting close to 20 years old and has a lot of technology baggage from a pre-smartphone, pre-responsive web era. Discourse was first released in 2013, and it has a much more modern technology architecture and design framework from its inception.
-
Discourse is open-source, which means it’s not dependent upon some company which may or may not go out of business or change direction someday. Discourse has a long-term roadmap of ongoing feature development and an active community to support it. The Discourse open source development community is quite large and the project team has regular releases with new features. We intend to keep the MEPBM Forums up-to-date with the least versions as they are released.
-
Discourse has a nice mobile web interface for use from a smartphone, and also has mobile apps for iOS and Android you can use, as well (see the links above in this FAQ to download the mobile apps).
-
Discourse included the ability to migrate content from vBulletin, the software used for the old mepbm.com Forums. This meant that we were able migrate all of the historical posts and user accounts over to the new Forums.
-
Discourse allows you to sign in with an existing account, such as Google or Facebook, if you don’t want to manage yet another account username and password that you may lose track of. You can still create a unique account, of course.
If you’re interested in learning more about Discourse, you can check out their web site @ https://www.discourse.org.
Who administers the MEPBM Forums?
Currently, it’s Raven Zachary (MEPBM Forums username ravenzachary), as a player-volunteer effort. Clint Oldridge and John Davis from Middle-earth Games also have administrative access to the Forums.
Who pays for the MEPBM Forums and how much does it cost to operate?
Currently, it’s Raven Zachary (MEPBM Forums username ravenzachary), as a player-volunteer effort. The monthly hosting cost for the MEPBM Forums is currently between $6-7 USD per month. If you would like to help cover the costs to operate this website, you can send money to Raven via PayPal (or, if you prefer, ask Middle-earth Games to add a turn or two to Raven’s account 111044 from your account balance). 100% of all money donated will be allocated to actual out-of-pocket site costs, not people time. Everyone who donates will be listed here with a thank you! 
What are the origins of the MEPBM Forums?
The MEPBM Forums were launched in 2003 by Darrell Swoap, an MEPBM player. In September 2019, the MEPBM Forums were migrated from the vBulletin software used by Darrell Swoap to Discourse, now administrered by MEPBM player Raven Zachary. Thank you to Darrell for sixteen years of volunteer dedication!
I don’t like the new Forums! Can we go back to the old Forums?
No. Change can be difficult. The new Forums look different and things you’ve been used to doing a certain way here for the past 15+ years have changed. There will be a small learning curve. Familiarity and comfort will come through using the new Forums. Once you spend more time using the new Forums, I’m fairly certain that you will find them to be easier to use and a lot less cluttered. There’s also some nice new features like the mobile apps and email notifications for posts that you are interested in following.
I have read this FAQ and my question is still not answered. How do I get help?
You have two options:
- Post a message on the New Forums Questions & Feedback topic.
- Email MEPBM Forums Support.
We will add additional information to this FAQ based on user feedback.