Passwords Must Be Reloaded - Act Now

This message was posted on the CEFSG Forum in the event that the passwords need to be manually entered after the new phpBB3 site is activated on Tuesday August 28, 2012. This message will also be important to members that have not been to the site in the days prior to the upgrade of the server software.

One of the quirks of the change from phpBB2 to phpBB3 is the enhancement of the security of the forum.

I have been advised by the "techies" at Register.ca that the "cookies" that have the passwords for all the users will be lost when the new system goes into effect on Tuesday August 28th. This means that all the existing passwords will be erased (lost). I can assure you that is correct, as I have been using the test site as it is being built and my password was gone. All the names and avatars survive, just the passwords disappear.

We are looking at alternatives. For example, Neil is checking with Chuck today to see if there is a file of passwords in the old .COM system that we could use to manually insert the existing passwords - only 1,618 to load! My guess is that will not be an option and they will need to be reset one-by-one.

The process by which I see this will happen is to give each member that is still active a NEW TEMPORARY PASSWORD and then they can go to their USER PROFILE (when the new system is operational) to change it back to their preferred password. I suspect we will not hear from all 1,618 registered members!

To get this process rolling I have set up a separate e-mail account (like we did for the donations) and so you will need to send an e-mail to:
password@cefresearch.ca

Please put your forum USER NAME in the SUBJECT LINE -

and include in that e-mail only the following: (using mine as an example)

1. Your real name: Richard Laughton
2. Your user name: rlaughton
3. Your temporary password: a1b2c3 (6 letters or numbers in any order)

The temporary password will then be entered into the new system and you will then have access and can go back and change what you want. I thought about giving everyone the same temporary password but that would mean anyone reading this forum could get into your account - not a good idea! As you can imagine, it is going to take some time to enter this information if they all come at once, so we might as well plan ahead.

You can start sending in your information at any time and we will hold it until Tuesday - or whenever we have access to get this done.