New Forum upgrade!

thehsvdude

Hey everyone,

After years of running on aging and increasingly unsupported software, I’m excited to share that Blue Plastic Tracks has now been fully upgraded to a modern, actively maintained forum platform! 🎉

With over 1,620 members, 66,900 posts, and 5,090 threads, it was time to future-proof our community so it can continue to grow and be enjoyed for years to come.

This upgrade brings:

A cleaner, faster, mobile-friendly interface

Better performance and long-term security

Easier moderation and improved posting tools

Thanks for sticking with us through all the years. This new platform is a fresh start — but all your accounts, posts, and discussions are right where you left them.

Let’s keep the BPT spirit rolling strong. 🚄

– thehsvdude

thehsvdude

I have not forgotten about everyone.

thehsvdude

I have added a day and night mode toggle.

thehsvdude

Emoji picker added

chrisjo

How do I open a thread to show the most recent post. in it?

thehsvdude

chrisjo you can click on the thumb scrollbar on the right side of the screen and click “Now” button at the bottom.

chrisjo

thehsvdude Yes, I saw that, thank you. Do I have to do this every time I open a thread?

Next question, where are my PMs?

thehsvdude

chrisjo Just a quick note: PMs (Private Messages) from the old forum couldn’t be carried over — but don’t worry, there’s a better system now!

We’re using Private Discussions — it works just like DMs, but with a forum-style twist. Think of it like your own private thread between you and one or more users.

✅ To send a private message:
Go to a user’s profile and click “Send a Message” in the dropdown (the little toaster icon 🔔 shown below).

You’ll be taken to a private thread where only the participants can see and reply — super clean, and way easier to manage than the old PM inbox it’ll appear on your main page and you’ll also be emailed with notifications and get notifications on the top of your screen.

If you had important PMs you want help recovering, feel free to message me and I’ll see what I can dig up from the backups.

thehsvdude

Hey everyone,

Good news! As part of our ongoing improvements to the BluePlasticTracks experience, I’ve just rolled out support for legacy forum links — so you can now safely click or share:

Old thread links (like thread-1234.html, showthread.php?tid=1234)

Old forum/category links (like forum-5.html, forumdisplay.php?fid=5)

Even archive-mode URLs (like archive/index.php?thread-4924.html)
…and they’ll now automatically redirect to the correct pages on our new forum platform!

🔗 Example:
If you have an old link like:
https://www.blueplastictracks.org/thread-1234.html
It’ll now automatically take you to:
https://forum.blueplastictracks.org/d/1234

This means:

Old bookmarks still work ✅

External links from Google, Discord, etc. still work ✅

Archive links you stumble on will now redirect properly ✅

If you find a link that doesn’t work, feel free to send it my way — I’ll get it patched up.

Also people accessing old blueplastictracks.com or blueplastictracks.org links will be greeted with Legacy links from original blueplastictracks.com days will also be moving over to here now.
eg https://www.blueplastictracks.com/thread-1234.html

Thanks for being part of the community and helping keep BPT alive and thriving!
– Thehsvdude

chrisjo

thehsvdude

How do I quote a previous post in a reply?

thehsvdude

I should also note that new private discussions can also be filtered to find easier by going to this option and clicking “private discussions” to see only your private discussions.

thehsvdude

chrisjo replying should do the trick? (Edit I get what you mean.)

thehsvdude

chrisjo How do I quote a previous post in a reply?

you must highlight the text you wish to quote

thehsvdude

FYI, I fixed the error in the database and this is now showing correctly

chrisjo

thehsvdude you must highlight the text you wish to quote

Got it, thanks.

chrisjo

[Updates] Forum ChangesðŸ‘Œ

thehsvdude

chrisjo [Updates] Forum ChangesðŸ‘Œ

this is a mojibake issue likely as I recall that being an emoji there.

thehsvdude

legacy private messages carry over see https://forum.blueplastictracks.org/private