Check the box that says "keep me logged in" when you sign in. Just be sure to log off when you're actually done though...don't want any "my roommate posted using my screenname" debacles!!!! ;)

This issue may have been triggered by a forum software upgrade that was installed a few weeks ago. Probably some change by the software developers which affects the web browser cookie in some way. It's also possible that your browser cookies had some sort of file corruption which along with the change in the software upgrade may have caused the problem.

Possible solutions:

1. Are you checking the "remember me" option when logging in? (Note: As TBA85 mentioned in the previous post, be sure to logout if you're using the "remember me" option on a computer that you do not actually want to remain logged in on.) The forum will automatically log you out after 15 minutes of inactivity if you logged on to GC without selecting the "remember me" option.

2. Try logging out then log on to GC again. Use the logout link which is near the top right corner of pages in the nav bar. Using the logout link will (should) delete your web browser cookie for GC. When you login again your browser cookie should be refreshed. Sometimes the logout link doesn't work for deleting browser cookies, which would probably be due to a corrupted cookie file. If this doesn't work, try the next possible solution.

3. Clearing your browser cookies. You do this from within your web browser software, usually within the Tools menu (depending on the browser software that you use). In Internet Exploerer 8 you do this via Tools > Internet Options > General (tab) & click delete under the browsing history section. In Firefox it's Tools > Clear Recent History. Doing this will clear all of your browser cookies, for GC and other sites.

It is possible to delete just the GC cookie file instead of all. If you want to go that route let me know what browser software you use along with the version # and I'll get the details for you. Easier than doing this, would be to go on to the next option...

4. Install a different web browser software program and try using GC from that. If it works without issue then the problem is more than likely related to the cookie file in the other browser software. Some browsers to consider using: Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer

* If you still have this issue even after testing with a different browser program, let me know and I'll see if I can figure out what else it might be.

Site speed / server capacity is the main reason why GC doesn't have avatars. Avatars will eventually be enabled once I have things setup so that they have minimal impact on the site/server. Anyone who wouldn't want to view avatars will be able to turn them off via an option in the account control panel.

That is possible and is something I would like to enable, but it's turned off for the same reason avatars haven't been enabled. Eventually GC will have the option to post images directly and also member photo albums as well, just don't want to bite off more than I can chew at the moment as enabling these features now would very likely result in GC slowing to a crawl.

It's slow this morning. I mean, like really slow. It took forever just to load the emoticons. And it still says "36 items remaining."