Would it work with the following?

// If we were given a correct icon
        if (
                (isloggedin()) &&
                ($user) &&
                ($user->canEdit())
            ) {

// here begins the image orientation correction

$exif = exif_read_data('profileicon', 'IFDO', true);
$orientation = $exif['IFD0']['Orientation'];;
if($orientation != 0) {
      $image = imagecreatefromstring(file_get_contents('profileicon'));
      switch($orientation) {
           case 8:
              $image = imagerotate($image,90,0);
              break;
          case 3:
             $image = imagerotate($image,180,0);
             break;
          case 6:
             $image = imagerotate($image,-90,0);
             break;
       }
       imagejpeg($image, 'profileicon');
}

// rest of the original code

$topbar = get_resized_image_from_uploaded_file('profileicon',16,16, true, true);

All,

Ive ported the code mentioned above from the engine/lib/filestore.php from 1.8 into 1.7. (not hard at all)

If you need the code just message me. I would paste it here but I was told not to paste long code here so I wont. Thanks everyone for your help.

The best place to post code is a service like gists.github.com. We have no problems sharing code, but long bits of code are very hard to read when posted here, so we encourage people to post as a gist or similar.

There are no ready to use plugins available for this.

If you want to remove the comments system through out the site, override the views/default/forms/comments/add.php file in your theme with no input fields to post the comments. If you dont want to remove it through out the site, you have to use a conditional code after listening to the context.

Peterm,

I had the same problem on 1.7.1, took a me some time to figure out.

The solution is right in the manual:

4. Once having finished the Vanilla installation, do *not* click on the "Go sign in and have some fun!" link on the final install page.

Try re-installing the vanilla forum from scratch and do not click this link on the last page. The river will start working properly.