Hmmm but if that was the case then it should have fixed when I tested out commenting out all of the htmlspecialchars lines in the file.
Indeed, I just made that recommended change and the problem is still occurring. I even rebooted the server in case something was stuck somewhere.
I then tried ensuring the client was using UTF-8 by using in the my.ini file -
[client]
default-character-set=utf8
[mysql]
default-character-set=utf8
[mysqld]
collation-server = utf8_unicode_ci
init-connect='SET NAMES utf8'
character-set-server = utf8
When I rebooted, the main forum listing claimed there were no forums. But oddly I could go into my user profile and see everything there, and the sidebars then filled in properly with the forum names and latest post names.
I undid it and rebooted. Everything is back as before.
I would think I want everything utf8 to be in sync. Right now I have it in my HTML header and as the posts table definition. So I wonder if I should take the plunge, make this my.ini file to have those utf8 entries, know it will temporarily hose the forums, and then go page by page through the forum to see where it's causing problems and fixing those issues. I could then report back to you guys where I made the changes, in case other people wanted to move to utf8.
