diff --git a/components/motd.php b/components/motd.php
index ec1871b5029f39fc0048cc6e2b309371d5e69b27..11ac8d1c12a38266ab3e810c9805ad2dfdc5b426 100644
--- a/components/motd.php
+++ b/components/motd.php
@@ -78,6 +78,6 @@ $motd .= "---------------------------- [ http://sucs.org/ ] --------------------
 //if (time()-filemtime($motd_file) < 86000  && $poemmode == 1) { //86000 to allow a little slack depending on when cron runs
     // print "MOTD too recent to replace with a poem!\n";
 //} else {
-    file_put_contents($motd_file, utf8_encode($motd));
+    file_put_contents($motd_file, $motd);
 //}
 ?>
diff --git a/components/motd_wrapper.php b/components/motd_wrapper.php
index dfd94228b1ae7492c25fd739b74821813cb40838..b6f274d21e9721c71cb0f45e17b9044c5a650fe3 100644
--- a/components/motd_wrapper.php
+++ b/components/motd_wrapper.php
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ $dbuser = 'apache';
 
 $DB = NewADOConnection('postgres8');
 $DB->Connect('dbname='.$dbname.' user='.$dbuser);
+$DB->SetCharSet('utf8');
 $DB->SetFetchMode(ADODB_FETCH_ASSOC);
 
 include($base."components/motd.php");
diff --git a/templates/forumposts.tpl b/templates/forumposts.tpl
index 270ca768c44e444599a8b1424e7a03e0949f0e35..ae64acd7d13d2cd927c69f87fc5fd7ab2fbd8686 100644
--- a/templates/forumposts.tpl
+++ b/templates/forumposts.tpl
@@ -2,7 +2,10 @@
 <div class="cbb">
 
 <h3>Recent Forum posts</h3>
-
+<p>Looking for something?</p>
+<p>We are looking to remove the forum component of the site</p>
+<p>If you have an opinion on this change contact: staff@sucs.org</p>
+{*
 <table width="100%" class="border">
 <tr>
 <th>Subject</th>
@@ -15,5 +18,6 @@
 </tr>
 {/foreach}
 </table>
+*}
 </div>
 {/if}
diff --git a/templates/susignup.tpl b/templates/susignup.tpl
index 66b7bfc35a44c1d6cc7e0cff290c14ff2ba3860c..2ebf1a0fb3bcf7e209dc50293363fad17ef7063d 100644
--- a/templates/susignup.tpl
+++ b/templates/susignup.tpl
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
         <div class="boxhead"><h2>Membership Signup</h2></div>
         <div class="boxcontent">
 
-           <p>Please enter your Transation ID. It can be found by logging into <a href='http://swansea-union.co.uk'>swansea-union.com</a> and selecting purchase history.</p>
+           <p>Please enter your Transation ID. It can be found by logging into <a href='http://www.swansea-union.co.uk/shop/purchasehistory/'>swansea-union.com</a> and selecting purchase history.</p>
 
             <div class="row">
                 <label for="sid">Student Number:</label>
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
                 <input type="submit" name="submit" value="Join" /></span>
             </div>
             <div class="clear"></div>
-            <div class="note">If you wish to renew an existing account instead, please login to <a href="https://sucs.org/Options">Membership Options</a> using your existing account details.</div>
+            <div class="note">If you already have an account and wish to renew, simply buy an additional years membership from the <a href='http://www.swansea-union.co.uk/mysociety/sucs/'>SUSU website</a>. Enter the details above and click "Join"</div>
         </div>
         <div class="hollowfoot"><div><div></div></div></div>
     </div>