@chrisw I found the problem... human error lol. Thanks for your time though, really appreciate it! 

Thank you, its a work in progress! :-)

@gambino .. yes, the tips we all share here will help someone else down the road.  I really like wpForo and the community here actually try and help each other.  I have been helped by old posts here, too, when I was starting out my forum.   :-) 

Thank you, its a work in progress! :-)

Its frustrating as iv noticed someone else had a similar issue, (1) however removing the plugin worked for them, but i delete the plugin 2 days ago and still have the issue. 

wpforo has been freshly uninstalled: still no luck.
Deactivated each plugin 1 by 1, and cleared cache each time: still no luck.

........ Next? lol

You're welcome, @gambino :-) 

NICE WEBSITE!  :-) 

(1) Have you tried looking into your plugin files from the "backend" - like via FTP?  Some "not so nice" plugins (that usually cause the most damage to WP sites!) do not clean up after themselves.  So even if we "deactivate" and then "delete" the plugin from  the Wordpress Dashboard, well, "delete" is a misnomer, "delete" actually just makes it "invisible".   "Erase" is what you would want, or "purge"!  :-) 

Here's how to check, if that problematic plug-in just made itself "invisible".  

Use FTP (Filezilla is a good one I use)

Then go to your public_html folder

then drill down to: 

/public_html

/wp-content

/plugins

/problematic-plugin

Then, if you find the "problematic-plugin folder" still there, once you check in the back end, then you can delete or erase that folder.  

Then refresh and check your Front End Forum again.  :-) 

Case closed lol... thanks for the effort anyway... many hours lost adding and removing!!!

"kicking myself"

FYI here is a test post you can see.. 

All toolbar icons are gone.

https://skywatchersclub.com/hangouts/main-forum/test/

Okay, I'll take a look.  :-) 

All toolbar icons are gone.

https://skywatchersclub.com/hangouts/main-forum/test/

wpforo has been freshly uninstalled: still no luck.
Deactivated each plugin 1 by 1, and cleared cache each time: still no luck.

........ Next? lol

1) Try to "deactivate" plugins, one at a time.

Go to : WP Dashboard > Plugins > Installed Plugins > Active Plugins

2) Each time, you disable, go to the Front End of your Forum and refresh the page (Control F5).

You can also try to "temporarily switch themes" by going to your Forums Page first, then select the

Go to : WP Dashboard > Appearance > Customize

"Customize Button", and then under "themes" select a basic Wordpress theme like "twenty-nineteen" and then you can see the changes to the Forum Page WITHOUT HAVING TO activate the theme, if you are just wanting to "rule out" which is causing your Forum to behave that way. 

In my own testing, it's usually either plugins, or the WP themes that's causing the issues. 

If all else fails, sometimes reinstalling the wpForo all over again is faster, especially if the forum is still on "testing mode".     Reading up on the documentation also helps customize it.  

https://wpforo.com/documentation/

Good luck and God bless you! :-) 

My editor for commenting on topics has gone weird. I have lost all features and they have been replaced with some weird black boxes. The last plugin i remember adding was "Email Templates" it has been removed before i noticed the change, im not sure if that plugin has effected anything, but i cannot seem to get it back to normal.. please help!!

Screenshot of what i have: