thanks xenon
i just tested this in phpmyadmin and it works fine, however in the project_bit template
HTML Code:
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
<tr>
<td class="tcat">
project <a href="index.php?projectid=$projectid" class="projectid">$projectid</a> by confess[username]
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" class="alt1">
$text
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="thead" align="right">
<smallfont><strong>$report $adminoptions $num_rates votes</strong></smallfont>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
it refuses to echo out.