phpBB Weekly

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3 Episode (25 MB)

Episode Duration: 43:55
On This Episode: Douglas Bell (Fountain of Apples)

Following a couple of weeks off, this episode of phpBB Weekly covers all of the big news to come out of phpBB over the month of May.

The MODs and Styles Downloads are back, however we’re still awaiting the ability to submit them to the new databases. Douglas also reviews the new databases, and his overall opinion is that they still need a number of improvements. Then, a confusing announcement by SHS` says that phpBB is dead… long live phpBB!, which really only means that theFinn (James Atkinson), phpBB’s founder, is resigning. However, 2 weeks after a phpBB3 status update from Acyd Burn, the 11-month beta cycle ends and phpBB3 RC-1 is released! But then, phpBB.com brings hot web development jobs via JobCoin, which is nothing more than yet another source of advertising revenue for the teams.

Finally, the MOD of the week is IP Unmasker by TerraFrost, and the style of the week is Aluminiod by sbrunkow.

Well, it was announced this morning that the other shoe dropped. The other phpBB Project Manager Jonathan “SHS`” Stanley, who was originally the Moderator Team Leader and in late 2005 promoted to his current position, has today stepped down. Although theFinn was the one who got phpBB started, Jon was the one who really kept the behind the scenes of phpBB strong. Every time the website or server needed to be rebuilt, SHS` was the one working on it, and he wouldn’t stop until it was done. (dhn mentioned how he spent 14 hour days during the March 2007 server outage.) I’ve seen him on IRC sometimes when he hadn’t slept for 50 hours because of working on the servers! I have no idea how he could do that.

All of the advertising on the site has been made possible by him. Many of the language packs and corrections in phpBB3 have been made possible by him. If it wasn’t for him, Bertie Bear wouldn’t exist (which depending on some people’s opinion may be a good thing or bad thing). And I’ll never forget this little morsel. And, as dhn said, SHS` was responsible for some other plans that we’ll hear about soon…

So goodbye SHS`, and thanks for all you’ve done for phpBB. You really are deserving of that custom rank which says “Kidnapped by Bertie!”

But now, with both of the Project Managers disappearing in the timespan of a month, I’m sure that there might be some people wondering if phpBB is coming to an end. The answer: absolutely not. Don’t compare this to captians leaving a sinking ship because the ship is not sinking. phpBB is an all-volunteer project, and in the case of SHS`, he’s been spending more time on phpBB than a full-time job would require.

phpBB still has 42 energized and excellent team members behind it. The only difference will be in the leadership: all of the decisions on which direction to take phpBB will be made collectively by the 7 team leaders. phpBB is still running strong, and will continue to run strong through the final release of phpBB3 and beyond.

Also, dhn hinted that an announcement saying “A return” would be coming in the next few days, which means that somebody might be coming back. As for who it is, I’m actually placing my bets on psoTFX…

Due to unforseen circumstances I will be unable to host phpBB Weekly #017 tomorrow morning. In addition, there will be no phpBB Weekly on May 19th due to a conflicting event which I will be attending.

I apologize for this inconvenience, and hope to see you on May 26th for the next episode of phpBB Weekly.