phpBB Weekly

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Welcome back! After about six hours of downtime (and about two additional days of work beforehand), the renovated phpBB Weekly website is now online!

Those of you who have been around awhile will remember that around this time last year we launched the new version of our website (the one with the cool translucency stuff and the Mars background); well, we’re still using the same theme as we did then. However, last August, we went through a major transition as we stopped using TalkShoe and started using uStream to do our live episodes. Though we made a few changes then, our website hadn’t been completely optimized to replace all of the functionality that we lost when we stopped using TalkShoe. Today’s renovation finishes up the job–although the design remains the same, most of our website has seen some significant changes and improvements.
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Episode Duration: 1:21:27
On This Episode: Douglas Bell (Fountain of Apples), David Lewis (Highway of Life), Francis Lewis (Handyman), Micheal Cottingham (Techie-Micheal), Paul Sohier (Paul), Phil Crumm (iWisdom), Erik Frerejean (erikfrerejean), Tom Beddard (subBlue), Douglas’ Dormitory Floormates, Adam Reyher (AdamR), Cullen Walsh (Brainy), OSCONvasion Attendees, and Lorelle VanFossen

Happy Boxing Day! That’s right, it’s Douglas’ second-favorite obscure holiday of the year (behind only Groundhog Day), underscored by the fact that it’s not even an American holiday. But that isn’t stopping us from taking a well-deserved post-Christmas break, this week. So on our third annual clip-show episode, phpBB Weekly closes out the year 2009 by taking a look back at some of our favorite moments from the forty episodes that we recorded this past year. This year saw a lot of transition for all of us here at phpBB Weekly: David and Francis moved on from the MOD Team and had to leave phpBB for a few months, and Douglas moved on to life at university for the first time. phpBB Weekly also got its swanky new website and logo and finally departed from TalkShoe as it transitioned to using uStream. We’ve accomplished a lot this year, and are looking forward to accomplishing much more as we move into the next decade.

The following clips are featured in this Best Of episode (the time in parentheses indicates the timestamp in the episode where the clip begins; these are also marked with chapters in the Enhanced AAC version):

• Episode #107: The Front Fell Off! (1:09)
• Episode #109: Hell Froze Over — Quick Reply Is Here (7:00)
• Episode #112: USBWine and phpBB Coffee Maker (17:05)
• Episode #118: Interview with Tom Beddard (21:28)
• Episode #102: BBGourmet — Cooking for Your Community (32:45)
• Episode #123: Surprise Happy Birthday (39:40)
• Episode #109: Do You Know the Way to San Jose? (41:52)
• Episode #115: Live from OSCONvasion 2009 (43:52)
• Episode #098: Singles Awareness Day, To Micheal With Love (1:02:01)
• Episode #112: Paamayim Nekudotayim (1:04:52)
• Episode #119: Interview with Lorelle VanFossen (1:09:04)
• Wrap-Up (1:20:08)
• Episode #107: “The Front Fell Off” Montage (1:20:51)

We would have liked to include some clips from these episodes as well, but did not in order to keep this episode within a reasonable amount of time (and shorter than last year’s). Nevertheless, you may be interested in checking out these other “runner-up” episodes:

• Episode #094: Fun Episode with the “Spokane Clan”
• Episode #097: Critical Episode Covering phpBB.com Outage and Cracked CAPTCHA (Jan/Feb ’09)
• Episode #111: Interview with John Wells of WP-United
• Episode #122: 3.0.6 Feature Reading Competition
• Episode #124: CAPTCHA Plugins and Trademark Fun
• Episode #125: Interview with Bernard Meldonado of Solona
• Episode #126: Micheal on His “Webapp Breakage” Video
• Episode #128: “Spam Can Ruin Your Minute” — Looking Back at Santy
• Episode #130: Interesting Discussions with Jeff Chandler of WordPress Weekly

Our 2010 season kicks off on Saturday, January 2, live yet again on uStream at 1:00 PM EST/1800 UTC! We hope you’ll plan to join us! Have a Happy New Year and a Happy New Decade!

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Episode Duration: 1:50:24
On This Episode: Douglas Bell (Fountain of Apples) and David Lewis (Highway of Life)

It’s almost the end of 2009 and our third season of phpBB Weekly, which means it’s time yet again for our annual Year in Review episode. And we succeeded in making this year’s Year in Review episode shorter than last year’s! (By three minutes.) We recap the most significant announcements of 2009, including the end of life of phpBB2, the phpBB.com downtime/cracked CAPTCHA that we covered in episode #097, the preview of phpBB 3.0.6 and 3.0.6′s release, the significant phpBB development changes, and much more. (Download the Enhanced Podcast version which marks each item we discussed and includes embedded links.)

We also gave a shout-out to OSUOSL’s Give $6 for 6 campaign, along with a reminder that phpBB Weekly is also happy to accept donations. David also pointed out that phpBB4 now has a discussion forum and a new code-name: Rhea. So if you’ve got any ideas or suggestions for the next major rewrite of phpBB, looks like the floodgates for suggestions are wide open. Douglas also mentions that his phpBB “Monumental” Meetup in Washington, DC will be happening in March 2010, if you’re going to be in the area.

Finally, Douglas takes a look back at the predictions he made for 2009 in last year’s Year in Review episode to see how well he did, makes some conclusions about how 2009 affected phpBB, and then he and David make a number of predictions for 2010. We’re definitely going to have a big year next year…

There is no MOD or Style of the Week this week. Be sure to have a fabulous holiday season and a happy new year! There will be no episode on Boxing Day (December 26), but that day is the planned release date for our Best of 2009 clipshow. Be sure to join us live on Saturday, January 2 as we celebrate our third anniversary and kick off our fourth season of phpBB Weekly!

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Episode Duration: 1:27:42
On This Episode: Douglas Bell (Fountain of Apples) and David Lewis (Highway of Life)

Our penultimate episode of 2009 was also Douglas’ last episode of 2009 coming from Washington, DC. David and Douglas actually spent a lot of time at the beginning comparing notes about finals, the weather, Christmas trees, etc. Douglas also offered an early review of Google Chrome for Mac, and placates the many demands from everyone in the #startrekguide IRC channel who wanted it mentioned that SyntaxError90 is the newest member of the MOD team.

Our main topic of discussion on this episode takes a look at a question posed this week in the phpBB Discussion forum asking if phpBB is falling behind, to which we share our thoughts. We also take a look at some early (and unconfirmed) details about phpBB4 that appeared on the phpBB Development Wiki and discuss what they would mean for the potential long-term future of phpBB.

Finally, we recognize the winners of the 2009 phpBBHacks.com Awards, including the MOD and Style winners, which are our MOD and Style of the Week. The MOD of the Week is Censor Block by Thoul, and the Style of the Week is 1impression by gokin.

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Episode Duration: 1:14:54
On This Episode: Douglas Bell (Fountain of Apples), David Lewis (Highway of Life), and Jeff Chandler (Jeffro)

Again, apologies for the late release of this one, but I had final exams this past week! There are also no chapter markers in the AAC version this week in order to try to get this out sooner.

We’re fresh back from Thanksgiving Break and heading into the home stretch of 2009 in this hastily-prepared episode of phpBB Weekly. We’re joined on this episode by our friend Jeff Chandler of the WordPress Weekly podcast (they’re still on TalkShoe!). We have a discussion with him about the phpBB.com MODs Database and the MOD validation process, and consider the merits of WordPress adopting such a strategy for its plugin repository.

Then both David and Douglas share some top ten lists this week: Douglas channels David Letterman in 2008′s Top Ten Least Popular Holiday Songs. David offers a more serious note: the top ten things NOT to do as a forum administrator.

The MOD of the Week is mChat New Version by stokerpiller, and the Style of the Week is Christmas Dream – Style 1 by DaVidU.