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: 1:14:35
On This Episode: Douglas Bell (Fountain of Apples) and David Lewis (Highway of Life)

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David had snow on the brain during this pre-Christmas/holiday episode of phpBB Weekly, though with the ridiculous amount of snow that eastern Washington state has been receiving (as evidenced on David’s webcam), who could blame him. And with free snow giveaways being advertised on the SCOFF News Report, which we couldn’t help but replay during this episode, it’s easy to imagine yourself in the midst of the insanity of the Northwestern Winter Wonderland. Throw in the fact that Douglas has figured out David’s sound effects method and you’re in for one crazy holiday fun-fest.

But this episode wasn’t all fun-and-games. We did review the list of phpBBHacks.com Awards winners and noted their accomplishments. Congrats to all of the winners. Plus, David tells us about UMIL (the Unified MOD Installation Library) which was recently previewed by the MOD Team as a way for MOD authors and MOD installers to automate the process of installing modules and performing other functions necessary to the initial installation of a MOD. David describes what UMIL can do, how it works, and its current and possible future relationship with AutoMOD (the new official name for Blinky).

The MOD of the Week is Guess Timezone 2 by TerraFrost, and the Style of the Week is DirtyBoard2.0 by abble. Additionally, the opening music is Flu Ride – Bob Rivers and the closing music is Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer – Elmo & Patsy.

Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays for all of us at phpBB Weekly. Thank you so much for continuing to listen to our show and making this a worthwhile venture for us. Peace & blessings to your and your family during this season and through the new year.

phpBB Weekly is a proud member of the Tech Podcast Network. Check them out for other great technology podcasts.

But I don’t want to spoil it, so head on over there to check out the winners! I will say that I’m quite satisfied with the results…

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Episode Duration: 1:23:15
On This Episode: Douglas Bell (Fountain of Apples) and David Lewis (Highway of Life)

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We had a lot of things to be happy about on this episode of phpBB Weekly: not only was there a large amount of news for us to cover, but it was the one-year anniversary of the release of phpBB 3.0.0 Gold, which put us in an excited mood (enough to make a few people in the chat room question us about whether or not we were sober).

In a somewhat surprising move, phpBB 3.0.4 was released on Friday, exactly one month after the release of 3.0.3, marking a major shift change as the Development Team begins focusing on making subsequent revisions of phpBB3 less, um, “huge” than 3.0.3 was. We cover the fixes, changes, and the one new feature in-depth, as usual.

David gives a grand welcome to this week’s new team members: two more Support Team members, and one new MOD Team member who was promoted from the Junior Validators Team. David also gives us a bit of an update on how the Junior Validators have been doing and a glimpse of where the idea will be heading.

Earlier this week, Meik (AcydBurn) that PHP 5.2.7 posed a security risk for phpBB2, due to an issue that PHP 5.2.7 caused with “magic_quotes_gpc.” We take a look at this risk in more detail, including why this affected phpBB2 but not phpBB3, and we also discuss why PHP 5.2.7 was retracted in the first place.

Finally, voting in the phpBBHacks.com 2008 Awards is almost over, so we take a look at the MODs/hacks, styles/templates, phpBB boards, and their authors up for the award.

The MOD of the Week is Annual Stars by eviL<3, and the Style of the Week is MG Xmas by Mighty Gorgon.

In honor of one of David’s favorite songs (as we discovered midway through this episode), the closing music is Black Horse and the Cherry Tree — KT Tunstall.

phpBB Weekly is a proud member of the Tech Podcast Network. Check them out for other great technology podcasts.

I am quite embarrassed to point out something that we have consistently neglected to mention on phpBB Weekly for the last few weeks, even though it is quite a significant event happening within the greater phpBB community: the annual phpBBHacks.com Awards. Probably the most-recognized awards in the phpBB community, these awards go out to Hack/MOD Author of the Year, Hack/MOD of the Year, Style/Template Author of the Year, Style/Template of the Year, Support Forums Member of the Year, Staff Member of the Year, and phpBB of the Year.

With the exception of the Support Forums Member and Staff Member competitions, which are specifically within the support forums of phpBBHacks.com, the other awards are significant indicators of some of the best MODs, Styles, and communities out there for phpBB, and award-winners get to have a lot of bragging rights for the next year.

Voting for the awards ends on Sunday, December 14 at 6:00 PM EST (2300 UTC), so don’t miss this chance to vote now! We’ll be discussing the awards as one of our topics this Saturday, but I wanted to make sure that we told you about this more than a few hours ahead of time.