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On this episode, we’re joined by Jeff (JKThinking), co-host of the phpBBireland Podcast, which just launched back in March. Their podcast covers the phpBBireland website, the developers of the Stargate Portal for phpBB3 (no, it’s actually not an Irish phpBB support site). In addition to learning a bit more about the phpBBireland podcast, we also chat with Jeff about the Stargate Portal and have a good discussion about the purpose of portals for phpBB and when they are and are not useful for discussion forums.

Afterwards, David talks a bit about Bertie’s sojourn to Berlin at the LinuxTag Convention. Next week, David will chat with the phpBB team members who were at LinuxTag.

The MOD of the Week is FAQ Manager for phpBB3 by EXreaction, and the Style of the Week is SkyBlue for phpBB3 by Alex.

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

Hello phpBB Weekly listeners,

Those of you who have seen our TalkShoe page recently have noticed that we have a very exciting month of May planned (as far as phpBB Weekly episodes are concerned), and so I thought I’d take the opportunity to sum up what’s on the agenda for the next few weeks.

First of all, as you’ve noticed, there will be no episode on Saturday, May 3rd. The reason for this is partially because Douglas is out of town, and also because he has been (and continues to be) busy prepping for AP exams at school, and this will neither give him the opportunity to be at an episode of phpBB Weekly nor to be able to edit it, so we’re just going to give him the week off. (Actually, he’s already out of town–this post was scheduled a week ago!)

Patrick O’Keefe (who was on episode #050 on February 9th) will be joining us again on May 10th for phpBB Weekly #061. His new book, Managing Online Forums, was recently released (Douglas just reviewed it on his blog, too), and so he will be joining David and Douglas to talk about his excellent new book in detail. Plus, we will be doing the prize giveaway for the listener survey that we launched back in March, so this will be an episode that you will want to be here for. (By the way, you still have time to fill out the listener survey–we’ve only gotten about 30 responses so far, so hie thee hence and add yourself to the lot!)

David will be doing another solo episode on May 17th (Douglas has to present a workshop that day) and so we will announce the topic of discussion at that time.

On May 24th (episode #063), we will be joined by Matt Mullenweg, the founder and “Chief BBQ Taste Tester” of Automattic, the people who produce the very popular WordPress blogging software, and also produce the up-and-coming bbPress forums software. We’ll break away from phpBB a bit on this episode to chat with Matt about bbPress and the very different philosophy that it utilizes for BB-based communities, as well as learn about some of the experiences that Automattic has had building WordPress and bbPress as open-source programs, comparing them a bit with phpBB’s open source life. It should be an interesting episode.

Finally, rounding out the month of May, we will be joined on episode #064 (May 31st) by the hosts of the recently-created phpBBIreland podcast. They’ll join us to talk a bit about their new show, as well as the phpBBIreland.com community and the Stargate Portal, a portal for phpBB3 that they develop.

Anyway, we’re certainly looking forward to some exciting episodes this month, and we hope that you’ll join us!

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Well, the inevitable has happened: it was announced this past week that phpBB2 will be going end of life later this year. Although nothing is happening immediately, download links for phpBB2 will be removed in October, followed by support ending in January, and all security patches ending in February, at which point phpBB2 will be officially retired and the teams will focus exclusively on phpBB3 from here on out. Other teams have or are in the process of announcing their individual plans surrounding the retiring of phpBB2.

We are joined on this episode by Ashley Pinner (NeoThermic), the Support Team Leader, and Yuriy Rusko (Marshalrusty), a Support Team Member, to talk about this announcement. They talk about the many reasons that led this announcement to be made, particularly this early, and why the teams have decided that this decision is for the best. We also discuss how users hearing about this can prepare for the change, as well as assessing opinions pulled from the discussion topic on phpBB.com and the discussion on Star Trek Guide.

Also, we look ahead to our giveaway drawing in three weeks, and share the finalized list of prizes that we’re giving away. Plus, we look at our latest Londonvasion plans.

The MOD of the Week is Users default avatar for phpBB2 by leviatan21, and the Style of the Week is TheEighties Template for phpBB2 by phpbbmodded.de.

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

Hello everyone,

I’ve gotten some notification from TalkShoe that they are making a minor change to their setup. Effective immediately, if you are not registered on TalkShoe and you enter the chat room as a guest (i.e. as Guest 1 or Guest 2, etc.), by default you will be blocked from having the ability to participate in the chat until I unblock you.

As was explained to me by Dave Nelsen (TalkShoe’s CEO), they have been hearing from many other calls on the network who have been affected by these anonymous guest chatters who have come in and typed a lot of porn and profanity into the chat, but once the hosts blocks them from the chat room, this person just has to close the window and reopen it to enter into the chat room as another guest, thus causing hell for the host of the TalkShoe call.

Luckily, phpBB Weekly hasn’t (yet) been affected by this, however for now, this change is universal (in May, they will be providing the ability to toggle this option once they build the toggle into the system). In the meantime, if you try to join in on the show as a guest chatter, you will not be able to chat by default until I notice and unblock you. It is annoying for me, and it’s annoying for you, but that’s what happens when a couple of rogue users spoil it for everyone. (I’m sure many of you have similar experiences in your own communities as well.)

If you would like to get around all this annoyance, feel free to register for free to TalkShoe. It only takes a minute, and once you’re registered, not only will you have your own username for us to identify you with, but you will not be blocked upon entering the chat room, and so neither of us will have to worry about this new obstacle.

Anyway, that’s just an FYI for you all to take note of. Hope to see you on Saturday!

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we are going to have to cancel phpBB Weekly for this Saturday, January 12th. David’s move to Spokane, which has been the cause of his absence for the past few episodes, has unfortunately had some issues which have slowed it down. Therefore, he will not be able to be here this Saturday for phpBB Weekly. At the same time, I will be out of town for a meeting, and will not be here for phpBB Weekly. Therefore, we are not going to be recording an episode this week.

phpBB Weekly #047, which was intended to be the episode where David will be revealing for the first time what’s new in phpBB 3.2, will be postponed to next Saturday, January 19th. David promises that he’ll be there, and I’ll also be there, so it will be great for both of us to be on the show at the same time for the momentous occasion. Even better, David will be joined by MOD Team member Josh W. (A_Jelly_Doughnut) and Development Team member David M. (DavidMJ)*, who will be joining David in revealing what’s new in the up-and-coming 3.2. And, of course, I will be there, serving as the curmudgeon offering my opinions and judgments on the revealed features, and asking as many more-in-depth type questions as I can, while also making sure that the episode doesn’t trump two hours. And, based on past experiences, with something this big going on, you can expect that there will be some more team members lurking about on TalkShoe, especially now that TalkShoe is more accessible now.

Oh, and of course, we invite you to not only come live and be among the first to learn about the new stuff coming in the next major release of phpBB, but also join in with your own questions and comments! Come in live to the chat room and share your opinions on the new features as they’re introduced, or call in live on the show and talk with our guest team members! Or, if you have questions and comments that you’d like to share, feel free.

Finally, the last thing that I am going to pitch is to ask you all to mention what some of the features you’d like to see in phpBB 3.2. After all, this podcast isn’t just for hearing what the team members have to say, it’s for hearing what you, the community, has to say. Who knows (David does) whether or not your most-wanted feature will actually be showing up in 3.2, but sound off in this topic about what you want the teams to deliver in 3.2, and we’ll be sure that they hear what you want them to hear.

In order to keep the discussion for this particular episode in one easy-to-find place, the comments for this post have been closed and we ask you to please respond in the phpBB Weekly forum topic.

We do apologize for the inconvenience of suddenly canceling this weekend’s episode, but we’re really looking forward to the exciting episode that we have planned for the 19th, and hope to see you then!
–Douglas Bell

* Guests are subject to change without notice.