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Following last week’s episode, paul999 of the MOD Team chatted with me about some of my comments on the new MOD Database–we had a very good conversation. He acknowledged that a number of functions with the new database are not yet completed, and that there will be a much more complete MOD database by the time submitting MODs has been reenabled. The priority of the team was to get the basic MOD database back up as soon as possible so that users could start browsing MODs again.

A sad announcement made by dhn last Sunday announced that Jonathan “SHS`” Stanley was stepping down. Douglas reflects on SHS`’s many contributions to phpBB, and on what this means for the teams. (See also the blog post.)

Douglas covers some of the things that admins who want to set up new boards with phpBB should consider, including whether to install phpBB3 or phpBB2. In addition, he outlines some tips that should be set to prevent new boards from being destroyed from an onslaught of spammers and spambots.

The MOD of the Week is Custom Title MOD by Aexoden, and the Style of the Week is Minimalistic by jozomannen.

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…