Douglas had another test to complete during this episode of phpBB Weekly, and David apparently had a harder time hijacking team members for this episode, so he was joined this time by his brother, Francis Lewis (Handyman). With the retirement of phpBB2 still holding the #1 slot for phpBB discussions across the internet, David and Francis talk a bit more about the retirement news, albeit from somewhat more of a teams-based angle. During this episode, they talk a bit about how the EOL of phpBB2 will help the phpBB3 branch (as well as 3.2 Ascraeus development) in the long run. They also discuss some of the enticing phpBB3 features that users and MOD authors can see as they slowly transition over to phpBB3, including a look at how and why phpBB3 is more “stable” than phpBB2, some of the interesting aspects of phpBB3’s Database Abstraction Layer (DBAL) and an overall analysis of why phpBB3 doesn’t require as much MODding as phpBB2 did.
In other news, the MOD Database Cleanup is slated to be completed in full on Wednesday, April 30th Saturday, May 31st, and David and Francis talk a bit about will be taking place. They also provide an update on the latest news with Londonvasion and the Star Trek Guide MODs Manager, as well as a status update on the MOD Team’s upcoming Package Manager (codenamed Blinky).
The MOD of the Week is Full Syndication Suite for phpBB3 by Schumi, and the Style of the Week is Avalon for phpBB3 by CyberAlien.
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The first day of December means that the end of the year is staring straight at us as we plunge into the holiday season, but here at phpBB Weekly, we prefer to plunge into another tutorial.
After wishing happy birthday to phpBB team members Paul and Anon, we dissect through the release announcement of phpBB3 RC8, which was announced just hours before this episode. And, as usual, we ask the same question that everyone has been asking since May: will this RC go golden master, or is there yet another RC coming down Santa Claus lane?
This week also saw the execution of the MOD Database Cleanup. We take a look at why and how it was done, and learn a bit about Douglas’ early MODding life in the process.
Finally, David guides us through a mini-tutorial on registration settings and usergroups in phpBB3. For more information on usergroups in particular, check out the Group management and Permissions sections of the phpBB3 documentation, or check out the Custom usergroups Flash tutorial.
The MOD of the Week is Vote Manager for phpBB2 by soapergem, and the Style of the Week is Christmas for phpBB2 by CyberAlien.
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Following a few weeks off for Douglas to go back to school and David to move house, we are back with another phpBB Weekly–and this time, David is leading off the show. Still, we have a great episode–despite an unexpected technical glitch that happened at the end of the show.
phpBB3 Release Candidate 5 has been released, and Acyd Burn has noted that it will hopefully be the last one before Olympus goes gold. But then, looking at the bug tracker, is there a chance that there will be another RC forthcoming?
This week, the MOD team asked for feedback on the new MOD Database. David summarizes a number of the comments that have been made thus far, and Douglas also offers some of his opinions.
The MOD of the Week is Welcome PM on First Login for phpBB3 by DualFusion, and the Style of the Week is Milky Way for phpBB3 by Mighty Gorgon. Plus, Handyman/GroovePlugs calls in to tell us about his Photo Gallery MOD for phpBB3.
If you have a MOD or Style that you’d like us to feature on a future episode, bookmark it on del.icio.us with the tag phpbbwmod or phpbbwstyle.
Finally, David mentions Skitch, a Mac-only application that he has been using to take screenshots and give MOD support with. Douglas wrote a review of Skitch which describes the program in more detail.
A sarcastic thanks to a couple of phpBB team members (who shall be nameless) for correcting my mistake: #phpbb-mod is “hash phpbb-mod”, not “pound phpbb-mod”, even though most people in the US of A call it a “pound” and the rest of the world calls it a “hash”. From now on, I’m just calling it a “number sign”. *rolls eyes*
phpBB3 RC-2 has been released! The changelog for this release includes a whopping 113 fixes and changes. Plus, for the first time, upgrading with the built-in auto-updater is officially supported! Douglas tried out the auto-updater this morning, and sings its praises (as well as explaining how it works).
The GNU General Public License version 3 is final, but according to Meik “AcydBurn” Sievertsen, don’t expect phpBB to be using the new version. Douglas talks a bit about what this means, and also what it means in terms of licensing MODs.
It was announced today that submissions to the MOD Database are now open! First impression of the new forms: lots of bugs! However, paul999 has been moving quickly to fix as many bugs as he can today, so hopefully we can give you a better impression next week.
Finally, we talk a bit about the MOD Authors Convention that has been ongoing today, including critiquing it and offering suggestions for how we think it should be run. The convention continues today in #phpbb-mod until 8 PM Eastern time tonight!
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.
phpBB Weekly is a live podcast that covers the latest news on the phpBB forum software, including various tips and tutorials on using phpBB as a user and as an administrator, and highlighting various MODs and Styles that are available for phpBB on the web today. The show is hosted by Douglas Bell and David Lewis.
On this website, you can listen to the past episodes of phpBB Weekly, find show notes for all of the previous shows, and find out information about upcoming episodes. You should also check out our phpBB Weekly forum.
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phpBB Weekly is a proud member of the Tech Podcast Network. Check them out for other great technology podcasts.
