phpBB Weekly

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download AAC Episode (34.2 MB) | Download MP3 Episode (66.5 MB)
Download Episode Chat Log

Episode Duration: 1:09:18
On This Episode: Douglas Bell (Fountain of Apples) and David Lewis (Highway of Life)

phpBB Weekly is back, Douglas is on a normal computer, and all is right with the world!

We cover a lot of ground on this episode. Douglas recaps our interest to find a phpBB Weekly Clerk (Editor’s Note: we’ve now found one!), voting for the CAPTCHA Plugin Competition begins, and a few new members join the phpBB teams.

In addition, we spend some time discussing a post made on phpBB.com concerning accessibility issues with CAPTCHA plugins, particularly for the visually impaired. We also look at the MOD team’s recent blog post on the MOD Validation workflow, and ponder why “Insta-Deny” is a trademarked term. Also, David tells us a bit about the upcoming new StarTrekGuide MOD Manager, which they are currently soliciting feedback on.

Our next phpBB Weekly Poll Question, which goes until Saturday 10/31 (a week longer than indicated on the podcast), is “If you were to add a step to the MOD validation workflow, what would it be?” Cast your vote here!

The MOD of the Week is Forum SEO by stokerpiller, and the Style of the Week is Gerbang Kasih by napy8gen.

Join us on Saturday when we’ll continue our discussion about CAPTCHA accessibility with special guest Bernard Maldonado of Solona!

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3 Episode (35.7 MB)

Episode Duration: 1:02:19
On This Episode: Douglas Bell (Fountain of Apples) and David Lewis (Highway of Life)

On this episode, Douglas had just gotten back from Washington, D.C., and was thawing out. (Actually, make-up work from his week-long absence is the reason why this episode took so long to get released; sorry about that.) Nevertheless, we somehow accomplished David’s continual quest for “shorter episodes” with a release that is just barely over an hour. Not too shabby. And they said it couldn’t be done.

In addition to a bit of reflection from the inauguration, we pretty much covered some of the recent news. David gave us a preview of the upcoming release of MODX 1.2.2 (which has actually now been released, but we’ll talk about that on our next episode), and then he mentioned that a new variation on phpBB’s CAPTCHA has been committed to Subversion for 3.0.5 that will allow you to add a “wave” to the CAPTCHA image. (See the before and after.) Douglas also shares some of his experiences with reCAPTCHA, a good alternative CAPTCHA service for those of you who want a CAPTCHA that’s a little bit more humane. (Anyone want to write a phpBB3 MOD for it?)

David and Douglas also cover the recent blog post on fighting CSRF (Cross-Site Request Forgery) and the measures that phpBB takes (and MOD authors should take) to help protect against CSRF. And in passing, David also shares that a new Junior Developers Team has started, and the developers have put together a very comprehensive page on how you can get involved with phpBB development.

Last week’s Poll Question of the Week was “Do YOU think there’s a government plan to close down the internet?” There were 2 votes (16.67%) saying “Yes, there certainly is.”; 4 votes (33.33%) saying “No way, this is just a crazy conspiracy theory.”; 5 votes (41.67%) saying “The government is watching every move I make, therefore I cannot provide a definitive answer to this question.”; and 1 vote (7.14%) saying “How the heck should we know? Or care?”. This week’s poll question is “If you could add one more feature to the new WhiteHouse.gov website, what would it be?” Vote in the poll on our right-hand sidebar, and leave a comment as well if you want to. The poll closes on February 7th.

The MOD of the Week is IGN Style Colored Names by Trel, and the Style of the Week is twilightBB by Daniel Exe.