SMF 2.0 Update Part V

[Grudge]

All, I thought I should provide something of an update on the status of 2.0 – it's been a while since our last update. Firstly, we've been really pleased with the reception to the first public beta of SMF. In general feedback has been positive, and we've got a good load of bug reports that we've been working through (Thanks to the team for capturing them all). It's interesting to see the variety of views on 2.0, the most critical have been around the lack of changes to the interfaces to users, which is understandable. Our primary focus with 2.0 was to get the moderation and administration functionality to be top of it's game, whilst also working on the backend to get SMF much more modular – so "big/complex" forums will probably get more of a benefit out of 2.0 than small community forums where moderation isn't such a problem. That said, there have been considerable user improvements, including OpenID, custom profile fields, enhanced PM system, WYSWIYG editor, ignore user posts, user joinable groups etc etc – hardly nothing

Anyway, back on topic – progress! While, firstly people might notice I have the "On Hiatus" badge on – but don't panic! I've simply been busy with real life the last few weeks so progress hasn't been as fast as one might like – however – we've fixed lots and lots of bugs, we're at the stage now where the remaining bugs really aren't that critical (In the most part). We've made some progress with updating the primary templates to be more semantic, and this is probably the main thing holding us back from our next beta release. Bloc is however working hard to iron out the bugs in what we've done, and then I need to try and find a way to ensure we don't break all existing themes with the new templates. Once this is done, we'll try to get Beta 4 out of the door – which will hopefully be the final beta. Until then I hope people can remain patient. In the most part there won't be new features coming now, just bug fixes and a few feature tweaks. Our primary aim is to work towards a bug free final release, which will then enable us to start work towards the next version

Grudge

[karlbenson]

Weird font , but nice read and update

[SleePy]

Somebody was playing with the WYSIYWG editor

[Spaceman-Spiff]

Looks like Arial to me...

[Gary]

Aerial does not belong on web pages IMO. Verdana FTW.

[Spaceman-Spiff]

I do like Verdana too, but the web will be a boring place if everyone uses the same font. Once in a while, a bit of Arial/Helvetica or Tahoma is nice. They're nicer for tighter spaces.

[Eliana Tamerin]

* Eliana Tamerin wishes operating systems shipped with a better variety of fonts.

Anyways, great to hear the progress, Grudge. I'm excited to see the next Beta.

[shadow82x]

Nice update Grudge. Thanks.

It seems that when your "On Hiatus" you do more work. lol

[[SiNaN]]

Anyway, back on topic – progress! While, firstly people might notice I have the "On Hiatus" badge on – but don't panic!

That was what I was going to ask. Good news. We're waiting...

[Sverre]

Thanks for the update, Grudge! I'm anxiously looking forward to see the results of your work on the new default theme

Anyway, back on topic – progress! While, firstly people might notice I have the "On Hiatus" badge on – but don't panic!

That was what I was going to ask. Good news. We're waiting...

Personally, I'm more curious, excited and worried about two other recent "badge" changes. Namely Jeff and Thantos...

[shadow82x]

Personally, I'm more curious, excited and worried about two other recent "badge" changes. Namely Jeff and Thantos...

mm probaly Real Life issues? I was kind of wondering the same thing.

[SleePy]

Jeff had the code bug bite him again So he changed colors

[christicehurst]

Seems like everything is running well. I'll be waiting for the final release, then about 15 mods redone, a theme designed and redone, Tiny Portal updated, you know how it is lol

[[SiNaN]]

Off Topic:

Jay also went on Hiatus. Interesting. Soon we will have no devs left.

I guess devs will transfer SleePy to their team.

[Eliana Tamerin]

It might just be the season (Finals).

[karlbenson]

Jeff had the code bug bite him again So he changed colors

Is that like Peter Parker becoming Spiderman?

[Eliana Tamerin]

Yeah, it bit him, he donned nerdy glasses, a flannel shirt, turned off all his lights and has the ability to code and debug programs at 5 times the normal human speed.

[LinkinParkBoy]

Any news about beta 4 ppl?

[Eliana Tamerin]

When we have news, you'll know about it. Don't worry, you'll get it soon enough.

[lax.slash]

I have a feeling that it's not too far off!  (The site copyright is "Powered by SMF 2.0 Beta 4")

[jezzb]

Big Thanks SMF Team for your Hard Work and Dedication !

I moved to Beta 2.0 3.01 Public and really like the looks.

Jezzb

[MultiformeIngegno]

I have a feeling that it's not too far off!  (The site copyright is "Powered by SMF 2.0 Beta 4")

Yeah!

[LinkinParkBoy]

Please, tell me, that the release date is this month eheh

[Eliana Tamerin]

It will be released when it's ready. We don't have a specific date set. Thank you for your patience.

[rommul]

I bet one year chartered membership subscription that will not be any final release for 2.0 this year.

[Eliana Tamerin]

I very much doubt anything serious like that would occur. But the soft goal is by the end of the year to have a release. Soft goal, mind you, the devs aren't bound to anything. A serious bug could crop up that makes that impossible.

[Aaron]

I remember Grudge saying that project will be canceled if they cannot reach to the final until the end of this year. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.)

That's not what he said. He said that he personally would "have seriously failed" should no final be released by the end of this year.

[HecKel]

I bet one year chartered membership subscription that will not be any final release for 2.0 this year.

I really don't want to believe in that. SMF 2.0 has been talked for a lot of time, I think that Devs had failled when they "stop" improving 1.1 and started to developing 2.0. Now we are wainting for news when the news were 2 per year..., how long we don't have any upgrade? Even one small upgrade? Just fixes...

Personally, I think that 2.0 will come sooner then we think, but I agree when people start complaining..., it is really sad.

The problem it isn't the wainting, it is the lack of news in SMF (upgrades on 1.1).

[[SiNaN]]

I said I could be wrong, removed my post not to cause confusion.

[H]

The problem it isn't the wainting, it is the lack of news in SMF (upgrades on 1.1).

I'm unsure about what you mean by lack of updates to 1.1.x. 1.1.x is feature frozen so there is no need for any updates unless major bugs or security issues are found.

If you want new features then download some mods or use 2.0

[HecKel]

I didn't said that is lack of updates, but of news

The last news about SMF 2.0 was this thread and was on 30th April, 2 months ago..., no new news..., we know that the Devs are working in a semantic theme but nothing else, we see a Beta 4 and we didn't get any news about it. This is what I mean about lack of news.

About SMF 1.1, I think that the step to 2.0 was too big, why not one 1.2? 1.3? And little improvements on 1.X when you work as well in 2.0?

@H, I have more comments but I think that I should do them in private, can I sent you one PM?

[H]

2.0 is a bigger number jump than was originally planned but it was felt that the database abstraction warranted this change. This was quite a large development so I don't think future releases should have quite as large a gap.

Newswise on beta4 there aren't really any noteable changes just a lot of bugfixes . Beta4 would've been out already but we're fixing some show stoppers so your experience isn't lessened!

I agree that even small improvements can be nice but it seems the majority of sites prefer less frequent updates which is why features from 2.0 are not officially backported . The devs also thought they could save time by not doing this.

Feel free to send me a PM