Wow, the last 3 weeks have been a blur... and HOT! very hot down here in Tennessee USA anyways. We?ve had 5 consecutive days over 100°F (38°C), and if you?re familiar with Southern USA weather, you know it has been humid. You know what a sauna feels like? yeah, thats what it feels like here... ALL the time!
Well we have a very packed newsletter for you this month, though this newsletter is about 2 weeks later than it should have been, better late than never, but you?ll soon find out why.
The phpBB Development team recently released phpBB3 RC4, which will, according to Meik (Acyd Burn) hopefully be the final RC release prior to Gold and Final release, which will be an exciting moment in phpBB history.
If you?ve not already, grab the latest RC and update your board, it has some nice enhancements which you can read about in the announcement topic below.
phpBB also won the Community Choice Award for best open-source Communications project, this means bragging rights for the entire year for phpBB.
3 weeks ago to the day (by the time most of you get this letter), wGEric and the phpBB Teams invited Igor (eviL<3) and myself to become a part of the phpBB MOD Team as coders and validators. Ironically, both Igor and myself are Founders of two of the largest phpBB3 MOD Communities on the internet. Igor and I have worked closely on multiple projects and we are both honored for the opportunity that phpBB has presented to us.
At this point, our primary duties will include validating MODs submitted for phpBB3 - though Igor will be working on phpBB2 MODs as well -- and coding projects, including further development and enhancements to the MOD and Styles Databases, which paul (previously paul999) has put so much work into since January to make the MOD Database what it is today. This may explain my suddenly slight lack of presence here on STG/phpBB Academy as I?ve been trying to catch up on all the information and duties that as a MOD Team Member I am responsible for. -- As you can see, I?m finally catching up, so I have time now to write and get this newsletter out.
I still plan on continuing support for all my MODs and getting them all released, though the development process is a little slower now with everything else that is going on. -- But overall this is a benefit to the community as it means that all of you have two more validators that can help get MODs validated and released to the phpBB community that much faster.
Most of you also know by now that I am now co-host of phpBB Weekly podcast with Douglas Bell (Webmacster87 / Fountain of Apples and former MOD Team Member). The last few shows have been quite fun, we had Techie-Michael (Support Team Leader for phpBB) join us a guest speaker on the August 4th podcast, and This last weekend, paul joined us for a moment and discussed the MOD Database. -- I think you will all find those most enjoyable, and encourage each of you (especially the MOD Authors) to listen to those podcasts, which can be found at http://phpbbweekly.net
This months featured MODs is Geoffreaks Easy MODX Script Generator, especially helpful for MOD Authors who make a lot of edits to existing files and you need help creating the MODX XML file needed for the installation package of your MOD. If you are one of those kind of people, then YOU NEED THIS TOOL!! ... its an online tool, so you can use it on the fly.
And finally, the ACP Notepad MOD. This MOD will enable you to leave yourself and other administrators notes in the ACP, a handy little tool for leaving fellow admins messages, and reminder snippets for yourself. -- This is a very well coded MOD and is currently in the phpBB.com MOD Database Queue awaiting validation from ... well, me...
(and the MOD team)Until next time, see you on the boards!!
- David ?Highway of Life? Lewis
