Finally, after a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, holycrap, long time, phpBB 3 was released yesterday. For those out of the loop, phpBB 2.0.x has powered the Altering Time Forums since 2002, and is somewhat buggy. I followed phpBB development fairly closely for a couple years, into 2004, which was supposed to be the “Year of phpBB 2.2”. In 2005 it was renamed 3.0, and has now finally been released.
Now that 3.0 is out, I can evaluate it against building my own Forum system, or switching to a different forum package. Unfortunately, phpBB 3.0 still has no plugin system, which means making custom modifications is a chore. So much has changed that upgrading will be almost as big of a chore as making all our custom modifications was in the first place. Also, without plugins, upgrading to point releases (i.e. 3.0.1) will continue to be a pain. That said, I waited 5 years for it, so I should at least take it for a spin. I’ll keep everybody informed.