The next major version of SMF, SMF 2.0, has been announced on the Simple Machines Community Forum. This new version is a significant step forward from SMF 1.1, and has been in development alongside it since December 2005.

Some of the features annouced so far include (quoted from the post linked above):

  • Database abstraction - with support for PostgreSQL and SQLite planned alongside that of MySQL.

  • Automatic installation of packages into themes other than just the default.

  • Email templates to simplify customization of forum emails.

  • Moderation center including post, topic and attachment moderation - to allow approving of user content before it is made public.

  • User warning system.

  • Additional group functionally including group moderators and requestable/free assignable groups.

  • WYSIWYG editor to provide an intuitive user interface to those users not familiar with BBC.

  • Permission improvements such as group inheritance and permission profiles to further reduce the complexity of the permissions system.

  • File based caching for a performance increase on all forums regardless of whether an accelerator is installed.

  • Mail queuing system to stagger the sending of emails to improve performance on large forums.

  • Advanced signature settings to allow the administrator of a forum to more tightly control the contents of users signatures.

  • Personal messaging improvements including ability to automatically sort incoming messages and a variety of display options.

  • Improved upgrade script with better timeout protection and simpler user interface.

  • Custom profile fields to enable administrators to add additional member fields from the administration center.

This release is going to be awesome. I've been trying out a few alpha versions of it, and it looks amazing. Note that it will still be a while before a public beta, as there's still some bugs to work out.

Keep up the great work, guys! 😄