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! 😄
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