Since vBulletin 3 Beta 7 was released on September 27th, a little over a month has passed. In that time we have spent our efforts preparing the first Release Candidate of vBulletin 3.
Amongst the other things going on, these are the major activities in which the development team are currently engaged:
And so for the question on everyone's lips: When?
At the moment, we are looking at a date in late November for the release of vBulletin 3 RC1. Next week, we hope to be able to give you a more precise date for the RC1 release. At this time we don't have a solid estimate for the vBulletin 3 Final release date, but after RC1 goes out we will be able to evaluate how much work still needs to be done to complete the product, and then we will be able to offer you a potential date for the final release. I will say though, that right now I am thinking that the final release will not be too far behind RC1.
Amongst the other things going on, these are the major activities in which the development team are currently engaged:
- Fixing the remaining reported bugs.
- Simplifying the variables being used in template conditionals
- Making the templates multi-lingual by moving text into the language/phrase system
- Completely rewriting all the templates to use the new vBulletin 3 style.
- Reduce interface clutter in order to present a cleaner page to users, which is more friendly to novice users
- Prioritize controls so that most frequently used buttons/links etc. are instantly available, while less frequently used or more complex features are hidden or made less obvious in order to prevent novice users from becoming confused or overwhelmed
- Ensure XHTML 1.0 Transitional compliance for all templates
- Update graphics with something a bit more modern
And so for the question on everyone's lips: When?
At the moment, we are looking at a date in late November for the release of vBulletin 3 RC1. Next week, we hope to be able to give you a more precise date for the RC1 release. At this time we don't have a solid estimate for the vBulletin 3 Final release date, but after RC1 goes out we will be able to evaluate how much work still needs to be done to complete the product, and then we will be able to offer you a potential date for the final release. I will say though, that right now I am thinking that the final release will not be too far behind RC1.