Last week, I mentioned that the the Drupal SMFforum Integration module was no longer being supported by the module's project leader, "vb". Apparently, Simple Machines had not granted permission to the module developer to distribute code found in the SMF application as required by the Simple Machines License.
Development of the SMFforum Integration module for Drupal is no longer. Amy Stephen over at OpenSourceCommunity.org pointed out on her blog that the module's project leader, "vb", pulled the module due to licensing disagreements with SMF LLC. Amy references vb's original post at the Drupal forum, but she has a lot more to say. Amy's an active participant in the Joomla! community, a community which had their own issues with a bridge between Joomla! and SMF.
According to vb's post, an email sent by Michael "Oldiesmann" Eshom, Project Manager, Simple Machines LLC stated that:
The problem isn't with the smfforum.module file or the packages distributed on drupal.org. The problem is with the "smf_api_subs.php" file that you're distributing as part of the smf api package - it contains modified versions of several SMF functions, and you did not ask for permission to use this code or distribute it.
It appears that Simple Machines LLC doesn't have so much of a problem with bridging SMF and Drupal as much as they have issues with their own code being used without proper permission. The Simple Machines License clearly states that "Any Distribution of a Modified Package or derivative requires express written consent from Simple Machines LLC." No word on whether Simple Machines LLC would endorse the use of their code if permission is asked.
The Joomla! community just completed migrating their forum from SMF over to phpBB3. Brad Baker posted some of the details on Joomla.org's use of phpBB3 for their forum. In part, some of the move to phpBB stemmed from Joomla.org's discomfort from bridging GPL applications with non-GPL applications. Baker answers the question in his own way.
Thanks to a post at OpenSourceCommunity.org, I came across a conversion tool to allow you to import the SMF 1.1 database into a phpBB 3 site. Information about the conversion tool can be found in a forum post at phpbb.com. By the way, the script is still in beta, meaning that it works but you might find some bugs since it is not fully tested.
Steven Peck, associated with the Drupal project, wrote about an article he came across regarding a comparison of the vBulletin forum and Drupal's forum. The article is titled, Goodbye vBulletin, Part 1: Reasons to Switch. The author of the article writes:
The aim of this article is not to poke holes, or say ‘vBulletin sucks’, but to provide constructive criticism of a successful product, proving that vBulletin is not always the best choice. In places the article compares vBulletin to Drupal, this is the platform The Webmaster Forums will be switching to and represents many of the things vBulletin should—in our humble opinion—aspire to.
Mr. Peck's reaction to the article (and my emphasis in bold):
Now this was a interesting. A well written article on why one site is switching over to use Drupal's built in forum rather then continue to use vbulletin.
In other words, Peck and many of us that pay attention to how the forum applications stack up against CMS native forums don't see too many articles like this. It is rare to see someone using a standard forum application such as vBulletin, SMF, or phpBB switch over to Drupal primarily for its forum functionality.
The final version of SMF 1.1 is out. That's right, as far as 1.1 goes, no more release candidates for this forum software.
SMF is by far one of the easiest Web applications to install and upgrade that I have come across. In fact I upgraded my WebCMS Forum within 24 hours of the release and haven't looked backed. Though, I'm giving a week or two for some burn in time before I upgrade a client's site.
Instead of listing all the new features since 1.0, below are the major changes since SMF 1.1 RC3 was released. Release candidates in SMF are typically stable and introduce new features. In fact most open source projects would actually have given the RCs new version numbers.
A new version of SMF has been released to the public, SMF 1.1 RC3. For users of the forum software, this has been an unusually long period of time for waiting to see a new release candidate of the software.
Some of the new features and improvements as listed in the official announcement:
Those looking for SMF, a forum-based CMS, could not reach SMF's host server the past few days at Simple Machines. SMF's server was down for an extended period of time from July 22nd and 23rd. Thantos, one of the SMF developers, posted a message that only gave vague reasons for why there was a server outage:
The cause of the outage was the result of a non-technical issue involving our service provider. Failings happened on our both our part and their part. We have resolved the issue and are taking steps to ensure it doesn't happen again.