I was fortunate enough to check outthe new IPB release and I mustsay nothing, I mean nothing can even aspire to come even close to it. That is some serious sh** packed up in there. One look at the admin panel and I'm in love with it. I can just spent hours staring at the Admin CP (kidding!). Everything is so beautifully arranged yet there are so many configuration options that the coders have instinctively put a search feature for the config parameters alone! I specially like the Template eitor which feels so much like an advaned html editor all by itself.

Once installed you'll have to spent some time on the learning curve so that you don't get lost in the hunders of settings and options. But that's a little price you'll have to pay for asking for such customisability. Here's a screenshot of the 'Tools and Settings' Tab in the ACP:



Setiing up all the forums can seem a bit daunting but it really isn't though. All the config parametrs may bet you a little excited but rest assure that by defaukt they are all set to fit normal forums. You only need to worry about those special sections in your forum. However something that you always need to configue is the permission masks which provide the highest level of integrity. The ;ast edition I tried out was the free 1.3 version and that can't even compare to what IPB is now. I'm not sure when this particular feature was introduced but I like it - The popdown options menu which gives a more or less windows feel (believe it or not!). Take a look:



And about the looks - The default skin has been polished and is looking great and they have dome a good job with the new postingg panel. It looks pretty stylish now. And the Lo-Fi version is same as ever. However I do want to remind you of a big in this relese - There's a memory leak in the ips_kernel/class_xml.php file which kicks in during the installation. But no need to worry it can easily be fixed by changing 'var $lite_parser = 0;' to 'var $lite_parser = 1;'. For the official announcment from Invision check this link.

All in all I'll give it a 4.7/5. I'm loving it!

- Freesoul.

I've got a Perpetual Licensed copy of IPB 2.1.3 which we're using for the Antilost Developers Community (http://www.antilost.com/community/) - dude, it's not just the Admin CP.. Have you noticed the INLINE EDITING feature ??

1. When you edit your post - instead of reloading the whole page - just your post ALONE gets updated on-the-fly

2. Topic title editing was never easier than this - similar to editing posts, if you want to edit a topic title, you just left-click on it and keep the button held for 2-3 secs. The title becomes editable right there - similar to how you edit filenames in Windows (using F2 key or just a single-click on the filename)

There are hundreds of new hidden goodies like this. More updates later I simply love this release. True as you said - NOTHING NOTHING EVER WILL COME EVEN CLOSE TO IT

Oh thanks for adding that buddy, I almost missed that one. I didn't notice the topic rename feature until now but I had seen the Quick Edit in action and that was damn cool! Feels just like running a full fledged windows application. And did you check out the template editor. Man that was so unbelievable! I had to add a some adsense code here and there and it was never smoother man. Once I messed up and I could just as easily revert all the changes with just one click. Now this can give vBulletin a run for their money. Whadda ya say?

You bet - template editing has become a mere breeze now The overall organization and layout of the skin editor too - sooo much improved. Am still experimenting with it day in and day out and never ceasing to get surpirsed

Same here bro. This new version is full of surprises. And each page is divided into so many different 'template bits' which make editing all he more easier. Its Admin's heaven! For example: I was thinking about putting an adsense ad after the first post which would mean downloading and installing a mod in phpBB but when I checked with IPB there was an editable template bit called 'end_of_first_post' or something. Can you believe how much a forum software will go!

Wow. This invision board version looks cool, although I don't use ipb anymore. I'd had enough of the limited functionality compared to other forum companies, such as proboards in the respect that you have to pay unless you have a free trial of no more than 20 users or something like that.

Anyhow, it looks like they've improved. I probably still won't buy it at the moment though as I don't really have a need at the moment! Thanks for sharing though

yeh the new ipb is great i have it myself and i find its relli easy to do things on the new ipb panel