I'll be off for a few days. There's so much happening in the forums right now that I'd really like to stay and iron out any remaining issues on 0.9 . However, I really have to leave here. So I'll work twice as much on b2evo next week when I'm back! ;)

Anyway, there's some great stuff you can check out in the next few days:

• The long-awaited-but-finally-alive-since-Graham-thankfully-took-it-over Skin Site is opening in public beta. Check it out! And if you've got some cool skins you've been working on, please submit them and let the world know! :yes:
  
   

• As announced previously, blueyed's MT migration script should be available shortly, just let him recover some sleep :P Check out the forum topic on MT-to-b2evo.

-François.

With all the frustration about MT3's licensing conditions, we've been asked a lot about a migration tool from MT to b2evo... just like many other blogtool makers I guess ;)

The bad news is that right now, we can't offer much more than our brand new version 0.9 and some cut & paste... :-/

The good news is that we're working on a migration script. You'll have it in less than two weeks... at most! :D I'd promise it for tomorrow if we hadn't already rescheduled so much of our normal lives to arrange for the timely release of the 0.9 beast! :roll:

For the last year, b2evo has been designed as a Free, Open-Source, GNU GPL alternative to MT. We have already included all the bells and whistles you might expect as an MT user, so trust me, the migration script is going to be there too! :yes:

Antispam Deluxe is probably one of b2evo 0.8.7’s greatest new features. Everything you need to sweep out referer and comment spam from your blog.

First, of course, you can delete any lousy referer or comment with a single click. But there’s much more!

When you identify a spammer URL in your stats or your comments, you can click on the "ban" icon next to it. This will 1) erase *all* referers and comments that use that URL and 2) record that URL in a blacklist so that new spam attemps promoting this URL get automagically blocked! Nice? Wait, there’s still more! :!:

You can automatically report that newly banned URL to a centralized blacklist on b2evolution.net… and download updates reported by others! This way, you get spam signatures and block them before they even reach your site! B)

Finally, if you feel some downloaded blacklisted URL or keyword is blocking legitimate sites, you can easily remove it from your local blacklist.

Please note: By using b2evolution.net’s central antispam blacklist (reporting spammers to the central blacklist and/or updating your local blacklist from the central list), you agree to be bound by the following terms of service:

b2evolution 0.8.5.3-beta is available. You can download it here.

Here are some highlights for this release:

• Complete b2evo bookmarklet and sidebar;

• You can now switch to another blog in the middle of a post and preserve all your current edits (uses javascript);

• Comment spam prevention (vig-rx syndrome): blocks comments and posts containing blacklisted URLs (if you have had vig-rx posting on your blog, you know why you need this ;) ) This also applies to referrer spam.

• New post statuses: protected, private and deprecated
• New login/registering system. You can login directly on whichever function page you want. b2edit.php, b2browse.php, b2stats.php, etc… pick the backoffice homepage you prefer.
• New template functions: user_login_link(), user_register_link(), user_logout_link(), user_admin_link(), user_profile_link()
• Passwords are now stored encrypted in the database (by Swirlee)
• Security pacthes (by Sakichan)
• Smilies are now displayed in their correct chosen order. They are not displayed when they are deactivated.
• $allow_cross_posting = 0 will disable cross posting among multiple categories.
• Stats summary.
• Fully configurable directory structure. Spread b2evo all across your site! ;)

One of the most significative enhancements in 0.8.2 is the revamped browsing & posting interface in the backoffice. You can check it out in the online demo.

Browsing your already written posts is now much easier. You can either navigate using the calendar or using powerful filtering options that can all be combined for even more control:

• only show past/future posts;
• only show draft/published posts;
• only show posts containing specific keywords (AND, OR, sentence);
• only show posts from a specific month;
• only show posts from specific categories.

Accessing your previous posts to edit them has never been easier! :)

Posting new or editing existing posts also benefit from a new screen layout making it much easier to select the main and additional categories in the whole hierarchy of available subcategories.

b2evo has been supporting multiple blogs for some time now. What’s new about version 0.8.2 is that you can now embed multiple blogs in the same page. You’ll find a demo displaying no less than 3 blogs on the index.php page in the distribution. :!:

Why would one want that, you may ask… :?:

Well, it actually starts to be interesting when each blog has a different purpose. For example, you could have the first one being your main blog, the second one being a calendar of upcoming events and the third one being your blogroll.

Speaking about blogrolls: b2evolution’s approach is to consider a blogroll just another form of a blog. It is a collection of items with title, description and link… The main difference being that you don’t usually display blogrolls by date like regular blogs, you just sort them alphabetically.

Of course, blogrolls benefit from all other b2evo’s blog features, like multiple and sub categories! And yes, you can even sort by category first, and then alphabetically in each category. Default 0.8.2 templates include such blogrolls by default.

Go check it out! ;)