One and a half years ago FreeForums.org was forged with a mission to revolutionize the forum hosting industry. Since then, we've accomplished just that. Now with our ever increasing userbase and strong community of customers such as yourself, we plan to roll out our phpBB3 platform with even more excitement.

With that I'm pleased to present you with the release date for our phpBB3 platform:

July 7th 2008 - 5:00 PM PST

Given the size of FreeForums.org this is truly a monstrous project, and has taken a full time team months to prepare. We will be working extraordinarily hard over the next few weeks to make sure all the last bugs are fixed, the network is strengthen, and we have the right people in the right places for the launch.

I would also like to note that the initial launch will include the core features we have in our beta version now, as well as some other required features. The truly groundbreaking features as far as user experience and functionality will be launched shortly after.

On behalf of the entire FreeForums.org team I want to thank you for your continued support

With the release due in about five hours I want to give everyone an update. The automated upgrade system will not be ready for the initial release, we expect this to be completed late this week. All new forum signups will be switched over to the V3 system and will be fully functioning.

Closer to release I will be making a post outlining the included and future planned features.

Thanks for using FreeForums.org

Features included in initial launch:
Mod Center (enable/disable mods in real time)
Logo Uploader (upload a logo for each template installed)
Meta Tags (set the meta tag content for your forum)
Hosting Upgrades (add additional features to your forum)
Community Chest (allow users to donate money to your forum so you can buy upgrades)
Custom Captcha (prevent spam on your board)
Security Center (keep an eye on your forum)

Features coming soon
phpBB3 Portal
phpBB3 Custom Editor
Template editing (edit the color of all templates on the fly)
Backup Manager (backup/restore your forum database)
Automated Conversion (Easily convert your current v2 board to the new system)

Getting this core system out is a huge step in this project. This will allow us to focus full time on installing the many features and mods our customers are looking for.