All things MyBB

We’ve been reasonably quiet between the release of MyBB 1.4.4 and 1.4.5, but that doesn’t mean that nothing has been going on behind the scenes. This blog post aims to outline some of what has been going on at MyBB during the last couple of months.

Over the past few weeks you may have noticed a few changes with our current staff, whether it was removal of staff or a change of position. Some changes may not even be noticeable by you but I’ll outline them all anyway.

  • Chris Boulton
    Due to time restraints placed on Chris by work, Chris was finding it difficult to find a balance between work and play whilst including MyBB and therefore has shifted some of the lower priority, day-to-date responsibilities of product management to Dennis Tsang. To be clear, Chris will still be involved in the MyBB project and will be overseeing the project from an executive aspect.
  • Dennis Tsang
    Dennis will be taking on more of the the day-to-day operations and administrative tasks that Chris Boulton used to do.
  • destroyer (Kevin Camps)
    Kevin will take on some content management duties, this includes the MyBB website, MyBB Wiki, etc. Kevin will also be partly responsible for approving themes, plugins and resources to the Mods section of the MyBB site and help out coordinating the translations with Tochjo.
  • Ryan Loos
    Ryan has made the move from a Support Team member to a Public Relations Liaison. With this new title, Ryan will be responsible for resolving community issues, updating the blog, making Twitter updates from the MyBB Twitter account, seeking new talent to take up positions on the team, in future betas and in the Mentor group and educating other communities on MyBB if their views are a little off.
  • Justin S.
    Justin is now in the developers’ group although he will still maintain the Wiki and continue his design work. He was always a design developer on the team, so the title change just reflects his correct role, although he will be performing all of the same duties as he did before.
  • Tomm M
    Tom’s moved into a developer’s position from his old role as a Support Team member. He’s shown a good understanding of how MyBB’s insides work during his time on the team and has already taken on a good portion of development for MyBB 1.6.
  • Max Marze
    Max too has become a developer and will be working towards getting the new version of the MyBB Merge System out. Specifically, he will help by writing unit testing scripts to ensure that the Merge System, when released in the future, will not have as many problems as in previous releases.
  • MattRogowski
    Matt, though still a part of the Support Team, will also be partly responsible for approving themes, plugins and resources to the Mods section of the MyBB site.
  • sayakb
    Sayak has offered to come on board as an SQA Team member. He’s shown a strong knowledge of MyBB by developing plugins, which can be found at the KDE forums, and testing new MyBB releases for compatibility with the KDE forums.
  • LegosJedi
    We’re saying goodbye to LegosJedi who has left us due to time constraints. We wish LegosJedi best of luck on his future endeavors.
  • Tom Loveric
    Tom has also decided to head his own direction with a custom CMS he is building. We wish him the best of luck in his future and with his CMS.

Recruiting New Support Staff

We’re always looking out for new potential. If you want to be on the MyBB Team, you just have to show:

  • You are dedicated and active to the project
  • You speak English very well and have good communication skills
  • You have good knowledge of how MyBB works and in the position you want to take up

If you don’t feel like we’re noticing you it’s probably just because we’re too busy making the next version of MyBB! So just send us an email via our contact form with “Available Team Member Position” as the subject. Include your forum username. Remember though, your chances are considerably increased if you stand out with the three suggestions listed above.

SQA Team Updates

You might have also noticed the creation of the SQA Team (Software Quality Assurance) right after the release of 1.4.4 due to the amount of problems that were reported after its release. SQA has been able to confirm 95% of fixes are working and don’t cause any regressions that are written by our developers and put into our code base. Among those that they confirmed, SQA was able to find and report dozens of regressions over the course of the entire MyBB 1.4.5 development in over 100 bugs, optimizations, and tweaks. As such, SQA has been a huge success for the MyBB Group and in turn creates much more stable releases for you. We are continuing to perfect the new SQA Team and implement processes that will eliminate preventable issues from the get-go.

Team Interviews

If you’ve ever wanted to know more about the MyBB Group or a particular staff member, now is the chance!  We’ve started a thread where you can post questions for staff members to answer at a later date in a blog post. If you have any questions for specific staff members or groups of staff then head over to the thread and post your questions!

Open MyBB Team Positions

Greetings all,

We currently have a few open positions on the MyBB Team for support and development roles. If you’re interested in becoming a part of one of the most powerful, free forum applications available today, we’re interested in hearing from you.

Current vacancies are as follows:

  • Development Team Positions
    We’re looking for people with a strong background in web development with PHP and MySQL as well as a solid understanding of how MyBB operates in both code and functionality to become an active particpiant in our development team, preferably having released MyBB plugins or modifications at some stage. Knowledge of other database management systems such as PostgreSQL and SQLite is also highly favourable. You must be able to work well with a team and work under project management.

    Your primary position will be working with myself and the other developers to bring new releases of MyBB out.

  • Support Team Positions
    We’re looking for people who are dedicated to MyBB and have a solid understanding of the functionality of MyBB and have experience in managing a forum themself, an understanding of PHP and MySQL is not required however may be beneficial. You must be able to work well with other team members. You must be able to communicate clearly and correct in English.

    All we ask of you is that you’re an active participant in both supporting other users with MyBB and can do so in a professional manner.

Please note that all positions are on a volunteer basis, you’re under no obligation to stay with the MyBB Group if you have other commitments that need attending.

Applying

All applications and requests can be submitted through the following form on the MyBB website: http://mybboard.net/contact/?subject=team-position

Please include the position you’re applying for, background information on yourself, information on your knowledge of MyBB, PHP & MySQL experience if necessary and any other information you wish to include.

If you don’t receive a reply, no – we haven’t forgotten about you, it’s just that there are usually too many applications to individually reply to each one. Private messages containing applications/team position queries will be ignored.

Note that existing and active community members will be given preferential treatment for these positions due to their existing dedication to the MyBB project.

Thank you,
MyBB Group

The MyBB Development Blog

Welcome to the MyBB Development Blog, the place where from now on we’ll primarily be talking about what is going on behind the scenes at the MyBB Group as well as taking a look at upcoming features in new releases.

We hope to keep the blog fairly active and we’ve got quite a few posts planned already:

  • Extensive MyBB 1.4 Control Panel Overview
    A series of posts which will contain a full overview of the MyBB 1.4 Admin CP including many screenshots, feature overviews and our design and technical decisions.
  • Advanced Plugin Development Tips & Tricks
    A few tips and tricks for getting the most out of the MyBB Plugin System.
  • Regular MyBB Tips and Tricks
    Ranging from security related tips and tricks right through to uncovering some of the more hidden features and customising your copy of MyBB.
  • Behind the Scenes
    A look at how things happen behind the scenes with MyBB, including our development process.

I hope you’re looking forward to being able to discuss some of the things above with us on this blog, as we’re very much interested in your feedback for a lot of the above to help improve MyBB in the future. Stay tuned for another post shortly.