Brian Moon has posted about the release of the latest (alpha) version of one of the more popular PHP-based forum softwares out there - Phorum 5.2 alpha.

Yes! Its here! Phorum 5.2 has reached alpha status. Its been over a year since we branched the 5.1 code and started on 5.2. A lot has changed and Phorum is better for it. Much of the success of Phorum 5.2 goes to Maurice Makaay. He has done a lot of work to make the core code cleaner and easier for module developers. He has also been instrumental in the documentation project. As for new features and changes, below are a few. We are still updating a wiki page with all the changes and features at http://www.phorum.org/development/wiki/Phorum52News.

Updates for the users and admins include:

• Brand new template. Emerald is a more modern, full featured template. It uses many interface design recommendation used by usability professionals.
• Better error messages when posting to help your users know what is wrong.
• New announcement module that gets announcements out of the message list and into a more prominent position.
• More modules included with Phorum and officially supported.
• Sanity checks updated to help admins know if their Phorum is running properly.