Vanilla (forum)

Vanilla is a database management system.

Some features of Vanilla include:

*Accessible and minimal user interface. *Atom_(standard) feed. *Easy templating system using Cascading_Style_Sheets to fully customize your board to look just the way you like it. *Extension system, for users to use and develop new extensions to add functionality. *Language components, several language components for localization. *Whispers, for private conversations. *Intelligent search and search bookmarking system, for users to bookmark their most used searches.

=Latest Releases=

*0.9.2 (stability), released July 25, 2005

=History=

Vanilla was started by Mark O Sullivan after he shut down his private forum called o8 which he had custom programmed for his own needs. After the shut down a lot of people were asking if Mark would release the software behind the o8 forum which led Mark to program a forum software based on it and release it free.

The first version of Vanilla was identical to the old o8 forum software, but web communities and forum softwares had changed since the time the first o8 was released, which led Mark to completely redesign the Vanilla forum to add something that contemporary software didn t have and what would make Vanilla stand out.

At the time of the first beta of Vanilla going online the community was quickly built and the development continued on some of the Vanillas most notable features, like simplicity and extensions.

When Mark finally released the 0.9 version of Vanilla in July 16, 2005 it was an instant hit.

=Future=

With the core idea of Vanilla established, Mark is working on the foundation called The Lussumo Framework for Vanilla and future Lussumo web based applications codenamed only, Lemonade and Oregano.

Some of the future features of Vanilla 0.9.3 which doesn t yet have a release schedule are:

*Intelligent templating system that allows the user to completely alter the XHTML behind the forum. *Speed improvements, Vanilla will access the database even faster than before. *Improved extension management allows extension authors more freedom than before.

After the 0.9.3 beta goes online and has been thoroughly tested, it will be released as Vanilla 1.

=External links=

*[http://www.lussumo.com/ Lussumo Homepage] *[http://www.getvanilla.com/ Vanilla Homepage]