(From Mike
Ehlert's BBS Software Development News - 4 Jan 98)
Proboard BBS author Philippe Leybaert announced today
that he is willing to make a big effort to make ProBoard a
success again!
This comes just two days after his previous announcment
in which he said that ProBoard perspectives look very bad,
and he was very close to the point of letting someone else
take over his development. Many Proboard SysOps urged him
not to give up, and offer their support in any capacity.
Today Philippe went on to say that "although ProBoard/32
will not be ready in January, it will certainly not take
another year." Many Proboard SysOps are breathing a Sigh of
Relief, as of yesterday it seemed that the end was so very
near.
ProBoard Sysops have eagerly been waiting the public beta
release of ProBoard/32 3.0, a Win95/NT generation of the
once popular BBS package since the summer of 1996 when it
was originally scheduled for release.
Unfortunately, there were numerous delays, and release
dates were postponed first for weeks, then for several
months as the author vanished into seclusion.
Philippe reappeared in mid October and announced that the
reason for lack of development was due to him taking time
off to get married and settle into his new house. He assured
us that ProBoard would finally be released in "the next few
months".
Late in November one of the ProBoard Sites announced that
the deadline for the first release of ProBoard/32 was
December 97, and the ProBoard world eagerly awaited as the
final days drew near.
In mid December Philippe announced that most of his
registration sites had not paid him recently, and said if
the situation did not improve there would be no new version!
Chuck King (the US/Canada registration site) quickly
responded. Philippe had failed to notify him of his new
address when he went into seclusion. US funds were sent, and
we were told the release was back on track.
As the end of December deadline approached, ProBoard
SysOps eagerly awaited for the 32-bit version. Unfortunately
December came and left with no sign of Proboard/32.
On January first, members of the ProBoard Mailing list
began to speculate on why it did not appear, and when it
would.
On January second, Philippe responded explaining that
there was no December release date after all, and it was all
a misunderstanding.
He mentioned that he is currently working on some other
project to provide himself immediate income, and that he
should be able to spend time developing Proboard once again
in "a few weeks" after his current project is done.