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Flarum

COLLAB
Velocity2.5

Lightweight open-source discussion and forum software

flarum.org ↗

Flarum's 2.0 has been in release-candidate territory for most of a year.

forum-softwaremajor-version-rcquery-performanceextension-apiphpstabilisation
◆Current state
Flarum is an open-source forum framework whose entire recent release history is the 2.0 train — beta.8 in March, then five release candidates from April through July. The candidates ship on a three-to-six week rhythm, and most of them publish nothing beyond a pointer to the changelog file in the tag. The last releases carrying visible detail were the earlier ones, where the work was database and rendering performance plus extension-compatibility fixes.
◆Where it's heading
The substance that is visible points at making large forums viable: eliminating N+1 queries on the discussion list, adding a composite index to fix slow unread-notification counts, and caching scheduler timestamps. Those are the changes a forum makes when instances have outgrown the original query patterns. The steady RC cadence with no beta regression suggests a stabilisation grind rather than continued feature work — but the opaque release notes make the remaining scope hard to read from outside.
◆Prediction
A 2.0 stable release is the obvious next step, though five candidates without a published scope makes the timing unclear. Watch whether rc.6 arrives on the same three-to-six week spacing or the gap widens.

◆Recent moves

  1. 23d ago

    Flarum 2.0 release candidate 5

    The fifth 2.0 candidate, published with no release notes beyond a link to the changelog in the tag. It continues the roughly monthly RC cadence, but nothing in the entry indicates what changed or how close the stable release is.

    View source ↗
  2. 1mo ago

    Flarum 2.0 release candidate 4

    Another candidate in the 2.0 sequence, again shipped with only a changelog pointer. The three-week gap from rc.3 fits the stabilisation pattern, but the release itself surfaces nothing an operator can act on.

    View source ↗
  3. 1mo ago

    Flarum 2.0 release candidate 3

    The third candidate, published eight days after rc.2 with no described changes. The tightening gap between rc.2 and rc.3 is the only signal here, and it points at fixes landing faster than features.

    View source ↗
  4. 2mo ago

    Flarum 2.0 release candidate 2

    The first candidate after rc.1 to drop detailed notes in favour of a changelog link, setting the pattern the rest of the RC train follows. Nothing user-visible is described.

    View source ↗
  5. 3mo ago

    Flarum 2.0 RC1 fixes discussion-list and notification query costs

    The last release with a readable changelog, and the clearest view of what 2.0 is actually about: N+1 queries eliminated on the discussion list, a composite index added to fix slow unread-count queries, trailing slashes stripped before route dispatch, and a PHP warning suppressed when an extension name lacks vendor/package format. This is the performance and extension-compatibility work that makes the version worth the major bump.

    View source ↗
  6. 4mo ago

    Flarum 2.0 beta 8 smooths discussion loading

    The final beta before the candidate train, focused on reading experience: no scroll jump when loading a discussion at a specific post, a pop-in animation on the first post, and a colour-scheme property on the root stylesheet. A scheduler timestamp is now cached rather than recomputed, continuing the same query-cost theme that carries into RC1.

    View source ↗