Following
@Chris D's comments yesterday, I'd like to briefly explain some of what's been going on.
Along with a bunch of major performance improvements and new features that are on the slate for 2.3, one of the main things on our list to do was a totally new master style. This has been largely my domain, and I have to say I'm really looking forward to unveiling it.
However, as the design was finalised and the technology behind it was being integrated, we turned our attention to how to migrate existing styles over to the new system in as much as would be possible. It was at this point that we realised that the new style is so dramatically different in its approach that we would need to spend a disproportionate amount of time producing some sort of migration system, and that it would be unlikely to be able to do a decent job given the vast gamut of customisation options available in the existing style system.
As you will know, because we place enormous value in our ability to provide a stable and reliable architecture upon which third parties can build plug-ins, extensions, applications and also styles, we make huge efforts to retain backward compatibility wherever possible when putting out a second-point release (2.1, 2.2 etc.).
It became clear that the new style would unavoidably introduce significant breakage to third party integrations, and reluctantly we decided to hold it back so that customers can benefit from the rest of what 2.3 has to offer, without needing to do extensive work to make existing third-party functionality and styles work with the new system. Some of the back-end customisation tools of the new style have been retained as they don't require drastic changes to templates or third-party styles, but the new style itself won't be released with 2.3.
That said, we have decided to switch to a different model for the way we release XenForo updates. While previously we have targeted fairly massive releases packed with new features, this has led to extended periods between those releases. I think it's fair to say that we are as fed up with that model as many of you are. There are features we finished
ages ago that are slated for 2.3 release but have been held up waiting for other things to be completed.
After 2.3, we will introduce our new release model, where we will target a
single major new feature with each release. That's not to say that other features definitely won't make it because of course they will, but instead of having a big slate of functionality to introduce with each x.y release, we'll get that one major feature done and hit the release button. The intention is that we'll have
much more regular feature releases.
The first of those releases will be XenForo 3.0. Right now, the only feature we are definitely pursuing for that release will be the new style and as such, we hope that 3.0 will follow 2.3 in a relatively short time, as it should be effectively 2.3+style. Once 2.3 is out, we'll be getting in touch with major XenForo style producers to help them get ready for the 3.0 style, so that by the time it's ready for release there should be good third party support ready to go.
So, sorry for the delay, but rest assured we are working hard behind the scenes to bring you great software in the near future.
