After waiting more than 6 months for news about a possible release of K 3.0.7, an announce­ment was made on 1 February at the Kunena website.  It is not suprising that this announcement did not generate a scramble to download this latest version because people would have to be regular visitors at the Kunena website to have been aware of it.  If you follow the project on Facebook, there was no announcement made there.  If you follow the project on Google+ there is no announcement about K 3.0.7 there, either.  If you use Twitter to find out the latest news about Kunena, the developers did not make any announcement about K 3.0.7 there, as well.  In fact, the first “tweet” about K 3.0.7 was made by someone who is not even a member of the Kunena team and it appeared nearly three weeks after K 3.0.7 was released.

This raises some concerns about how the Kunena team is looking after their own interests in keeping the community informed about what is going on.  If it wasn’t for independent websites, like this one and others, people probably would not know what is going on.

Happy New Year to all my readers. I hope that 2015, as far as Kunena is concerned, will start on a happier note than the situation as we saw at the end of 2014. Since the release of K 3.0.6 in July last year, there has been very little news about Kunena from the development team prompting a number of questions to be asked on the Kunena forum about what is happening and whether the project is still “alive”. Fortunately, for all of us who have been using Kunena for a number of years, it appears that a new release [K 3.0.7] is expected soon! This is good news after waiting six months for some relief concerning many problems that have been reported over that time.

Although the release of K 3.0.7 is long overdue, this news could not come at a better time because K 3.0.7 will be needed by people who adopt J! 3.4 when the new version of Joomla is released (rumoured to be in a couple of weeks' time). Put another way, when J! 3.4 is released, the current stable release of Kunena will not install on Joomla 3.4.

Correction
Based on new information, I need to correct information about K 3.0.6 that I previously believed to be correct. I have been assured by one of the Kunena developers that K 3.0.6 will install on J! 3.4. I hope this new information lessens any concerns people may have about the future of Kunena and Joomla. The real test, of course, will be when J! 3.4 is released as a stable version.

For those who are interested in K 3.0.7, please read on.

As we come to the end of what has been a disappointing year for the Kunena project, I have been trying to think of a few positive things to write. Kunena is more than just an open-source, web-based discussion forum product that people can download and install at no cost: it is something I am particularly fond of; I would regret seeing its development end and thousands of hours of work become an historical footnote. The sad truth is that the Kunena project has been suffering for far too long and a top-level management restructure is long overdue.

Kunena has enjoyed considerable success over the last six years, rising to become one of the popular extensions used with Joomla. However, while Kunena has been successful in the past, its future is unclear. For over six months there have been no reliable or regular information updates from the Kunena developers. People can draw their own conclusions about this information vacuum but I believe the main reason is the failure of project management at the top. Strategically, Kunena has failed as a project because of the overall inefficiency in its current management: there is no coherent plan or timetable, publicity or marketing narrative to encourage users that a future version (or versions) of Kunena can reasonably be expected.

Of course it troubles me to publicly state my conclusions because of my fondness for Kunena and out of respect for the people with whom I have worked for nearly six years. However, when there are more than just murmurs of discontent within the Kunena community, and when I am frequently asked what I know about the state of the project, perhaps it's time to openly discuss what has gone wrong and how we may be able to fix things … if indeed there's anyone else who feels, as I do, that things can be fixed.

Even the developers admit that K 3.1 is flailing

The latest news about Kunena 3.1 is not encouraging

We unfortunately do not have much new information to share. We have various team members still working on pieces of the software and those parts are progressing (templating, design, etc.). However we have limited experienced architecture developers that can take the current algorithmic code and have a wide experience and knowledge in how to fix and implement some blocking problems to get Kunena 3.1 ready. I foresee a stalled situation until we get our time (which relates to cost) of developing Kunena. "coder4life", When will K 3.1 be released?, 24-Nov-2014

I do not think that anyone requires a crystal ball to “foresee” the stagnation of the Kunena project. For those of you who have followed my blog over the past few months, I think it's as clear as daylight that announcements like the one you see above are little more than a veiled admission that the developers lack confidence in their own ability to shift the project into gear and get it on track again. What is required, in addressing this issue, is less excuses, less political spin and more action.

In my previous article, I warned of the dangers for the Kunena project about the development of K 3.1 and the diminishing likelihood that (a) a stable release of K 3.1 is expected soon and (b) developers would be able to support it afterwards. If you have been feeling pessimistic, like the dozen or so people who have recently asked me about the status of Kunena, you could be forgiven for your pessimism and I wish I had more reassuring news for you.

About six months ago, I asked the Kunena developers to give me an indication when people might expect to see a beta test release of K 3.1 and a target for stable version that could be released to the public. The timeframe estimate was for late 2014 (possibly before Christmas this year) but that target has since been “revised”. According to the Kunena Wiki site, the release date for K 3.1 is “TBD”—I assume this means “to be determined”. According to another member of the development team, K 3.1 beta is “almost available for download” but that information was posted six weeks ago and there has been no further announcement since then. The growing reality is that K 3.1 is still vaguely being promised and this is not inspiring confidence in the Kunena brand.