In short:
Yes.

In long:
The latest builds of b2evolution (Phoenix), have had massive changes to the plugin framework. So plugins can do more with less work.

v1.8-beta will be released soon (a few weeks), or so the word is.
But you can download the v1.8-beta release from here;
http://forums.b2evolution.net//viewtopic.php?t=7880

So it would not be worth while to download a v0.9 release when 1.8 is nearly ready, as you will be doing a lot of customizations on your site.

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Now would you be doing these customzations? How much experience with php do you have?

And are you planning to use b2evolution has your only CMS (Content Management System) ?

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And about your ideas;

Friends List;
I like this idea and will see what i can do.

Galleries;
http://forums.b2evolution.net//viewtopic.php?t=7880

New Blog upon user registration;
http://forums.b2evolution.net//viewtopic.php?t=8146
And buggedcom was also working on this... although i'm not sure what happened with his one.

Spam protection;
v1.8 releases have better spam protection.

Avatars;
I will be releasing a plugin that does user, blog, and category avatars, soon.

Blog customization;
Skins should be what you want, but if you would like more customization, it's on its way. I'm working on a new skinning system.

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So yeh, seeing 1.8 will be released soon, and it contains more than a years worth of requests and changes, it would be the better choice for what you want to do.

Hi, i'm not very experienced with php but I have been learning for a few weeks now. I plan on employing 3rd party plugins for functionality if i can. Web layout I will be attempting to do myself, including theming b2evolution. I'm unsure whether or not i should use b2evolution as the only cms. There wont be much other content on my site. If i can create my own index page linking to all the blogs and the registration page, surely that will be enough?

Also, I like the idea of having galleries per post, however I was looking for a more centralized gallery per user, if possible. If i used some third party gallery software, would it be too difficult to integrate b2evolution with it such that it was all governed with one user account?

Thanks,

John

Yeh, so try out the v1.8 release, see how you go.
And if you need extra functionality just post in the forums and we'll see what we can do.

Also, I like the idea of having galleries per post, however I was looking for a more centralized gallery per user, if possible. If i used some third party gallery software, would it be too difficult to integrate b2evolution with it such that it was all governed with one user account?

Using 3rd party software would just mean that another plugin would need to be made to integrate it. The Gallery Plugin is quite high on my importance list, and i'll see what i can do.

balupton wrote:

Yeh, so try out the v1.8 release, see how you go.
And if you need extra functionality just post in the forums and we'll see what we can do.

Also, I like the idea of having galleries per post, however I was looking for a more centralized gallery per user, if possible. If i used some third party gallery software, would it be too difficult to integrate b2evolution with it such that it was all governed with one user account?

Using 3rd party software would just mean that another plugin would need to be made to integrate it. The Gallery Plugin is quite high on my importance list, and i'll see what i can do.

Thanks a lot for your help man,

John

No problem, heres the Friends List topic;
http://forums.b2evolution.net//viewtopic.php?p=39543#39543