The team is proud to announce the release of BlogEngine.NET version 1.6.  With several new features and numerous improvements and bug fixes, this is a must upgrade version for current BlogEngine.NET users and those interested in entering the blog scene.

For those who receive a steady dose of comment spam (and who doesn't!), a new powerful Comment Management and Comment Spam Filtering infrastruture has been added in version 1.6.  Comments across all posts can be viewed, edited, deleted or approved in one convenient area.  Comments can still be manually moderated, but now moderation can be automated by running comments thru remote or local comment spam validation services.  Anyone can easily build new comment spam filters and plug them into BlogEngine.NET.  It's just as simple as adding custom Extensions and Widgets is.

The other notable feature in version 1.6 is support for multiple widget zones.  You can now place widgets anywhere on your site, and even move widgets from one zone to another.

A complete list of new features can be found here.

If you're upgrading from BlogEngine.NET version 1.5 or earlier, please take a minute to read these upgrade instructions.

There have been quite a few additions to resource file for upcoming BlogEngine.NET 1.6 release. These changes are finalized as change-set 1.5.1.39 at CodePlex - unless you come up with really good reason for improvement, which is always welcome. If you are maintaining a language pack, this is a good time to get it up to date. Please submit your translations as a patch at CodePlex or upload it here.

Thank you for your help!

We are very happy to make available a release candidate for BlogEngine.NET 1.5 today. Version 1.5 has been in the works for a long time and we decided to make a release candidate available before me make the final release this time around.  You can get it here.

BlogEngine.NET 1.5 includes:

Improved Metaweblog API: This version of BlogEngine has improved our capabilities yet again.  We now support tagging calls (as used in the latest version of Windows Live Writer) and updated some issues with dates and images.

For those who prefer to use the web to update their posts, we have a TinyMCE update.

BlogEngine.NET 1.5 now supports nested comments.

Various performance improvements, bug fixes and much more as well.

Just before Christmas, we released the first theme pack for BlogEngine.NET 1.4 and 1.4.5. You can download it at CodePlex.The themes will also work with the new BlogEngine.NET 1.5 that will be released soon.

The theme pack contain themes designed and created by the community, and compiled into a downloadable theme pack by Janko. The team would like to thank anyone involved in creating the themes and a special thanks to Janko for his hard work with putting the themes together, cleaning them and getting permission from the creators.

Go check out the themes, they look and work great. Download the theme pack now.

I just saw that the Web Deployment Tool for IIS 7 was demoed using BlogEngine.NET 1.4.5. There is a great video of it right here http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/ES15/.

The Web Deployment Tool is something that we will make sure to support. It will make installing much easier - especially for shared hosting environments.

In October, Al Nyveldt and Mads Kristensen met in New York City to talk about the future of BlogEngine.NET. It was also the first time that they have met face-to-face in the physical world and it was after 1½ years of collaboration on the project.

In the near future we will plan the roadmap for BlogEngine.NET 1.5 and get working on it.

Earlier today, Daniel Frost posted a way to do multiblogging with BlogEngine.NET using the IIS 7 API. It looks really simple and easy to use and it all happens within your blog installation - no fiddling with the server each time a new blog should be created. The best part is that it looks so easy and require almost no code and no changes to BlogEngine.NET is required.

I know this is a feature that a lot of people want in BlogEngine.NET, but for now I would recommend you take a look at Daniel's solution.

Hi folks. It’s about time we put out a theme pack for BlogEngine.NET 1.4.5. By now we do have a few themes, but we would love to have many more. So, if you have been designing any themes and want to have them included in the theme pack, please send them or a link to them here.

The themes must be using the widget framework and be XHTML compliant and work on the 1.4.5 release. Remember to add your credentials to the bottom of the theme to get some link traffic.

In the next couple of weeks, we will be compiling all the themes and then release the theme pack. If more come in later on, we can make another theme pack.

Thanks.

Hi folks. It’s about time we put out a theme pack for BlogEngine.NET 1.4.5. By now we do have a few themes, but we would love to have many more. So, if you have been designing any themes and want to have them included in the theme pack, please send them or a link to them here.

The themes must be using the widget framework and be XHTML compliant and work on the 1.4.5 release. Remember to add your credentials to the bottom of the theme to get some link traffic.

In the next couple of weeks, we will be compiling all the themes and then release the theme pack. If more come in later on, we can make another theme pack.

Thanks.

The line of web hosting providers that offer BlogEngine.NET as part of their product to their customers is growing. We just received this email from ASPHostCentral:

[...] I am pleased to inform you that my company, ASPHostCentral.com, has included your excellent blog product into our hosting environment. The product specification can be found on: http://www.asphostcentral.com/BlogEngineHosting.aspx [...]

That’s very cool and will hopefully make it possible for BlogEngine.NET to reach a new audience. Thanks.