Today the bbPress team is happy to tell you about bbPress 2.4, release candidate 1.

bbPress 2.4 introduces hierarchical replies, allowing you to pick between paginated topics or a hierarchy (similar to WordPress’s comments.) There are a few smaller improvements all around, including: pretty URL’s for search results pages, code posting, an Akismet admin UI, BuddyPress Group Forum integration, general query improvements, PHP 5.4 E_STRICT notices, theme compatibility, author metaboxes, some settings API changes, and more!

Please give bbPress 2.4 RC 1 a try a test site — or wherever you feel comfortable running it — and let us know if you run into any issues. If all goes well, we’re going to release 2.4 next week.

(Don’t forget… to get easy access to pre-releases, install the bbPress Beta Tester plugin.)