I was just going to come on and post an update.
We have just decided to spend one more week re-doing the message board software to optimize the experience for you lucky Smarchers. (Well, and we want people from all over the world to be able to see, read, and post on the message board despite whatever browsers/operating systems) and then we should be ready to fire the whole thing up.
I suspect we will have a first run, sort of a test drive, in which the current bb folk will get to climb all over the new toy and mess with it, then we'll open it to the public.
Announcement in the next few days, but that's the unofficial version. I'll have to check in with Deborah and Strangeshe, who have been doing a huge, womanly job getting the whole project done, before anything's official.