[3][better source needed] Moon announced the release of Phorum 3.0 on 28 July 1999 using version 3 of PHP and supporting both a MySQL and PostgresSQL backend databases.

[4] In 2000, Dan Langille[5][better source needed] joined the Phorum team and has concentrated on maintaining the PostgreSQL code.

In 2001, Thomas Seifert of MySnip.de[6][better source needed] came on board, contributing an internal user system in Phorum.

[citation needed] Key enhancements introduced with 5.2 included a new template which is totally based on XHTML and the addition of a publicly documented API for allowing other applications to integrate with Phorum.

[2][11][12] Sheffield Hallam university School of Mathematics attempted to use a web-based discussion forum for student communication but utilization proved poor in practice and e-mail based lists were found to be more productive.