WordPress 3.0 Release Candidate Available for Testing

The WordPress development team announced the first release candidate for WordPress 3.0 is now available for download. Users with all levels of experience are encouraged to grab the files and give it a whirl to help work out any remaining kinks. The team is encouraging plugin authors to test their plugins as soon as possible to work out any issues ahead of the final release, and theme and plugin users are encouraged to report any bugs they encounter to its authors.

WordPress 3.0 looks like an especially compelling release of the seven-year old blogging platform. The much-anticipated custom menu system features lots of drag-and-drop options along with the ability to create sub-menus hide specific pages, and more. The WordPress admin page has also been altered to users to focus more on content. For a full rundown of new features and enhancements, check out this handy guide.

If you are testing the RC and come across a bug, you can:

* Report it on the wp-testers mailing list

* Join the dev chat and tell us live at irc.freenode.net #wordpress-dev

* File a bug ticket on the WordPress Trac

Remember not to run WordPress 3.0 RC1 live on your site because it's not yet ready for prime time. The final version is slated to be released later this month.

(Disclosure: Automattic, the parent company of WordPress, is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of this blog, Giga Omni Media. Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, is also a venture partner at True.)