look down on new forums.

[ros]

I've noticed this, but at the same time there can be large forum backlash too. I'm part of the RPG world especially the small scale RPG world and I have noticed that a LOT of people deliberately seek a smaller sized board to roleplay on instead of a large one.

^^Ditto. Most roleplayers wouldn't be caught dead on a site over 30 members. Of course, that just means they are on sites that die. A lot. Personally, I never understood the "Must have more than 5 members, but less than 25" thing, but I also don't enjoy 'shipping or only playing one-on-one. They also wouldn't be caught dead on a site with a domain, and usually will only play on one particular forum host, and reject all others. Most people though, get ideas in their heads, hear one person say it, and then decide that's how it has to be forever and ever more, and heaven forbid you try to change it.

 

[fantanoice]

Honestly though Ashley, I understand if you are unemployed but if you have any income at all (yes including pocket money!) you should be able to pay 4-5$ a month in hosting. I've seen hosting plans for 3.50$ and less. And domains cost 11$ a year at most. If you care about your site you should just go and mow some lawns, seriously. I'm a poor student with no income bar what my parents choose to give me, yet I get by.

Ultimately if you show that you are willing so sacrifice some money to run your site then it shows that you take it seriously. I know that some people on free hosts do take their projects seriously - but they are submerged in a pit of others who set their forums up and leave within a month. Also, most administrators on free host forums that do care about their communities go on paid hosting as soon as they get a chance.

Off topic:

Dollar sign comes before the digits, in case you were wondering.

Personally, I think if an Admin should be more concerned about spending time into getting their forums some posts and activity, instead of worrying about the posting and money. Hosting has no say in how the community runs because that is dependent on the members and staff. It see it as more of a security thing as well as providing more the users.

Which is fair enough, because it benefits the members and staff.

What gets me annoyed is when paid forum owners talk down to those on free hosts because 'members won't choose them because their free'. In reality, most members wouldn't have a clue about what's behind the scenes and wouldn't care about what the forum provider is. The average member may look at both, compare how the other members treat them, then make their choice.

But of course, if you can afford it, then the benefits are worth it.


Anyway, while we're on the subject of massive, free forums, you could always give this a whirl:
http://resources.zetaboards.com/index/


Oh and for the record, I've been running my forum for 5 years on two free hosts. I'd say that's pretty dedicated and 'serious'. Really, how many of you others can boost about that, even on a paid host? 😉

---

On topic:

I don't look down on new forums. Heck, I've even found them to be 'better' than bigger in many instances, simply because the community is small and you get to know the folk quicker.

I've always disliked that on some big boards, you can post 100 or so times and people still won't remember you. On smaller boards, you get noticed much quicker, which is a nicer feeling.

 

[DarkRaven]

Honestly though Ashley, I understand if you are unemployed but if you have any income at all (yes including pocket money!) you should be able to pay 4-5$ a month in hosting. I've seen hosting plans for 3.50$ and less. And domains cost 11$ a year at most. If you care about your site you should just go and mow some lawns, seriously. I'm a poor student with no income bar what my parents choose to give me, yet I get by.

Ultimately if you show that you are willing so sacrifice some money to run your site then it shows that you take it seriously. I know that some people on free hosts do take their projects seriously - but they are submerged in a pit of others who set their forums up and leave within a month. Also, most administrators on free host forums that do care about their communities go on paid hosting as soon as they get a chance.

Off topic:

Dollar sign comes before the digits, in case you were wondering.

I never understood why some people write backwards. ''Two hundred dollars'' reads so much better than ''dollars two hundred''. 😛 Also, you are the first person in the years I spent foruming to take me up on this.

Personally, I think if an Admin should be more concerned about spending time into getting their forums some posts and activity, instead of worrying about the posting and money. Hosting has no say in how the community runs because that is dependent on the members and staff. It see it as more of a security thing as well as providing more the users.

Which is fair enough, because it benefits the members and staff.

Invisionfree and Zetaboards are an exception to this rule, but most free hosts only have a limited selection of, say fifty themes, for you to choose from. Free hosts use jscript mods which are insecure and buggy. There were numerous times on my Zetaboards forum where a mods conflicted with each other. I think that having good mods and themes is important for the people that use your site. If your forum looks bad, then you won't get many people joining. If you can't provide good features that they see on all the other forums in town, then they won't stay long.

What gets me annoyed is when paid forum owners talk down to those on free hosts because 'members won't choose them because their free'. In reality, most members wouldn't have a clue about what's behind the scenes and wouldn't care about what the forum provider is. The average member may look at both, compare how the other members treat them, then make their choice.

But of course, if you can afford it, then the benefits are worth it.

A major problem with many free hosts is the domain name such as: forumname.forumhost.com, or forumhost.com/forumname. These are often hard to remember. Some will make it easier using subdomains like co.cc, or redirects such as dot.tk. The thing is that dot.coms are still easier to remember than these. Even if it is a subconscious decision, people will gravitate towards dot.coms more than co.ccs.

Another serious problem with free hosts is ads. I know that many of you who put up ads filter out those Evony, Mate1 and other annoying ones, but Free hosts don't have this luxury. I had a lot of complaints about certain ads when I was on Zetaboards. Paying to remove ads costs more than most basic paid hosting packages.

Anyway, while we're on the subject of massive, free forums, you could always give this a whirl:
http://resources.zetaboards.com/index/

That is a forum that caters for all the users of Zetaboards and InvisionFree. I could point to the phpBB3 support forums, SMF support forums, MyBB support forums, IPB support forum and vBulletin support forums. Not to mention the large modification and themes forums for all of those.

Oh and for the record, I've been running my forum for 5 years on two free hosts. I'd say that's pretty dedicated and 'serious'. Really, how many of you others can boost about that, even on a paid host? 😉

All I can say is that you will find yourself much more in control. In the year that I was with ZB, server one went down something like eight times. At least now my hosting company are obliged to provide 99% uptime or they will lose me, and every other customer they have, when it comes to renewal.

---

On topic:

I don't look down on new forums. Heck, I've even found them to be 'better' than bigger in many instances, simply because the community is small and you get to know the folk quicker.

I've always disliked that on some big boards, you can post 100 or so times and people still won't remember you. On smaller boards, you get noticed much quicker, which is a nicer feeling.

Hmm, I've found that when forums get to be big each individual section becomes like a forum of it's own. I used to be a big fan of the Inheritance Cycle about a year or so ago, so I joined http://inheritanceforums.com. While I no longer am a fan, I still post around the off topic section with about fifty or so other regular non fans. I'm pretty well known there, but the people who post in the ''Cycle'' forums won't know me.

The same with FP. The only people I ''know'' here are the ones that post in Admin Discussion.

 

[DracoJesi]

I'd like to point out that some paid hosts do install things for you. (even if most don't it's still worth mentioning)

Paid hosts usually get the idea that if you are using their services then free boards don't meet your needs and not only to you know what your looking for.. you know how to run the software yourself.

They still run php and everything themselves, and are often willing to help you if they can so it's not like you are completely on your own.

I would also like to point out that not all free hosts set things up for you and you can get free web hosting with php installed and a MySQL database installed were you can then upload the software, configure it and go from there.

That's not to say these solutions are as good as paid hosts as they usually have restrictions and usually can't be bothered to edit the php install if you need something enabled or disabled to run something..

The point being.. I see people on this forum going "paid vs free" when those terms are obsolete in really determining the quality of the site.

Allot of the free forum hosts are proprietary (well, as proprietary as web code can get )... but so are boards like vB, which is great quality wise... so that method won't work either.

I guess integrated vs non-integrated?

Were integrated hosting means all your resources are integrated into the hosting plan and that's all you can use.

as were non-iiintegrated means you can use third-party software.

We could say open vs closed hosting...

But I think we obviously need a new system here because what ends up happening is that all free hosted forums, regardless of quality, end up getting labeled as crap just because the majority of them are very buggy, featureless and ugly.

 

[CaptianSyrup]

Dark: Why even care about the domain and hosting? It is just a url.

I would say hosting comes first, then a domain. Personally I feel that as long as the URL is memorable I don't care if it is a co.cc or a dot com. Dot coms are easier to remember however.

I agree. I even think that some hosting sites have easier to memorize urls than others. I mean, which is easier? yourname.smfforfree.com or s1.zetaboards.com/yourforumsname? Personally, I think the first one is better. If someone had the second one, then at least a .co.cc domain would be wise. But most hosting sites are good at having easy-to-remember urls.

There's such a thing called bookmarking.
It's been around since like,forever.
I fail to see how having a hosted website makes you a better admin or owner because you went to GoDaddy.com and bought a domain.
It does however help search engines find your forum better. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but if you just want a small community it's not a big deal.

I've always felt while rummaging across some forums and networks that some people who have self-hosted boards seem to think they're better than everyone else. There are self-hosted forums that are pure doodoo. GaiaOnline is poorly moderated and highly inhospitable for children as much as their lying behinds would like to believe.

If the admin is comfortable with what freedom he or she has been given, why are you trying to convert them? Their members are enjoying themselves, the admin is enjoying their forum, I fail to see the problem. Not directing this to anyone here but I'm referring to a certain mindset of people. I know not all are like this.

 

[DracoJesi]

I agree, but why bring up Gaiaonline?

Gaiaonline isn't the best for children but to be fair, it was never meant to be and actually started out as an anime-themed dating site.

That said, there forums are poorly moderated. Sometimes I wonder if they are even moderated at all and then I get a cryptic warning that my thread wasn't a topic thread and didn't foster conversation.

It did have a topic and was asking a question. :/

It wasn't even inappropriate.. If I remember correctly it was something about Linux, a "would you consider trying" thread I had posted to fight the myths about it after I saw some rather ignorant posts there.

Apparently, that wasn't allowed but racism is...

 

[CaptianSyrup]

I saw an ad about GaiaOnline on another site.XD
Convenient.

What I was getting at that it's the admin who makes the forum-it's not always about the software.

I think if the admin decides to self-host then hey, more power to them.
I'll join a board self-hosted or not. If I see something interesting I'll join.
People don't give new forums a chance because they're not the type of people who want to help give birth to a community..I think it's really hard to find helpful members these days . I'm not talking about linking to us or anything, I'm talking about helping create conversations and bring life to a community.
They aren't bad people, they're just the types that enjoy the ambiance of an already active,large community.

 

[Ki Adi Mundi]

I do not look down on new forums- I see them as new grounds to promote my forum. I do, however, tend to.. not necessarily look down upon, but cringe at, "free" forums, like Proboards sites.

They are (more often than not) horrid looking, and usually over-crowded with too many sub-sections.

 

[Nebulous]

I dont look down on new forums. Every forum started out with no members.

 

[DracoJesi]

I agree.

It is hard, and in the end it doesn't matter what software you use because a forum is only as good as it's members in the long run.

Also, when I think of self-hosted, I think of running your own server.. not going with a paid-host. :lol:

 

[Acorn]

I don't look down on small forums at all, people forget that a small board does certain things better than a large one; but I have a great disdain for those that look down on boards like mine because they're free hosted. I hate snobs, PERIOD.

 

[Ki Adi Mundi]

It's not about being a snob. Now, this doesn't apply to all small free sites, but the bulk of them are terrible on the eyes. Some of the coolest forums I have ever visited (atmosphere wise) were Proboards sites, but I never made a commitment to them, because of the horrible layouts. No amount of skinning can fix broken designs.

 

[Acorn]

I know exactly what you mean...during my ad runs I've run across many atrocities. Some were so bad as to be laughably so. But folks should judge sites on how good or bad they are individually, and not a blanket judgement based on what provider they use. There's another word for a blanket judgement and it's called prejudice.

 

[fantanoice]

The Proboards site I frequent most, Nintendo Addict, has some pretty nice, custom designs. The Admin makes them himself, which is pretty cool as well.

The layouts on Brawl Domain are nice too, because I think most of theirs are custom designed as well.

Though I do agree, I have seen some terrible layouts for Proboards before.

 

[ros]

There are a lot of self-hosted sites that have hideous designs, too. A premade skin/theme can be made ugly by a really tacky banner. It's not the host; it's the admin that chooses the design. And, I've found that a lot of these types of admins aren't really open to suggestions about it, either.

 

[Uphoreka]

Yeah. I do that a lot.

 

[DoC]

If the founder is commited then no I don't look down on new forums however if they just expect their forum to just randomly take off then yes.

 

[Dasher]

Like one that started off on a free host and now has almost 3.50 K posts and over 5K members.

Lmao, I know what forum that is. I can't get it out though....It's at the tip of my tounge, FORUM PROMOTION. Right?

 

[David]

BTW 50Cent, you might seem that way because you never stick to one single solitary idea. Being dedicated to an idea is really the best way to get members. They will see you as a dedicated admin and so they would want to help you, but from your track record, you haven't stuck to one forum yet, always closing and opening another, expecting that people will just join.