Proboards, and their new TOS.

Joshua Farrell

Joshua Farrell

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So, Proboards ( http://www.proboards.com/ ) just updated their main website with a new design, and a new TOS. What is different between their old and new TOS? Well, for one it is definitely longer. But, the main thing is, that allot of people kept questioning in the past, is the Official Language of the site. In the Old TOS, it stated that ALL Boards must be in English. Now it doesn't state that, and states that you can have your board in whatever language you want.

So, now no one will be reported for a TOS violation if they have their board in their own language.

Do you agree with the move or not?
 
Just looked, pretty simple yet nice design. It seems they've decided to put advertising for Proboards Off-line 🙁 I was going to get the 100,000 UV package 🙁
 
Well I can say this, the main site looks better than the forum software itself, however this is a matter of opinion.

The idea of letting people run a forum no matter the language is their choice, as long as they have people that can monitor those particular sites to make sure there isn't any violation of TOS 😕
 
Very nice site design! I think the new TOS is a step up for everyone affiliated and using Proboards.
 
I do like the ProBoards homepage. However, I have to admit, some of the legal mumbo jumbo in the TOS confused me. And do they really expect people to read that entire page, word per word? Some people can't even read a paragraph. >_>

I disagree with the non English portion. I've always reported TOS violators..but now..wtf. How are we supposed to know if a forum is breaking TOS if we don't even know what's being said? Jesus..they could be plotting a nuclear attack and we'd never know.
 
YOU HEREBY GRANT THE PROBOARDS PARTIES A PERPETUAL, FULLY PAID-UP, WORLDWIDE, SUBLICENSABLE, IRREVOCABLE, ASSIGNABLE LICENSE TO COPY, DISTRIBUTE, TRANSMIT, PUBLICLY DISPLAY OR PERFORM, EDIT, TRANSLATE, REFORMAT AND OTHERWISE USE USER CONTENT IN CONNECTION WITH THE OPERATION OF THE WEBSITE, SERVICES OR ANY OTHER SIMILAR OR RELATED BUSINESS, IN ANY MEDIUM NOW EXISTING OR LATER DEVISED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION IN ADVERTISING AND PUBLICITY.
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Their excessive use of capitals makes it somewhat difficult to read. But I'm actually rather worried about this quoted section. If my understanding of it is correct, basically it's saying that Proboards can take whatever I (or any of their users) submit and use it however they want, whenever they want and it never expires.
 
VirusZero bet me to it. The capitals are just ugly to suit a ToS, plus I dared myself to read them but gave up. I don't like the design, I think the designer just hit something up quickly and someone coded it quickly. I hate ProBoards.
 
Extending coverage to non-English boards is a bad idea, as Grievous mentioned. They sure do have a redundant ToS page, though.
 
VirusZero said:
YOU HEREBY GRANT THE PROBOARDS PARTIES A PERPETUAL, FULLY PAID-UP, WORLDWIDE, SUBLICENSABLE, IRREVOCABLE, ASSIGNABLE LICENSE TO COPY, DISTRIBUTE, TRANSMIT, PUBLICLY DISPLAY OR PERFORM, EDIT, TRANSLATE, REFORMAT AND OTHERWISE USE USER CONTENT IN CONNECTION WITH THE OPERATION OF THE WEBSITE, SERVICES OR ANY OTHER SIMILAR OR RELATED BUSINESS, IN ANY MEDIUM NOW EXISTING OR LATER DEVISED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION IN ADVERTISING AND PUBLICITY.
Click to expand...

Their excessive use of capitals makes it somewhat difficult to read. But I'm actually rather worried about this quoted section. If my understanding of it is correct, basically it's saying that Proboards can take whatever I (or any of their users) submit and use it however they want, whenever they want and it never expires.
Click to expand...

Several people asked about this. Patrick Clinger assured everyone that their info is safe, and will never be sold.
 
Maybe Patrick said so... but that's not really much of an assurance of anything. It may be safe, but by the sounds of it, it sounds more like it's safe in his hands... And of course I don't think it'd go over too well to tell people that: "Oh yeah, all your hard work and stuff is now mine to do with as I wish." So it probably make more sense for him to lie about it than anything.

Though given the fact of the way it's worded, it sounds like you're basically signing everything over to proboards, not just giving them permission to display it. (If it were simple display, they wouldn't need permission to edit, translate or reformat it. As well the fact that it's irrevocable and sublicensable? Yeah, seems like a lot more than mere display to me. That sounds very much like a claim of co-ownership over your material.)
 
Proboards never deletes or closes any boards. Someone could be running a forum where people came to plot the doom of the world and it wouldnt get shut down. 😛

Anyways, the new home page looks nice but I dont like the icons they used next to this part
Free
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Simple
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What exactly did Patrick say on the new TOS when questioned about it? Did he say anywhere that "No, it does not mean we can use your stuff without your express permission if you'd prefer we not do so? We would never under any circumstances use any of your information or material on your boards without your express permission first?"

By the way, Proboards banned me from their support board without any explanation some days after they discovered that I copied/moved my board from there to SMF. And I'm tired of going over to proboards support on hidemyass.com just to read their newspeak. 😛
 
Acorn said:
Proboards banned me from their support board without any explanation some days after they discovered that I copied/moved my board from there to SMF.
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What? Thats insane! 😱
 
Their ToS is boring and as mentioned above is constructed as though it is only legible to people with degrees in English. The design looks like it was made by an aspiring web developer at the age of five.
 
General Grievous said:
I do like the ProBoards homepage. However, I have to admit, some of the legal mumbo jumbo in the TOS confused me. And do they really expect people to read that entire page, word per word? Some people can't even read a paragraph. >_>

I disagree with the non English portion. I've always reported TOS violators..but now..wtf. How are we supposed to know if a forum is breaking TOS if we don't even know what's being said? Jesus..they could be plotting a nuclear attack and we'd never know.
Click to expand...

I haven't been on Proboards in quite sometime, and I agree that all boards should be in English. Heck, I for one refuse to join a forum that's highly in Japanese, as I have never studied the language. Also, even though I am Polish, I don't exactly care to join a forum that's 100% in Polish, either. Of course, if a site was totally in Polish and they translated into accurate English, then I would probably join, and I'm not reading their new TOS either, especially since from the sample post, it's all in capital letters.
 
I hope that people who like the TOS as it is are just fine with their stuff and information being used by any third party who coughs up enough cash to buy licenses for it.

Also noticed that bit about people who use ad blockers being disallowed from using the service altogether. I wouldn't mind displaying their ads--if I hadn't been around during that scare of ad viruses that popped up last November and continued on through April.

I will never create or join another proboards forum for as long as I live.
 
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