ProBoards
- Thread starter uwajim
- Start date
I started on InvisionFree (February 2005) and then later joined a proboards site (September 2005)... and proboards was ok. I did find though it lacked one important tool... A split/merge feature. (This was finally added in 2011, almost 8 years after IPB 1.3 had one.)
For a time proboards did everything I needed it to. It had a post button and people to talk with.
But as time went on, other hosts started to stand out more. They had more features and were improving at much quicker rates while proboards was plodding away. proboard's improvements were slow rolling out (as in they were slow to develop and then slow to actually be implemented), generally buggy (they always seemed to break a lot of the various codes installed) and at times they promised features and then never delivered them.
So in (January) 2008 I moved onto Jcink Forum Hosting and I haven't left there since then.
Would I go back to proboards now? No.
If I don't use JFH, I'd probably just go with either IcyBoards or a self-hosted MyBB forum. (Probably self-hosted now more than IcyBoards simply because I am paying for hosting...)
For a time proboards did everything I needed it to. It had a post button and people to talk with.
But as time went on, other hosts started to stand out more. They had more features and were improving at much quicker rates while proboards was plodding away. proboard's improvements were slow rolling out (as in they were slow to develop and then slow to actually be implemented), generally buggy (they always seemed to break a lot of the various codes installed) and at times they promised features and then never delivered them.
So in (January) 2008 I moved onto Jcink Forum Hosting and I haven't left there since then.
Would I go back to proboards now? No.
If I don't use JFH, I'd probably just go with either IcyBoards or a self-hosted MyBB forum. (Probably self-hosted now more than IcyBoards simply because I am paying for hosting...)
I used ProBoards for a few years. I have always loved the ProBoards community, but with all of the stuff going on with Version 5, I decided that I would turn the change into an opportunity to move on to better things. I honestly decided that if I was going to learn everything over again with the new version, I might as well just take the time to learn about a free forum software, not a free forum host. I am not a big fan of Version 5 anyways though. I am hoping things get better as the resources pile up, not for me, but for the future of ProBoards. I would love to see ProBoards as the best free forum host on the internet. 🙂
Rick Ace said:
lol judge much
doesnt mean i dont know proboards......
i have actually been to proboards many times in the past, help moderating/administrating others there
i have a different opinion
just because a lot of people say it used to better.... doesnt mean i have to go along with it
doesnt mean i dont know proboards......
i have actually been to proboards many times in the past, help moderating/administrating others there
i have a different opinion
just because a lot of people say it used to better.... doesnt mean i have to go along with it
SD. said:
Not to judge lol. 😛 But I'm just an annoyed member of many years. The team really doesn't listen to what people want. If you look at all the coders/designers that have raged at their support forum...
And look at how inactive their support forum is now...
You'll see what I mean lol. And I'm speaking from another perspective. For RPs, it's been a lot better. 🙂
Quacker Jack
Madly Diligent
Rick Ace said:
This. I've been a longtime part of the PB community, but I phased it out as well. The design community collapsed a while ago, and the coding community I doubt is to happy with the new system. All the active non-RPG forums are dead.
Now if you have an RPG forum, go proboards all the way.
Rick Ace said:
ProBoards Version 5 seems to have been specifically made to fit roleplay forums. I understand the move from a business perspective with the large amount of roleplay forums, but they have just kind of given all other forum genres the cold shoulder, in my opinion.
Not to be too hard on proboards, but the moves they've made to incorporate roleplayers are minimal at best and there are numerous other hosts that provide far superior services for the same cost (or less). And even then a lot of roleplayers (especially ones I've come across) tend to be rather against proboards due to proboards being much stricter about enforcing their ToS. (Which roleplayers tend to hate because most of them want to be able to post M rated content anywhere they want and don't care it's against their ToS. Which is why they rather like InvisionFree. They treat it like an abandoned building that someone still pays utilities for... free to use and do whatever they want with and without any rules or repercussions.)
Both Jcink Forum Hosting (JFH) and IcyBoards (IB) provide sub-accounts system to facilitate multiple accounts per user (while from what I've heard from users of v5 is that v5's version is broken and doesn't work properly most of the time). I'm pretty sure that they also both have jQuery loaded by default (I know JFH does, but I'm not 100% on IB). Both allow users to set their own domains for free (as I understand it, proboards has a ridiculous 14$ a year fee on top of the yearly domain fees). Both have a shop mod built right in.
These are just a few areas where these two hosts are superior. (There are more, but I don't want to spend too long dwelling on this point.)
And I suppose part of the reason they made those changes to begin with was because they were losing a lot of boards to competitors. (I mean I know of probably a dozen or so admins that I've helped move off proboards... even before they released version 5. And I've heard of numerous others also making the jump. So this isn't an uncommon thing.)
Though to mention some things they had done previously which had pissed people off...
For a while (late 2011 to early 2012) they had an extra page on member registration for more advertising. (Pictured here and here) So when you registered they'd offer to sign you up for newsletters/emails from their selected affiliates or whatever. You could opt out, but a lot of people were pissed off over that even being there to begin with. They viewed it as unnecessary step in registration and a deliberate money grab attempt. I don't know if they removed this since or not (I don't use proboards anymore).
Even this whole v5 thing has been pretty hard for them. Many people seem to hate the changes they've brought about.
Others are pissed off that the changes have taken so long to make. (If I remember correctly, if not please correct me, they promised v5 would be out by the end of 2012. But it was late January 2013 before people could even opt in for early conversions. )
Both Jcink Forum Hosting (JFH) and IcyBoards (IB) provide sub-accounts system to facilitate multiple accounts per user (while from what I've heard from users of v5 is that v5's version is broken and doesn't work properly most of the time). I'm pretty sure that they also both have jQuery loaded by default (I know JFH does, but I'm not 100% on IB). Both allow users to set their own domains for free (as I understand it, proboards has a ridiculous 14$ a year fee on top of the yearly domain fees). Both have a shop mod built right in.
These are just a few areas where these two hosts are superior. (There are more, but I don't want to spend too long dwelling on this point.)
And I suppose part of the reason they made those changes to begin with was because they were losing a lot of boards to competitors. (I mean I know of probably a dozen or so admins that I've helped move off proboards... even before they released version 5. And I've heard of numerous others also making the jump. So this isn't an uncommon thing.)
Though to mention some things they had done previously which had pissed people off...
For a while (late 2011 to early 2012) they had an extra page on member registration for more advertising. (Pictured here and here) So when you registered they'd offer to sign you up for newsletters/emails from their selected affiliates or whatever. You could opt out, but a lot of people were pissed off over that even being there to begin with. They viewed it as unnecessary step in registration and a deliberate money grab attempt. I don't know if they removed this since or not (I don't use proboards anymore).
Even this whole v5 thing has been pretty hard for them. Many people seem to hate the changes they've brought about.
Others are pissed off that the changes have taken so long to make. (If I remember correctly, if not please correct me, they promised v5 would be out by the end of 2012. But it was late January 2013 before people could even opt in for early conversions. )
The avatar generator is one of the big things ProBoards has come up with for roleplay forums. It's pretty cool I guess, but yeah, I feel like it is one good aspect amidst many bad aspects. I think the $14 domain fee ProBoards has is ridiculous. It amazes me that so many people in the ProBoards community truly believe that ProBoards is awesome, and well, it just isn't that great. It is a decent free forum host at best.
The extra page on member registration really ticked me off, honestly. As ProBoards has expanded over the years, the advertisements have gotten annoying. They used to just have one leaderboard advertisement at the top of the forum, but now they have a leaderboard advertisement at the top and at the bottom of the forum. Also, in the past couple years, they have introduced video CAPTCHAs that are advertisements in themselves. That was also annoying. Then the extra page on member registration came around, and that was very frustrating.
Also, ProBoards has been discussing ProBoards Version 5 since 2006, I believe. Yes, that is correct. Also, Patrick Clinger has already said that they will still have ProBoards Version 4.5 as an option for at least the rest of 2013, so this means they could very well not be completely moved over to the new version until eight years later. With the amount of employees ProBoards has now, I feel like from a business perspective, they could have gotten all of this done sooner. There will always be people mad about a change in version, but I feel like ProBoards has not treated people who don't welcome the change (like me) very well.
The extra page on member registration really ticked me off, honestly. As ProBoards has expanded over the years, the advertisements have gotten annoying. They used to just have one leaderboard advertisement at the top of the forum, but now they have a leaderboard advertisement at the top and at the bottom of the forum. Also, in the past couple years, they have introduced video CAPTCHAs that are advertisements in themselves. That was also annoying. Then the extra page on member registration came around, and that was very frustrating.
Also, ProBoards has been discussing ProBoards Version 5 since 2006, I believe. Yes, that is correct. Also, Patrick Clinger has already said that they will still have ProBoards Version 4.5 as an option for at least the rest of 2013, so this means they could very well not be completely moved over to the new version until eight years later. With the amount of employees ProBoards has now, I feel like from a business perspective, they could have gotten all of this done sooner. There will always be people mad about a change in version, but I feel like ProBoards has not treated people who don't welcome the change (like me) very well.
Rick Ace said:
there support forum doesnt seem inactive at all
or am i seeing things that arent there?
i dont know how the people are behind proboards and i dont really care either way
but id say they should never bother to make a paid forum software or anything
or am i seeing things that arent there?
i dont know how the people are behind proboards and i dont really care either way
but id say they should never bother to make a paid forum software or anything
What Rick Ace means is that the activity level of their support forum has dropped significantly. It used to be so much more active.
And part of the drop in activity is due to:
- negative aspects of v5 (any bugs they have, issues updating, etc...)
- proboards history of unwilling to listen to their community
- proboards history of delays (announcing dates for features/upgrades and then missing their deadlines)
- a history of broken promises (they'd state they would give <feature X> but then it'd never be implemented. )
- competition's services being more attractive and getting more attention than before.
The only thing proboards really has going for it right now is the fact that it is such a large service and it's pretty well known. So people might use it instead of other, smaller but much better, free hosts. (Ones like Jcink Forum Hosting or IcyBoards.)
Another plus is that it still gets some development where InvisionFree has been pretty much left to die in favour of Zetaboards. (I'm sort of surprised they don't just disable IF board registrations and start pushing people to upgrade to ZB... )
And part of the drop in activity is due to:
- negative aspects of v5 (any bugs they have, issues updating, etc...)
- proboards history of unwilling to listen to their community
- proboards history of delays (announcing dates for features/upgrades and then missing their deadlines)
- a history of broken promises (they'd state they would give <feature X> but then it'd never be implemented. )
- competition's services being more attractive and getting more attention than before.
The only thing proboards really has going for it right now is the fact that it is such a large service and it's pretty well known. So people might use it instead of other, smaller but much better, free hosts. (Ones like Jcink Forum Hosting or IcyBoards.)
Another plus is that it still gets some development where InvisionFree has been pretty much left to die in favour of Zetaboards. (I'm sort of surprised they don't just disable IF board registrations and start pushing people to upgrade to ZB... )
I used to be on ProBoards a lot and I used to think it was great, up until the point I discovered free forum software and cheap hosting, since then I have never looked back and by the sounds of things, ProBoards isn't getting any better.
Quacker Jack
Madly Diligent
Mr. Snuggles said:
In fact it is getting worse.
I still am a fan of PBv4.5. I always thought it worked out pretty good. It is obvious though that PB had a problem keeping up with any community other than RPG. It is a shame.
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