Would you join a Proboards or Forumotion forum?

[Yuri En Masuta]

Tbh i started out with proboards, forumotion, invisionfree, phpbb free forums etc, until i found my vbulletin site w/ forum that is, so without the foruming experience of the free forums, i would have never of made my current site right now.

 

[Cam]

Cmt Sports Forum is on ProBoards. I don't like ProBoards much myself, but I am with them. We have been around for around a year and 2 months. We have almost 50k posts. I don't judge a forum by it's host. The content is what matters...

 

[Umbreon]

Proboards isn't a bad Host. Just because they don't allow you to take the software for you to host it yourself means that they would rather carry the cost of hosting it themselves. It may be basic, but currently they are releasing some features that should make life more easy.

Of all the features Proboards has to offer, is the ability to add coding directly to your board, so that you can customize it. That is why they state it is customizable.

So why complain about it? If you don't like it, then don't use it. BUT if you have never used it before, then why complain about it, and discourage people from using it?

Not everyone has the money to afford getting a host to host forums themselves, and to get a domain.

My friend's forum (2 years ago?) got hacked, so im not comfortable with free forum hosting. It was hosted on proboards. The best free forum hosting IMO is zetaboards, but then again, they get hacked easily too.

 

[David]

My friend's forum (2 years ago?) got hacked, so im not comfortable with free forum hosting. It was hosted on proboards. The best free forum hosting IMO is zetaboards, but then again, they get hacked easily too.

Any forum can be just as easily hacked; just because someone uses paid hosting, it doesn't automatically mean they can't be hacked. Someone who knows security can easily secure a free forum from hackers with an array of methods.

 

[StripesAndFins]

Unless it has 30,000+ posts, no, I wouldn't. Otherwise they are pointless and most likely will close by the end of the month.

 

[AquaTeen]

My friend's forum (2 years ago?) got hacked, so im not comfortable with free forum hosting. It was hosted on proboards. The best free forum hosting IMO is zetaboards, but then again, they get hacked easily too.

Any forum can be just as easily hacked; just because someone uses paid hosting, it doesn't automatically mean they can't be hacked. Someone who knows security can easily secure a free forum from hackers with an array of methods.

True, but with your own host you can put up the security measures to keep your site safe. While on the other hand I think that any forum host needs to put the security in place and there should be no excuse if the forum is hacked... unless it has to do with just logging into an administrators account.. because there are a lot of weak passwords out there that people tend to use.

 

[David]

True, but with your own host you can put up the security measures to keep your site safe.

But that's not the point. You can still put up security measures with free hosts; security questions, long passwords, different passwords for acp login and admin user login (forumotion feature). Even with your own host, what if that user doesn't make a strong password? It just voids the whole claim that free forum hosts are insecure, namely inferring from this quote:

My friend's forum (2 years ago?) got hacked, so im not comfortable with free forum hosting.

Ruko relates forum hacking to free forum hosts, but it holds little to no truth.

 

[Cam]

My friend's forum (2 years ago?) got hacked, so im not comfortable with free forum hosting. It was hosted on proboards. The best free forum hosting IMO is zetaboards, but then again, they get hacked easily too.

Your friend's forum was not hacked. A ProBoards forum has never been hacked. They have only had password crackers. If someone managed to crack your friend's password, who's fault is that? Your friend's fault.

 

[AquaTeen]

True, but with your own host you can put up the security measures to keep your site safe.

But that's not the point. You can still put up security measures with free hosts; security questions, long passwords, different passwords for acp login and admin user login (forumotion feature). Even with your own host, what if that user doesn't make a strong password? It just voids the whole claim that free forum hosts are insecure, namely inferring from this quote:

My friend's forum (2 years ago?) got hacked, so im not comfortable with free forum hosting.

Ruko relates forum hacking to free forum hosts, but it holds little to no truth.

Well I never said that free hosts have no options. There are obviously different things that you can work with, which is why I specified passwords being one of the things that are always under control. The things that you do not have control over are the things that, if are not setup properly, can cause your site harm without any of your own intervention. I don't believe free hosts are insecure, but a lot of the security is out of your hands. Not your basic "someone got into my account", but an actual hacking of the site. When when I hear the word hacking, I think of actual structural damage, like database corruption, not just "omg someone got into my account".

 

[David]

The things that you do not have control over are the things that, if are not setup properly, can cause your site harm without any of your own intervention. I don't believe free hosts are insecure, but a lot of the security is out of your hands.

Could you name one or two of them please?

Not your basic "someone got into my account", but an actual hacking of the site. When when I hear the word hacking, I think of actual structural damage, like database corruption, not just "omg someone got into my account".

Same can be applied to self hosted forums.

 

[AquaTeen]

One of the most basic things would be your file permissions, having read access on many of the files can give out database information which can lead to the actual ability to truly hack a site. Not that free forum hosts seem to do a bad job at this, but if there was a problem there the user would normally not have access to that information.

I never argued that the same thing could not happen to self hosted forums, I just argued that with a self hosted forum the forum creator is in full control over the security. I doubt too many free sites actually get hacked, just like most other forums they get password cracked and have an admin login and do damage there. I'm not the one arguing that free forums have not done an adequate job of protecting their sites. They probably take all of the proper procedures needed to keep the site from being compromised. As I stated there are some things just out of your control if you are on a free forum host. You have trust that the host has everything locked down on their end and you have to lock everything down on your end.

 

[David]

One of the most basic things would be your file permissions, having read access on many of the files can give out database information which can lead to the actual ability to truly hack a site. Not that free forum hosts seem to do a bad job at this, but if there was a problem there the user would normally not have access to that information.

How does that differ from a hosting company leaving off file permissions for different websites they host? Likewise, most free forum hosts don't do a bad job at security. It's usually password crackers not hackers.

 

[Umbreon]

Tbh, I don't really know how the hacker got in, but it was two years ago. Probably my friends fault, but I'm still worried about those hosted with free forums...

 

[Nuke]

It's usually password crackers not hackers.

I support this statement.

 

[Cam]

Tbh, I don't really know how the hacker got in, but it was two years ago. Probably my friends fault, but I'm still worried about those hosted with free forums...

Once again, it would not be a hacker. Your friend has a simple password, and then someone cracked it, and got into the account. That is not hacking.

 

[Ashley S]

I only join forums that are on host with cPanel, DirectAdmin or alternative. Forums which are made with ForumMotion, ZetaBoards, InvisonFree, ProBoards, are not good, or managed. Also, they must have a TLD domain for me to join.

Zeta Boards and Invisonfree are a proper company.
They will not close or delete your own board..

ForumMotion & ProBoards and not a company they are made by a team of 11.

 

[Cam]

Honestly, you can not rank ProBoards the same as ForumMotion. ProBoards is way better than ForumMotion. It just matters if you know what you are doing with ProBoards as well.

 

[David]

Honestly, you can not rank ProBoards the same as ForumMotion. ProBoards is way better than ForumMotion. It just matters if you know what you are doing with ProBoards as well.

Subjective. Until you can provide valid reasons, they are merely the same. Nonetheless, since you own a Proboards forum, no doubt will you stick up for them, but some reasons would be fair.

 

[Cam]

That's not the case. I have used them both. I don't like either of them that much, really, I am just sort of stuck with them. ProBoards is better, from what I have seen.

 

[Ashley S]

That's not the case. I have used them both. I don't like either of them that much, really, I am just sort of stuck with them. ProBoards is better, from what I have seen.

I agree with you. ProBoards loads a lot quicker tham ForuMotion.