Zeta/IF/Forumotion are they really so bad?

[Keizo]

I understand some people really HATE forumotion, zetaboards and invision free. I frankly don't understand why, they're all great free forum hosts.




Forumotion allows incredible customization of one's board, for example as do the others.


http://www.mdalchemists.com/ <--- A Forumotion Board.

http://themarioforums.com/index/ <---- A Zetaboards

Frankly I don't have an example of an IF at this moment, but they're also fairly good, using IPB 2003, it allows you to customize things easily.


Forumotion turns people off because apparently they see the already done template and think thats all they get.


WRONG


You click it, OR afterwards change to the basic and edit all you want OR edit the current one to your liking, CSS included.

 

[David]

The Forumotion debate again...

You should read: viewtopic.php?f=54&t=51699 and viewtopic.php?f=26&t=68015 I've made my arguments there and I don't think we need to go over them again and again.

The customisation isn't the biggest problem, rather the features/functions and the security.

 

[BlazingBlue]

Forumotion is really bad. Zeta is actually a good forum I've used all of my forums on there. The customizations are easily done if you're a good coder.

 

[GAF]

I do not like Forumotion, nor do I like IF. But there is something that I like about Zetaboards . I do not mind the Zetaboards software.

 

[Keizo]

I've read the links and I must say =/


Forumotion does allow Back-ups with the Utils, you may customize the heck out of it with CSS and the templates, the support forum is okay and its not easily hackable, actually if it is, then all forums are.


by this logic, forumotion isn't any worse than any other host. Sure you may hate it, shun it, but you know what? 50 percent of the internet love it, 50 percent don't.


I respect your opinions and you should respect mine.


As for Zetaboards, it's okay, but way too nooby, just the basics, and it annoys me. I mean I can use it, but meh =/


As for IF, I only like it because of the IPB it runs off of.

 

[Marc]

You should read: viewtopic.php?f=54&t=51699 and viewtopic.php?f=26&t=68015 I've made my arguments there and I don't think we need to go over them again and again.

Same here and all of my statements still stand, yet I don't use ForuMotion's services.

Forumotion does allow Back-ups with the Utils

But you're stuck with them for life since you can't backup your database.
If they decide to go offline permanently tomorrow, they'll take your forums with 'em, 😉

@Keizo - Why do you even care what members of ForumPromotion.net thinks about ForuMotion?
Don't rely on FP to promote your forum, 😉 ( assuming it's anime related )

 

[Hissae2]

You used my board as your example... I'm flattered. 😀

As for Zetaboards, it's okay, but way too nooby, just the basics, and it annoys me. I mean I can use it, but meh =/

What do you mean just the basics? It may seem that you can not do much at first but if you go to ZB Resources you can do just about anything. You use forumotion, now I'm pretty sure you can do less on that than you can on ZB, and there's no resource site. I've known forumotion boards get hacked and deleted. If this happened on ZB it would all be backed up automatically and everything could be brought back. So how can you possibly tell me ZB is just the basics while using forumotion yourself? Other than backups and ads (which can be removed) I challenge you all to find something that is not possible on ZB, that is possible on MyBB, phpBB, IPB and the others.

It can do just about everything paid hosts can do and yet people seem to dislike it anyway. It doesn't make sense to me.

 

[AnAccount]

I don't think I've ever used IF, but I have used Forumotion and Zetaboards and both are terrible. Forumotion is worse on account of it's security. Easily hackable, and a friend of mine told me something terrifying, which I tried just to see if it's true (and sadly, it is) he said that there was a way that you could log in to another user's account just as if it was your own... you don't need to know the members password or anything! I tried it with the members account, and thankfully it was banned, because it just downright terrified me. When I logged into the friend's account, it gave me the message that I (he rather) had been banned from the forum and to contact the owner for the reason why. So really, you hear of Forumotion forums getting hacked... this isn't the owner's fault at all. 95% of this is the host's fault and the reason being is that their security sucks. You could have the strongest password ever and you could still get hacked. So on that host, by no means is this all your fault. A lot of it is the host's fault because their servers aren't secure enough. I still refuse to join Forumotion forums for these reasons.

 

[Luke]

I haven't used any of those, I like ProBoards, but it's starting to get old and boring, I've left it till v5.

 

[Hissae2]

I don't think I've ever used IF, but I have used Forumotion and Zetaboards and both are terrible. Forumotion is worse on account of it's security. Easily hackable, and a friend of mine told me something terrifying, which I tried just to see if it's true (and sadly, it is) he said that there was a way that you could log in to another user's account just as if it was your own... you don't need to know the members password or anything! I tried it with the members account, and thankfully it was banned, because it just downright terrified me. When I logged into the friend's account, it gave me the message that I (he rather) had been banned from the forum and to contact the owner for the reason why. So really, you hear of Forumotion forums getting hacked... this isn't the owner's fault at all. 95% of this is the host's fault and the reason being is that their security sucks. You could have the strongest password ever and you could still get hacked. So on that host, by no means is this all your fault. A lot of it is the host's fault because their servers aren't secure enough. I still refuse to join Forumotion forums for these reasons.

Somebody else that tells me zetaboards is terrible but doesn't give a single reason why. :S

 

[Connor L]

Forumotion is the ugliest forum host ever. It's a damn disgrace to the foruming world. It should just close. Not only is it ugly, it uses PhpBB, which I hate greatly, if you're going to have a Phpbb board at least globally add some useful plugins to your host.

At least ZetaBoards and IF are unique looking.
It really erks me when people advertise a forumotion forum, if you're going to use a free host, at least pick a cpanel host, and upload PhpBB3, it isn't very hard.

EDIT:

ALSO, HISSAE, ZetaBoards does not have back ups. I've been apart of the Zathyus network since the start. Brandon offers no back ups, even to the largest of forums. When Outline was hacked, they were forced to start over. Also ZB is nooby, just because you use it doesn't mean it's any good. And honestly it's just an upgraded and modified version of IPB 1.3, edited enough that credit has no need to be given. Brandon is just milking us all, while he chills at home raking up hundreds of thousands off of advertisements, when he only develops something new for the software once or twice a year.

 

[Hissae2]

EDIT:

ALSO, HISSAE, ZetaBoards does not have back ups. I've been apart of the Zathyus network since the start. Brandon offers no back ups, even to the largest of forums. When Outline was hacked, they were forced to start over. Also ZB is nooby, just because you use it doesn't mean it's any good. And honestly it's just an upgraded and modified version of IPB 1.3, edited enough that credit has no need to be given. Brandon is just milking us all, while he chills at home raking up hundreds of thousands off of advertisements, when he only develops something new for the software once or twice a year.

Everything can be restored. I've seen forums deleted and restored in the past as well to prove it. In 2008 Nintendo Forums was hacked and lost many posts and members, but it's not 2008 any more. 😛

Proof

I can't comment on it being a modification of IBP as I've never used IBP, but I am a member of IBP forums and it doesn't even look remotely similar to me. If anything, it looks like a modified version of vBulliten.

And yes, I'm sure ZB does make money. Is that not the purpose of any business? At least we're not paying hundreds per year to use ZB.

It does as much as paid software which in my book makes it just as good. Just that all the hosting is taken care of for you.

 

[AnAccount]

From an admins point of view, Zetaboards is just too chaotic for my liking. I've had problems with the Forgot My Password link not working properly, and members have complained about not recieving email notifications on PMs or anything.

 

[Hissae2]

I've used forgot your password and it works perfect. I would assume that was a bug fixed in an upgrade at some point.

I agree email notifications for a PM would be nice. That's something that could be on ZNR or could be requested on ZNR. The reason Brandon gave for not adding that is it could cause members to PM and leave without ever visiting again until the email notifying them of a PM arrives.

Anyway, thanks for giving a legit reason for disliking ZB. Most people seem to be unable to. 😛

 

[AnAccount]

I've used forgot your password and it works perfect. I would assume that was a bug fixed in an upgrade at some point.

I agree email notifications for a PM would be nice. That's something that could be on ZNR or could be requested on ZNR. The reason Brandon gave for not adding that is it could cause members to PM and leave without ever visiting again until the email notifying them of a PM arrives.

Anyway, thanks for giving a legit reason for disliking ZB. Most people seem to be unable to. 😛

Well, I haven't laid hands on Zetaboards so I don't know what all was fixed as far as updates goes. As for notifications for PMs, as an administrator, I'm not fussy about that feature from the get go, but I know many users find it helpful, so that's what pissed me off just a little bit was that even if I couldn't use something, that doesn't mean my members couldn't have. I'm sure they'd have loved to recieve any email notifications I sent regarding PMs and stuff, especially since most people like that feature for this reason.

 

[Connor L]

EDIT:

ALSO, HISSAE, ZetaBoards does not have back ups. I've been apart of the Zathyus network since the start. Brandon offers no back ups, even to the largest of forums. When Outline was hacked, they were forced to start over. Also ZB is nooby, just because you use it doesn't mean it's any good. And honestly it's just an upgraded and modified version of IPB 1.3, edited enough that credit has no need to be given. Brandon is just milking us all, while he chills at home raking up hundreds of thousands off of advertisements, when he only develops something new for the software once or twice a year.

Everything can be restored. I've seen forums deleted and restored in the past as well to prove it. In 2008 Nintendo Forums was hacked and lost many posts and members, but it's not 2008 any more. 😛

Proof

I can't comment on it being a modification of IBP as I've never used IBP, but I am a member of IBP forums and it doesn't even look remotely similar to me. If anything, it looks like a modified version of vBulliten.

And yes, I'm sure ZB does make money. Is that not the purpose of any business? At least we're not paying hundreds per year to use ZB.

It does as much as paid software which in my book makes it just as good. Just that all the hosting is taken care of for you.

Nintendo Forums was never hacked nor deleted, the server went offline. They didn't restore anything. Within minutes the server came back online, and every forum on the S1 server was back.
It does nothing that Paid softwares do. Do you get a copy of your database? No. Can you customize the ads? No. Can you integrate facebook, wordpress, twitter, youtube, etc? No. Does it have advanced features? Hardly. Unless your paying for ZB premium, ZetaBoards is horrid.

I've seen your forum, and it being on ZetaBoards just makes it look like trash. If it was on vBulletin you'd have triple the posts and members honestly. ZetaBoards forums all move at some point.

Why the hell do you think the Bell Tree moved from ZetaBoards to vB? Why do you think Forums-N moved from ZB to IPB?

All of your arguments are invalid, as obviously, paid software's, will always triumph over the work of one mans coding.

 

[Hissae2]

Do you get a copy of your database? No

And why do you need it? ZB will restore if hacked and it is not needed for conversion:

http://www.simplemachines.org/community ... 188741.280

It just means more work for you having to backup your forum yourself.

Can you customize the ads? No.

You can pay to remove them 😛 You can also customize who does and doesn't see the ads. The ads can be easily blocked by an ad blocker as well.

Does it have advanced features? Hardly.

Almost everything paid hosts do can be done with zetaboards. If it's not built in to ZB you can get a code for ZNR.

Unless your paying for ZB premium, ZetaBoards is horrid.

Not sure where you got this from. Premium does virtually nothing. I tried it for a month and discovered there's only about 4 things extra and I have no need for any of them. As Brandon said, most things are free but sometimes they must be premium due to technical limitations, specialty, or minimal demand. Honestly the only benefit from it is the 'Powered by Zetaboards Premium' text makes people think the board is somehow better.

http://if.invisionfree.com/topic/5030619/1/#new

Why the hell do you think the Bell Tree moved from ZetaBoards to vB? Why do you think Forums-N moved from ZB to IPB?

Why would I care about what they have chosen to do? I still believe that zetaboards is the best software for me. There are also many boards on zetaboards with millions of posts that have not switched. I just went to the ZB directory, and there are hundreds of boards with millions of posts. That's two that moved, hundreds that stayed. Just because you're on a free host doesn't mean you're doomed to failure. Proves I'm not the only one that likes ZB and many millions of people are willing to join 😉

obviously, paid software's, will always triumph over the work of one mans coding.

ZB still does almost as much as paid hosts (as well as stuff that paid hosts don't do) and therefore it is still best for me. I don't care how many people coded it.

 

[David]

Forumotion does allow Back-ups with the Utils, you may customize the heck out of it with CSS and the templates, the support forum is okay and its not easily hackable, actually if it is, then all forums are.

They aren't downloadable though. You can't download the database onto your computer, so without using crawlers, you are stuck with them forever. Customisation is limited - the PhpBB3 version (which is actually not a real copy) is limited in customisation. You can't even edit the footer or the header unlike a real copy.

 

[Keizo]

Quite a debate going on here, and I've gotta say...awesome.



@Hissae, I don't HATE Zetaboards, in fact if the content is good, like your forum is, I'd join in an instant. I just don't like the ACP :lol:



In all honesty, I will join ANY host with a site that has good content, except Lefora...but thats a different story.

 

[Bluezone777]

Zetaboards is a decent host that has good security(provided you use a good pass and e-mail) and enough features for most people who aren't in it to make a buck off their forum. What little you can't do is not really important as I care little about database backups or the ads(if you did then you would block them with an ad blocker) or any of that social media crap.

I have to admit the ignorance over Zetaboards and what it can and can't do is astounding and also hilarious. Please continue with your expert(lol) opinion on Zetaboards.