ProBoards Review
Last Version | 4.5 (January 28th, 2011). | Released under | Proprietary License. |
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Company | ProBoards Inc.. | ||
Price | Free with Ads, $7 / 50,000 views, $14 / 100,000 views,.... |
Last Version | 4.5 (January 28th, 2011). | Released under | Proprietary License. |
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Resources |
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Company | ProBoards Inc.. | ||
Price | Free with Ads, $7 / 50,000 views, $14 / 100,000 views,.... |
ProBoards is the most used forum service, hosting over 3,000,000 internet forums, of about 22,800,000 users, for a total of 600 million pageviews per month! These data are already giving you some tips about the nature and the scalability of ProBoards. According to Wikipedia, ProBoards is hosted on 71 servers, to support the load that the traffic among forum.
The software behind is written in PERL, connected to a replicated MySQL database. All forum are hosted under a chosen subdomain of the *.proboards.com and they can be created and maintained for free, if you accept the display of some advertisements. For people interesting in removing these ads, prices start from $7 for 50,000 pageviews a month and go up to $140 for 1,000,000 pageviews. More details on the ProBoards pricing page. According to our previous experiences on Ad-free hosting services, ProBoards is among the cheapest service.
Now, let's see what you get for this.
Browser & Client Requirements | ||||||||
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Compatible Browsers
List of Compatible Browsers.
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Required Plugins/Technologies
Additional or Basic Requirements from Client Side.
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HTML, Javascript, CSS. | |||||||
Localization
Languages supported by ProBoards.
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No.
No.
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As an hosted service, ProBoards is ideal for people who want to setup a forum fast and be able to use it 2 minutes after filling the creation form.
The ProBoards Help Guide, made with Flash, is the perfect place for beginners that want to know how to use it. Several videos will guide members to see how to modify their profiles, bookmark topics, quote messages and so on.
Compatibility with Smartphones | |
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Compatible SmartPhones
Compatible Cellphone Brands and Manufacturers.
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Application Distribution / Type
How it is distributed / App Store Availability
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![]() ProBoards iPhone App - Forum by Category: Categories |
![]() ProBoards iPhone App - Forums: List of Forums |
![]() ProBoards iPhone App - Threads: Existing Threads |
![]() ProBoards iPhone App - Who is online: Online Users |
ProBoards has a dedicated application on iPhone, available in two versions, ProBoards App, for $2,99 and ProBoards Lite, which is, as its name claims it, free. The same also applies to the Android platform, that contains a nice ProBoards Mobile App too.
Forum Threads / Topics | |||
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Forum Style | Flat | Forum Organization |
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Thread Icons | Yes | Topic Tags | No |
Hot Topics | Yes | Unread Topics | Yes |
Hidden Topics | Yes | Sticky Threads | Yes |
Related Threads | No | Detect Duplicate Threads | No |
Announcements | Yes |
Posting Messages / Answers | |||
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Message Editing Form
How to Post Messages.
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Post Editing Format
Supported Markup Language (HTML, Wiki, BBCode,...).
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Spell Checker
Checks typos on posts and topics.
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Yes | ||
Image Attachment
How Images can be Attached and Displayed in Message Posts.
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Embedded Videos
Videos and Media Websites Supported in Message Posts.
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No. |
Posting Features | |||
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Quick Reply Box | Yes | Smileys | Yes |
Attachments | Yes | Syntax Highlighting | No |
Message Rating
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- | Message Quoting | Yes |
Most features are available, and administrators have quickly access to most moderation tools directly inside each topics.
Note that you have a available space of 2Gb for storing user's attachments, which is huge for an hosting service, and more over, with the free version!
Possibility of limiting access to specific topics or boards is quite easy: either define a specific member group or simply hide a board, and then only users with the URL can access the board.
Additional Forum Features | |
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Poll Creation | Yes |
Private Messages
Users Can Communicate using an Internal Messaging System.
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Yes |
Instant Messaging
Discuss with Visitors and Members in a Chat Window.
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Yes |
Calendar
Topic, Member Birthdays, Events are available from the perspective of a calendar.
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Yes |
Online Users List
Connected User List (Often Found in the Forum Footer).
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Yes |
Members List
Search and Consult the List of Members.
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Yes |
Technical Features | |
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Bundled Software
Additional Software Available with the Forum.
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No. |
RSS/Atom Syndication
Posts and Threads Exported to Feeds Aggregators
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No. |
Friendly URLs
URLs are clear and contain information about the topic (title, message,...).
Highly recommended for SEO purposes.
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No |
Post by Email
Post Directly From your Email Box.
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No |
Remote Control
Remote Control from External Software/Websites.
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No. |
Cache System
Cache pages to optimize bandwidth and load times.
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Yes |
Template Engine
It is easier to theme a forum using a known template engine (more docs & examples,...).
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No. |
Calendar is optional, and, again, many features are available per default. You will be able to quickly configure and setup your forum, by adding/editing new boards.
Instant Messaging is well integrated into the forum using the AddonChat.com service.
Member Options & Features | |
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Bookmark Threads
User Profiles Keep a List of Followed Posts and Topics.
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Yes |
Email Notifications
Receive Emails When New Messages are Posted in Followed Threads.
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Yes |
Export private messages
Private Messages can be Downloaded by Users.
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Yes |
Payment Subscriptions
Paying Membership Subscription.
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No |
User Profiles | |
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User Profile
User Information and Settings.
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Yes |
Avatars
Pictures of Members, Useful to Easily Identify their Posts.
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Yes |
Signature
Signatures Added at the Bottom of Each Message.
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Yes |
Ranks
Tags and Labels Identifying the Members, based on specific criteria (Total Posts Count, Credits, Moderation Level...)
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Yes |
Users are able to define their own avatar and signatures, and default profile options are really well defined and most of the classical settings you expect from a forum software are their.
Moderation is really simple to process by simply regularly polling the Reported Topics menu, and see what is the problem a member reported.
Moderation & Threads Management | ||
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Moderation |
Post-Moderation
The moderation is done afterwards, if an administrator notices a problem or if a member reports something wrong. Each message is therefore directly published.
Reactive Moderation
By reporting any problems, members are reactive against moderation problems.
Moderators' main objective is to regularly check user reports, without having to follow each threads.
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Moderator per section | Yes | |
Global Moderator | Yes | |
Move Threads
Move Threads from Topics
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Yes | |
Shadow Topics
When a thread is moved, the previous position is kept in order to inform users of this modification.
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Yes | |
Close/Lock Threads
Close/Lock Problematic Threads
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Yes |
Users Management | |
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User Groups
Organize and define groups of users, and apply different actions and settings on them.
Common Groups: Guests, Members, Moderators, Administrators,... |
Yes |
User Registration |
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Limit Features For New Users
Features are limited if a user has created a small number of posts.
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Yes |
Guest Posting | Yes |
Multiple Administrators | Yes |
Send Warnings to Users
Inform users by email or PM that they infringe the board rules, and could be excluded for such behavior.
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Yes |
Forum/Section Restricted Access
ACL could be use to determine if a user or a group of users can access (in read only, post message) to some sections
and topics.
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Yes |
User Banishment | Yes |
ProBoards can be easily configured to allow guests to post messages, and users that register can also wait for the approval of a moderator/administrator before being able to post in topics.
People who are looking for a forum where new members can be controlled will enjoy these very useful features. Additionally, the possibility of limiting standard features to new users is really well implemented and easy to configure.
The Administration Dashboard is clean enough to be understood by beginners, with all features separated on several sections.
Database Management | |
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Backup Database
Backup forum datas that you could store somewhere else.
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Yes |
Prune Database
Remove old and unused datas from your forum.
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Yes |
Restore Database
Restore a backup of your database if the previous install crashed.
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Yes |
Administration Tools | |||
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Statistics
Statistics about posts count, users, traffic...
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Yes |
Error/Notice Log Viewer
Forum Logs could be consulted.
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Yes |
Tasks Scheduler
Maintenance tasks are regularly launched and could be scheduled.
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No |
Mass Mailing
Send an email (newsletters, advertisements, information,...) to all users.
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Yes |
Installation & Upgrading | |
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Installation Method
How this forum software could be installed.
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Installation Wizard |
Upgrading Method
How this forum software could be upgraded.
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Updates Notifications
The Admin Panel informs you when a new version is released.
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Yes |
Forum Migration
Convert an existing forum to ProBoards.
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No. |
Statistics are provided the Gravity Insights service, which is a really good analytics service. You can see a demonstration here. We were very pleased to see this feature included per default, because it's often a pain for administrators to configure the classical Google Analytics Javascript snippet in their hosted forum, because, most of the time, inserting it on the footer/header does not work as these templates are escaping Javascript.
With ProBoards, you won't have to take care of that, as it's already ready.
Security & Spam Protection | ||
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CAPTCHA
Captcha protects your forum against spam bots.
e.g.,
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Yes
Complexity:
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Abnormal Behavior Detection
Detect users or request strange behaviors, and try to process proactive actions.
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No | |
Words Filtering
Offensing Words are automatically replaced.
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Yes | |
User Blacklist
Prevent specific user accounts to register (based on email address, name,...) and disable potentially harmful members.
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Yes | |
IP Blocking
Prevent access to spam robots and other scripts that could attempt
DDOS or Brute Force attacks on your forum.
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Yes |
User management is helped with specific screens for banning, informing (by PM or mails) users.
Customization | |||
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Plugins
Add new features to your forum installation.
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No.
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Themes
Modify the style of your forum easily.
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Yes. | ||
Custom BBCodes | No | Smiley Packs | Yes |
Custom Thread Icons |
Yes |
Additional User Profile Fields
Ask more about your members with custom fields.
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No |
Integration with Applications, Social Networks, Intranet... | |
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Social Networks
Users can share information from their social network account...
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CMS / Blog Bridges
Integration with existing Web publishing tools.
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No. |
User Accounts Integration
Do users be able to log in with their corporate, Google, Facebook,... accounts?
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Content Aggregation
Forum allows to integrate news and content from other website,
using an aggregation protocol (RSS, RDF, Atom,...).
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No. |
Each images displayed in the forum can be changed quite easily, by simply changing the URL used. Unfortunately, you can only do this for existing images, which means you cannot add additional smileys or thread icons, you'll have to replace existing.
It's also really pleasant to see that all hosted forum support user registering using social networks. That's a must have for forum of 2011, and luckily, ProBoards supports it! You'll be happy to know that it supports up to the 7 most used social networks, including Facebook and Twitter.
By the way, it is extremely simple to customize the forum by setting your own header and footer templates, defining the logo and title of your forum and so on.
Norms & Accessibility | |
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HTML / XHTML Markup
See W3C HTML Definition.
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HTML 4.01.
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Click to see if it respects HTML norms.
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CSS Stylesheets
See W3C CSS Definition.
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CSS 1. ![]()
Click to see if it respects CSS norms.
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Accessibility (WAI)
Web Accessibility ensures that the forum is usable by people of all abilities and disabilities.
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Conformance to A level.
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UTF-8 Support
Default encoding used to support all locales and countries.
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Yes |
Conformance to W3C Norms
Does ProBoards correctly follow (X)HTML and CSS norms?
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No. |
ProBoards can look a bit old fashion, but this question is not really interesting huge communities, which just need a stable and powerful hosting services.
ProBoards is a really good surprise. With its million of users and communities hosted, this company has a really good experience in managing and supporting forums and you are sure that your are putting your forum on the right hands.
The Free version is a perfect way to start testing ProBoards, because it already gives a very good overview of its capacity and features. Once your community reaches the default quota, which is about 50,000 views per month, no worries, your board is not going to shutdown, because no matter the size of your community, ProBoards will host you for free. That's a really nice thing if you plan to administrate a big forum there!
By the way, if you need a corporate subdomain, ProBoards handles DNS virtual hosts in order to get your forum on forum.yourcompany.com instead of yourforumcompany.proboards.com.
If you were convinced as we were by ProBoards, then it's time to signup now!
Comments (54)
Proboards is in version 4.5
Proboards is in version 4.5 right now not version 1.0
Version 1 was way back in 2000
Thanks, this is updated (I
FSR Admin - Vote for 2012.
After I initially commented I
After I initially commented I seem to have clicked on the -Notify me when new comments are
added- checkbox and now every time a comment
is added I get four emails with the same comment.
There has to be an easy method you are able to remove me from that
service? Many thanks!
Proboards is in version 4.5
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"their!" should be "there!"
"their!" should be "there!" for the last word of the second paragraph.
Thanks! Stupid mistake...
Thanks! Stupid mistake...
FSR Admin - Vote for 2012.
I love proboards <33
I love proboards <33
Proboards sucks; their
Proboards sucks; their administrators arbitrarily delete boards with established communities with little or no warning, and even if they do give you warning, if you try to back things up in the time they've given you, they'll pull the plug anyway. Then they'll follow your community to spy on your IRC channels afterwards.
That is, assume you decide to
That is, assume you decide to troll the support forum and act like a jerk.
If you treat the ProBoards staff as actual human beings with feelings and give them some respect, they will be more than willing to restore your forums, give you a second and even a third chance. It's all in the customer. If you act like a jerk, you'll be treating as such.
Theres millions of
Theres millions of communities out there, I doubt they would spy on just yours unless you're doing something wrong, and even then they wouldn't spy.
Can't help but wonder what
Can't help but wonder what you did that was bad enough to invoke Section25 of the Terms of Service that you AGREED to follow when you signed up. Did you attempt to e-mail the Abuse Team at their given e-mail? Did you create a thread on Support Board and politely explain your situation to Patrick?
And what makes you think they were spying on you? What evidence do you have? They're busy enough getting v5 ready, as well as continuing to fix minor bugs in v4.5 while also keeping up with the issues on support board. They aren't going to take time to follow you across the internet. Sounds to me like someone is still sour that they got their board taken down because they abused the Terms of Service. You know it's never too late. Your board is still there. If you posted in the Support Forum and follow the rules for such requests I'll bet Patrick will be more than happy to help you with your issue.
I agree, after 1 year my
I agree, after 1 year my forum was completely deleted without notice and with no prior warnings of any kind. I wasn't even notified it was deleted. Asked in support forum to temporarily restore so I could save information and was told forum deleted and unrecoverable. Also, link to new forum location posted in support forum for members to find, and deleted by staff. I would never use Proboards again and always tell others the same thing. Yes, it does suck!!!
I had the very same
I had the very same experience with proboards- my online community i had built with over 1,000 members suddenly "Poof" with no warning or reason at all. I sent them the nicest email offering to fix whatever issues there were and was told my forum was deleted and unrecoverable. Nice software, horrible support and customer service.
Although, I do like PB, I
Although, I do like PB, I feel this review was a bit bias. Perhaps PB paid you guys for a good review?
We did not pay for this
We did not pay for this review. We do advertise on forum-software.org, but that advertising was purchased long after this review was made.
You know, Patrick- your
You know, Patrick- your average happy customer tells about "0" people about your product or service while your average unhappy customer tells absolutely anyone and everyone who will listen.
Guess which one I am, darling?
Have a nice day!
Michelle
That's always something you
That's always something you can fear with websites reviewing software (and monetized with advertisements), but it's definitely not the way we work here.
I can't of course prove this, but don't hesitate to read our Editorial Policy or the Mission on the footer of the current page if it can help you being convinced about our independence.
FSR Admin - Vote for 2012.
PB now has released an
PB now has released an Android version of the app, which works on all Android devices running version 1.6 or newer.
Thanks for the information,
Thanks for the information, I've updated the review.
FSR Admin - Vote for 2012.
Proboards is the best forum
Proboards is the best forum ever. I've been to a few of the others, and they were confusing. But proboards is simple and easy to use.
Android is a growing market
Android is a growing market and moving PB to Android with a special version makes PB a more useful and easy to read forum app. This is a smart move for PB and will bring more and more users, as mobile version isn't enough anymore.
Do you have any timeline for
Do you have any timeline for the Android version of the PB? I've seen that more and more web companies are lunching an Android version of their website in order to be more close to their customers, from fashion to telecom market segments.
Proboards is just amazing! I
Proboards is just amazing! I don't half of the other sites I visited, and Proboards is so simple with great people (though some bad, but that's with every good thing, Yin and Yang, yeah?), and the staff is helpful and very nice.
Question, In the past I was
Question,
In the past I was told that PB would not release your DB if you decided to move your forum to an other place. Yet you state
Yes
This seems to be contrary to my personal and many others persons experience with pro board. how has this changed?
In this case when they say
In this case when they say backup they mean the virtual backup that ProBoards itself keeps of your forum. So if ever you close your forum you can have it re-opened again because they keep a backup of it. It's not something that they release to you as a user, but the backup does exist.
By the way..nice name. Middle Earth is my home.
I've noticed that ProBoards
I've noticed that ProBoards has special features that other boards don't. When you reply to a message, there's a feature called "Blockquote." I like being able to set things apart within the text. I just find it easy to use and I've been very pleased.
Proboards has always been my
Proboards has always been my go-to for a forum hosting site, it's really good and really great.
<3 They are always wonderful.
I've been with Proboards
I've been with Proboards close to 10 years. IMO they're the best!
As someone else mentioned, PB
As someone else mentioned, PB is horrible. Maybe the service is good for beginners, but for experienced forum users, and corporations looking to get a forum, PB is the absolute last place you'd ever want. Again, as mentioned, the admins will delete your forum for, at times, absolutely no reason at all. And if the deletion was for a common mistake, only half the time will they allow you to correct it. As per section 25 of their TOS, they don't even go into detail about what section 25 is exactly, and what it covers. If a forum is removed, they get all snotty and say "your forum was in violation of our TOS, and no, we can't tell you what you did". The admins aren't nearly as nice as they lead themselves to be, far from it, in fact.
Once again..sounds like
Once again..sounds like someone has sour grapes. And I'll explain it in detail for you:
Section 25 is what you call a "catch-all." Obviously if someone was going to write down a rule for EVERY possible situation the Terms of Service would stretch on for eternity. So section 25 was created to cover the non-major infractions and unique situations that might arise. And trust me there is ALWAYS a reason why a board gets taken down. I don't think you all appreciate the precarious situation that the Proboards staff is in. They run free forums upon which ANYONE can make just about ANYTHING. BUT according to laws and regulations the BLAME for anything on their servers falls on THEM not YOU! Suppose someone from the KKK made a free forum. Obviously this would be very offensive and in poor taste but let's assume that they abide by the Terms of Service, and refrain from using bad language, racial slurs and all that. Should Pro-Boards take them down or not? They haven't violated the terms of service. But the reputation of their organization proceeds them. Section 25 is Proboards way of protecting itself from a sue-happy populace. (Please note I use an EXTREME example only to make a point, I do not advocate the KKK at all.)
I should also add that EVERY OTHER forum has that same clause somewhere in their Terms of Service. It's not just Proboards.
I've been using Proboards for
I've been using Proboards for 7 years now and have a substantial community on there. I have to say that in general I've been extremely happy with it.
My main website it maintained by myself only and I wanted a hosted low maintainence forum, Proboards met my needs perfectly.
It's far more customisable that most people realise thanks to the massive code databases for it scattered about.
The administration and support staff have ALWAYS been friendly and helpful, I could never fault their customer service.
My HUGE gripe with ProBoards: No migration support!
Now don't get me wrong, I understand that proboards are running a business, I run one myself.
But over the last 7 years my main website has grown considerably, it's entirely self sustaining through donations, we've moved from free hosts to a very good paid business style hosting package. We host our own videos and public FTP.
As much as I appreciate Proboards, as it's where it all started, my next logical step in the growth of my website is to move onto hosting our own forum, mainly so parts can be fully integrated into my website, something that ProBoards does not allow.
Sadly this is not a possibility for us as ProBoards to not allow proper migration from them, and leaving hundreds of thousands of posts over 7 years behind just isn't an option for us, and would certainly have an impact on our user-base.
So I'm left in a quandary. I'd even consider a hefty fee for the privilege, but sadly there is just no option there.
PLEASE ProBoards, you're a great service, but when people have outgrown you give them the option of tossing you a couple of hundred dollars to properly migrate to something else.
I've been on PB for 2 and a
I've been on PB for 2 and a half years now & hubby was on it before I was. There are things I love & things I'm not crazy about, but my site IS my PB site, so I love it. I have a friend who pays for a site on other host and doesn't get half the features PB gives us for free, so over all I am happy with it & am anxious to see if V5 is even better.
I will say that it says something about PB that the only real complaint here is about not being able to export your site. The other complaints do seem a lot like sour grapes and have to do with admins & not PB in general or how easy it is to use. Now, my site is essentially an educational forum, so I know I'm not in violation of any TOS, but as an admin, I also make sure none of my members are either
I've actually never had to have any interactions with PB admins/mods because I've never had any issues that brought us together, so I can't speak to how they may or may not be.
Now, that being said....
*I will make the disclaimer that I accept that the problems I have may just be my own computer ignorance & not PB at all; I don't know.
But, I don't like that you can't read PMs that you are replying to unless you quote them in your reply.
I don't like that I can't make 2 columns of categories side by side instead of one long one.
I don't like the chat being open to the public or having to be opened in it's own window.
I love the big pics in the threads but wish they were a more manageable size but still viewable in the threads.
I miss the analytics. A lot. I liked seeing what was searched for & who was doing what, where.
I wish it was easier to make side boxes and/or offered drop-down menus.
I wish when viewing new topics you didn't have to start at the top of the page; but were sent straight to the newest post.
Other than that, I actually really enjoy using proboards
-Sach
Crabministrator, SCP
The chat can be restricted to
The chat can be restricted to only members using a javascript code, similar to the side tables.
With a specific ad type at the top, also, you had a way to get to the newest post, provided you posted in whatever topic in question.
Don't be afraid to ask the "stupid" questions at ProBoards Support. Helping other members out is something we usually do.
Most of the things you do not
Most of the things you do not like are actually going to be sorted in v5 that's up for beta very soon; including the categories side by side, a new chat and side boxes (and of course more).
As for the "new posts" in topics - click the "NEW" image next to a thread. It'll take you straight to the newest post (first new one to you), not starting from scratch.
Pretty much everything you
Pretty much everything you mentioned will be contained in ProBoards V5. You can now make a copy of your forum that is converted into V5 through BetaZone. www.proboards.com/betazone
I wanted some information of
I wanted some information of car paint colours used on 1966 Rover cars, made in England at a time when we made things ,anyway I digress, did a websearch and came up with a pro board site where I found all the information that I could possibly want great, I went to bed happy that night,Thanks pro boards,you were good for me !!
Thoroughly enjoy our forum
Thoroughly enjoy our forum and congratulate our Administrator for her support and encouragement.
I personally love ProBoards.
I personally love ProBoards. Their forum is simple and very easy to use and as a young kid getting into online forums at the age of 13 I had absolutely no problem understanding how things worked. Now that I have been using the forums for years I know that they have room for improvement, but this improvement is just around the corner with their Version 5 for which I was honored to become a beta tester.
One of the things I love about PB is how easy it is to talk to their staff. The support forum is very easy to understand and there are staff online almost 24/7. They even have many volunteers that help out with the simple questions that don't necessarily require an administrator. I have seen a few people say that they sometimes delete forums without saying why, but that has not been my experience. They do, in fact, send the administrator of a forum a PM giving them some time to fix the problem before the forum is removed. They are even lenient very often when the time requirement is not met and the Admin wants to have a re-try at it. I really haven't noticed too many people that left very angry at ProBoards after they actually tried to work with the TOS staff.
I have been able to have personal conversations with most of the staff and love that they act like every other person posting on a forum. Most of them even frequent the General Talk section of the support forum and not just to make sure everyone is keeping in line.
Over all, although I have not used many other forums, ProBoards is my favorite. Sure, if you are trying to host your own forum they can't help you, but 90% of forum owners are just looking for a quick way to set up a forum and not have to worry about hosting. Those 90% are gonna LOVE ProBoards!
I think it's probably worth
I think it's probably worth mentioning that ProBoards is currently part-way through an upgrade to version 5 of their software. Users are able to trial it on their own forum via the BetaZone, and the ProBoards Support Forum itself is now running ProBoards v5.
Well dude, I believed about
Well dude, I believed about ProBoards is really very popular in this industry; it is world best services provider.
Pro.Boards really is the
Pro.Boards really is the best.
The fact that V.5 is coming makes it even better.
I participate in a forum on
I participate in a forum on this board. It would be better if the additional page option could be reached with a next button. I hate having to delete p.1 and typing in p.2 each time I want to advance a page. A simple next or arrow button would be appreciated.
I will note that proboards is
I will note that proboards is going on to version 5, so a lot of the "no" marks above, are now a yes
Check it out if you have not yet done so.
Latest threads and plugins
Latest threads and plugins are now yes.
Quote:Embedded Videos Videos
Videos and Media Websites Supported in Message Posts. No.
You can embed Youtube.
I am impressed Clear, Crisp,
Well, I'm totally thrown. I
Well, I'm totally thrown. I signed up for V5/BetaZone months ago but never received my key. I was told to make a post in the support forum, but can't seem to get in there despite having registered for a Proboards Global Account? Can someone please help me get my BZ key?
http://proboards.com/betazone
http://proboards.com/betazone is the url to the signup. They send you an email. I haven't had any problems with it.
I'm already signed up & was
I'm already signed up & was told all codes have already been sent. I fear it went to my spam since I was told to look for it in my PMs on my board. How do I make a post in the support forum?
Go to
Go to http://support.proboards.com/ and click the register button. If you don't have a global account it will probably have you make one. Then you also have to register for the Support forum.
The absolute worst, run by
The absolute worst, run by crooks. Patrick Clinger (the owner) is the dirtiest piece of crap. He's a lying scumbag. Just do your research.
No need to ever use PB. You can download free forum software like phpBB and run it on your own webhost for $5/month nowadays. Im sure anyone can afford that, and yu wont be bound by their bullchit rules, and youll have control over your forum, not them.
I use Pro Boards now, even
I use Pro Boards now, even though I still have a presence on Delphi Forums, however the modifications you can make on Delphi forums are limited, and it is not free. By far Pro Boards is the best choice.
I have tried them all, I used PHBB for a couple years, but it always got hacked, everyone played stupid on the help forum, like they never heard that before. It made me a little uneasy.
Then I bought and paid for burning board, because they made promises about their software, that made it sound amazing. It is far from amazing, and reminded me of PHBB with modifications, garbage in my opinion. Perhaps on hosting sites that support their software it is great, however, on other standard large hosting sites it is no good.
Burning board will not return your money and will lie to keep your money. They will state that you did not seek help from them to make adjustments and custom tweaks to make it work. When part of the add that made me purchase it, stated that no custom tweaks were needed. I never even got to use the software, it was harder to install then PHBB. I let Burning board keep the $100 bucks, I suspect it will cost them thousands, and force them to live an immoral lifetime.
But the important thing here is Pro Boards, with Pro Boards, they keep the hackers at bay, they keep the spammers out. That is worth more then any of the non-hosted forum software put together.
Pro Board shines at customizing, when you compare them to other hosted forum sites they really stand out in a very positive way. The price is just too ridiculous, Free. You are getting the best most easily customize able, hosted forum absolutely free. There are no headaches, no foolish security updates, like PHBB and the others. It is the only way to go, in my opinion for a modern looking forum solution. I was doing the add free option offered by Pro Boards, for a couple months, but to be honest the adds make it look better and more professional. At this point I would pay to keep the adds.
Sincerely,
William McCormick
I wonder if it is available
I wonder if it is available for Windows 8
Thank you
Okay so, this whole V5 thing
Okay so, this whole V5 thing I really didn't want to get involved. I didn't want to discuss because I was pretty sure it wouldn't get this far. Not because the staff at proboards aren't capable (because I know they are) but because I figure the uproar would be heard. I'm looking on this discussion page and not seeing many people complaining, but I know I am dissatisfied. I know many people that are dissatisfied. So, why aren't they talking? Truth is I don't know. I feel like the staff here at proboards are messing with a good thing, trying to make it better when it was already pretty great. The codes and that have come out for V4 are outstanding and I love every second of V4 coding. Now I know what you're going to say, have you tried V5? the answer is, yes I have. No, I didn't find anything major wrong with it, other than the fact that I have to download plugins which could prove a hassle in the long run. There is also the fact that everything just feels more complex, and I am finding it is taking me hours to do something that would normally take me minutes. Sure, it could just be me getting used to the newness of it all, but to be perfectly honest I don't like it.
I feel that proboards will lose so many members of it's community due to this change, because I know many users are already moving to new hosts. I am already looking for a new host to become familiar with as this change begins to take place. Something that will be easier for me to comprehend. I am not saying that V5 is a bad idea, I'm saying that we should have a choice. Sure opting out until December is great, but what about after that. Then we all need to get used to this coding that is making most sites look messy and gross. These once beautiful sites are terrible looking and it breaks my fragile heart. After all of the pre-made coding, templates, and skins that have been created, well they're all just going to go to waste. Sure some things can be converted over, but what about the things that can't?
My rambling will probably nothing to you guys and the change will probably still continue. Good luck to everyone who switches to this new more inconvenient (in my opinion) style of proboards.