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Nova

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I have seen a lot of webmasters who can't afford the paid domain and forum making use of the proboards. But their boards has ads and they can't control the same. And that is kind of disadvantage of the proboards. I think in order to control your own community you need to invest.

What do you think? Is proboards any good? Is it worth wasting your efforts on free infrastructure like that?
 
I have Proboards. Owners can pay for ad-free views. My forum hasn't gotten overly big for me to do so at this time. Same with investing in a paid forum. I honestly don't know how to go about doing that. Plus I learned that unlike some other boards, you can't move everything over. Only your own posts. The way Proboards is set up, it makes it easy for those of us who don't know coding.
 
ZandraJoi said:
The way Proboards is set up, it makes it easy for those of us who don't know coding.
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It does at the expense as you said being vender locked so whatever they charge/limits you to you are "stuck with it".

But I assure you I wouldn't be surprised if a number of forum owners don't even know how to code a line or even have a developer on a retainer/contract.

While I am not gonna say it's as easy as firing up your host's Softalicious installer I can however say you generally speaking don't need to overly complicate this unless you knowingly are aware of very niche requirements that public plugins/modules can't cut the mustard with.

Other than this, it's all about getting the right hosting provider who is willing to show you the ropes, assist you with some/everything and having a decent budget. Don't fret though, that doesn't mean you need to split out $50+/month just to host this. Even if you looking at a more than a few gigabytes of SSD storage just to make sure you set for a few months or so at least. :)
 
Not saying that ProBoards is bad, but my thoughts are that ProBoards aren't for everyone. Yes, it's free and cheap however you are limited and at times you do not own your own site.

SO many people do use ProBoards, I never used ProBoards and glad not to use them. I never really like it anyway. How it looks and feels is just bad. If you been running a ProBoards site for many many years maybe five to ten years then a good time to make it into your own site with your own server. I rather rant a hosting server or get my own server and then get free software like MyBB and bang.

NEver really had free things, always went with paid.
 
@FriendlyPerson Years ago, I had another forum. Before I settled on Proboards then too, I did try to start my own from scratch. I had a friend I met on another forum help me out but we were way over our heads. We spent a good 2 weeks trying to get it set up & had nothing but headaches. We didn't know what we were doing. That is why I opted for Proboards. That is also why I'm hesitant about having to do it all from scratch again. I would have to hire somebody to start it up for me. I am not techie at all.
 
ZandraJoi said:
I am not techie at all.
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Again if you get an actual shared provider who actually does cares for you and your site (this includes your forum) they should be able to assist.

Think of it like getting an Apartment vs. a house. An Apartment who does care isn't going to leave you to your devices with this sort of things (heating, cooling, electrical, etc).

You just gotta get your "furniture" in and all of that. A good host should also set you up for that as well or at least point you in directions for this as well.

Just like our apartment rental example, yea they aren't gonna pull that rug out of your moving van but they are gonna at least tell you if there neighbors who might help, places that might and so forth.
 
There are good and bad when it comes to using a free forum host such as Proboards.

Some people can't afford paid hosting so they'll go with free. The ads are a way for that company to pay for the hosting will still giving it to you for free. But there are ways for you to still get the ads taking off though.
 
JennyorAlice said:
Some people can't afford paid hosting so they'll go with free.
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Or it's operates in such a insufficient manner that paid hosting just doesn't make sense to them. The issue though that this is something that isn't address able overnight or even in weeks.


JennyorAlice said:
The ads are a way for that company to pay for the hosting will still giving it to you for free.
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Honestly ads for hosting schemes NEVER works, even to break even. They are more hopeful that you'll upgrade than the ads paying even moderately in "dividends".

Just like "real" dividend stocks. They are "just there" to fluff your profilio a bit. Not your "bread and butter" stocks.
 
I never saw in my life a non-paid forum that is actually popular, most of them die out because of idleness.

I still think that if you have a free domain it might be something good for starters.
 
Laifot said:
I never saw in my life a non-paid forum that is actually popular, most of them die out because of idleness.
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Exactly if you don't pay for it then you are less likely to get into it. Just like that classic gym membership vs. going on a walk. For some people it's incentive to exercise if they know if they are paying for that "service".
 
FriendlyPerson said:
Exactly if you don't pay for it then you are less likely to get into it. Just like that classic gym membership vs. going on a walk. For some people it's incentive to exercise if they know if they are paying for that "service".
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You have a basic forum functionality though. Thing is that you can't customize almost anything like in 2005-2006 where free forums were better.
 
I don't like it that much. Compared to other free options, it's not that great really. I think the only good thing about it is the connected database because it makes my life a lot easier since I don't have to register on every site.
 
I don't like Proboards ads and refuse to turn off my ad blocker.
 
Join many sites that use Proboards and I never wanted to have Proboards myself just that I had no choice to make content with those sites that had Proboards
 
This is old but idc lol I used to use proboards alot in the early to mid 2000s alot to make forums. However, the idea of not actually OWNING the website, or it's database (At least not without paying a shit ton) I can't imagine really using it now.
 
Abizaga said:
This is old but idc lol I used to use proboards alot in the early to mid 2000s alot to make forums. However, the idea of not actually OWNING the website, or it's database (At least not without paying a shit ton) I can't imagine really using it now.
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We had that for our Mu Online guild forum, as a free tool it's quite useful if you don't plan to make it bigger.
 
Laifot said:
We had that for our Mu Online guild forum, as a free tool it's quite useful if you don't plan to make it bigger.
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I agree! I loved using proboards as a go to when I couldn't afford hosting, domains or commercial software
 
I love Proboards. I've tried other free solutions as well as paid ones however, nothing beats the ease of using Proboards. I'm not a developer or have an interest in learning to work with codes. I love the ability to copy and paste what I need to headers and footers. Proboards Support is also excellent. Whenever I can't figure out something no matter how minor I can simply reach out via their support forum and the staff are always willing to help.
 
Sharon said:
I love Proboards. I've tried other free solutions as well as paid ones however, nothing beats the ease of using Proboards. I'm not a developer or have an interest in learning to work with codes. I love the ability to copy and paste what I need to headers and footers. Proboards Support is also excellent. Whenever I can't figure out something no matter how minor I can simply reach out via their support forum and the staff are always willing to help.
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MyBB is the option for you then, you just need to copy/paste stuff to get it to go! :)
 
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