Forum Advice

Amaranthine · **on:** July 23, 2008, 07:27:16 PM

I'm thinking of starting a forum of my own sometime. Or some sort of online group. I'm not too sure what it's going to be about yet, but I wanted some advice from people like Petrie, Tropicalia, LBTlover, or anyone else that has made their own forums. What forum site do you think is the best out of these? Proboards, invisionfree, or actionboards? I want to know which one would be best so I don't deal with spam or advertisments too much.

So please, by all means, give your advice here!

Thank you!

Petrie. · **Reply #1 on:** July 23, 2008, 08:05:27 PM

proboards - not impressed with the way they operate; was an admin of one once

actionboards - (Tim did you start a business?

) never used them

yuku - the former ezboard, layout is a bit tricky, doesn't seem too bad, but ads were bad at one time

invisionfree IPB / zetaboards - majority of the GOF has been spent on the invision IPB system and its a comfortable system and small banner ads are a plus. Any invision board can be made into a zetaboard (their own system) but I haven't seen anything that makes me want to upgrade the GOF to it. If you intially register a zetaboard I won't be able to help you because the admin CP is so different

Ptyra · **Reply #2 on:** July 24, 2008, 03:30:10 PM

I'd recommend invisonfree. It's really easy when you get in the hang of it.

landbeforetimelover · **Reply #3 on:** July 24, 2008, 04:07:14 PM

I would seriously recommend freepowerboards.com. NO AD's AT ALL!!! I have a forum through them and it's all right, however there is also lefora. Here's a link to my lefora tech forum so you can see how it's laid out:

http://technologytalk.lefora.com/

And here's the main forum page:

http://technologytalk.lefora.com/forum/

Very easy organization and you don't even notice the advertisements since they blend in on the side. I would go with lefora any day.

I just use it for a few of my tech friends and myself. It's quite good however we did get 1 unexpected member and we're getting some unwanted attention. -_- I think I'll disallow anonymous posts.

Serris · **Reply #4 on:** July 24, 2008, 05:05:49 PM

My friend uses the Simple Machines forum engine. Ads are very discrete and the forum has a sleek clean appearence.

Personally, I feel that VBulletin is one of the best engines there, but you have to pay and it is VERY user unfriendly.

Amaranthine · **Reply #5 on:** July 26, 2008, 12:12:21 PM

Quote from: Petrie,Jul 23 2008 on 05:05 PM

proboards - not impressed with the way they operate; was an admin of one once

I may just use proboards for now though, since I never made a forum before...

DarkHououmon · **Reply #6 on:** July 26, 2008, 12:27:51 PM

I personally prefer Proboards because it was easier for me to do what I want with it. With Invisionboards, everything is more difficult, in my opinion, and I still haven't figured out how to make one section private to all but the admins.

landbeforetimelover · **Reply #7 on:** July 26, 2008, 12:31:50 PM

Inivisionfree isn't really hard at all, but lefora is MUCH easier and you can do more stuff. I would suggest you know a bit of HTML and CSS when working with any forum. It'll help you customize it better. I'm sure this forum has a crapload of personalized CSS code.

Amaranthine · **Reply #8 on:** August 29, 2008, 09:29:01 PM

If anyone's interested in joining, my forum is all set, so here's the link: Anitopia

Petrie. · **Reply #9 on:** August 29, 2008, 09:55:32 PM

Hot red and bright pink do not go well together. Consider something darker for a background to categories...you'd be amazed how many people that will scare away.

Amaranthine · **Reply #10 on:** August 29, 2008, 09:58:10 PM

Thanks for the advice...

I guess... <_<

You can change the set up, I have more than one skin.

landbeforetimelover · **Reply #11 on:** August 29, 2008, 10:17:41 PM

Yeah. Ouch. Don't make a background that doesn't look good when repeated. Until CSS3 is accepted in all browsers, which will take a long time, you must either use a solid background or one that repeats well. Stars are one thing that will always repeat well so long as the black background behind the stars is constant. Some clouds will work as well. Also, bright colors hurt the eyes. Make warm colors your theme.

Amaranthine · **Reply #12 on:** August 29, 2008, 11:36:07 PM

I changed the theme.

:

I really wasn't prepared for that type of critique.

Petrie. · **Reply #13 on:** August 30, 2008, 07:34:00 AM

Well, it will happen. I mean look, I changed the background of this board, and look what happened.

Um, better with the darker colors, but now you got a dark background and a dark font color (maroon to black). Unfortunately, you know what I'm going to tell you. You'll need a bright font color to offset the dark background. I don't get the change color and background when hovering over links. If you can turn that off, I would. I haven't seen boards implement such a feature because it really isn't necessary. I know what my mouse pointer is hovering over.

Amaranthine · **Reply #14 on:** August 30, 2008, 10:20:11 AM

Quote from: Petrie,Aug 30 2008 on 03:34 AM

Well, it will happen. I mean look, I changed the background of this board, and look what happened.

Um, better with the darker colors, but now you got a dark background and a dark font color (maroon to black). Unfortunately, you know what I'm going to tell you. You'll need a bright font color to offset the dark background. I don't get the change color and background when hovering over links. If you can turn that off, I would. I haven't seen boards implement such a feature because it really isn't necessary. I know what my mouse pointer is hovering over.

You have a point there, but still, I believe you dealt with that criique better then I just did. You and Austin both...really didn't need to go there...

Please...stop...alright? I'm doing this the best of my ability...so....please stop.

Petrie. · **Reply #15 on:** August 30, 2008, 06:01:55 PM

Stop what, the critique? Did you want advice or didn't you? There's nothing that says you have to take our advice but you did want help setting up a forum after all. We're simply offering suggestions to make your forum more presentable.

What makes it hard is I've never used proboards so I don't know what options you do or don't have, just suggesting what things you should look for in the board settings and colors.

Amaranthine · **Reply #16 on:** August 30, 2008, 06:51:18 PM

Ok, I'm sorry. It was just how LBTlover and you gave your suggestions. I was just really taken aback by them. Plus that, I didn't get completely what you and LBTlover were trying to advice me to do. So I was going, 'WHAT?'

I wanted help on finding what site to use for a forum. That's all. Anyone other further critique, I really didn't want.

I should have said that eariler. I am really, really sorry to the both of you.

Petrie. · **Reply #17 on:** August 30, 2008, 10:12:34 PM

Whatever floats your boat then. Best of luck on the board.

Amaranthine · **Reply #18 on:** August 30, 2008, 10:43:42 PM

Thank you.

Besides, I really couldn't get what you were talking about, so yeah, I was getting really pissed off.