Best free forums for beginner?

[Raven]

Well I'm not actually a beginner, but I haven't ran my own forum technically for a couple of years. I've had a co-admin, and on my current dead forum there is a tech admin, I haven't got a clue about all that.

I'm looking at doing something on Proboards, Zetaboards, or something like that. Something easy that I can re learn.

What do you recomend?

 

[Raven]

Don't really want to do a paid one to be honest. Just complicates things.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

My advice pick zetaboards easy and a lot of skins to choose from

I agree, if the choice comes down to picking between Zetaboards and Proboards, I'd go with Zetaboards.

 

[~KAGE-008]

ZB is the only good option for new boards. Plus that's what I used to make my own forum (now defunct).

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Just know that once you open a forum on a free remotely hosted forum service, the board is actually their property and you can never move it off their servers. So (god forbid) if they ever go under, "your" board is going down with the ship.

 

[Bluezone777]

It's not likely Zetaboards is going to go under as they been up in running since 2002 I think( back then they were running just Invisionfree). So if you want an easy software to run that's free and has been around a while then I would go with Zetaboards.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

It's not likely Zetaboards is going to go under as they been up in running since 2002 I think( back then they were running just Invisionfree). So if you want an easy software to run that's free and has been around a while then I would go with Zetaboards.

Companies that have been around for 12+ years go under all the time. I agree that its "not likely" but it could happen. If my host went under, I could just move to another host and you guys here wouldn't even know what happened. Thats the magic of backups and "self hosting."

 

[Flurry]

I would say Proboards as a nice beginner. But I'm a little biased towards them despite the fact I haven't ran a Proboard forum in a long while.

 

[Sinion Kabe]

I would personally advise you to go with Zetaboards.

 

[Enter Username Here]

Not Zetaboards. Zetaboards can be very glitchy and their support staff(Support Tickets) know absolutely nothing.

I would go with Icyboards, great free mybb boards.

 

[Darth-Apple]

Icyboards is nice because unlimited database exports can be created and downloaded for the $10/month icyboards premium plans (which also include advertisement removal and extra attachment space). Most free hosts have a lock in policy that prevents you from easily moving your forum if you choose to switch, and Icyboards has stayed away from that mentality for the most part. There are some phpBB hosts that have avoided the lock in policy as well.

Whatever you do, I'd recommend avoiding hosts that lock you in. As soon as your forum grows large enough to outgrow the host, you'll run into some problems if you can't obtain an export. I've been there before, it's not fun.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

$10 per month = $120 per year and that's triple what I pay for my hosting & domain renewal for Off Topix.

 

[Darth-Apple]

$10 per month = $120 per year and that's triple what I pay for my hosting & domain renewal for Off Topix.

That's 10 dollars for unlimited exports for the month. A little pricey for hosting, but the point is that the export prices are very reasonable in comparison to other free hosts.

 

[steel bat]

I wouldn't advise going for paid hosting until you're pretty sure you've got a good solid community behind you. I've had three failed forums over the years and I've seen it very often that most forums might start up well enough just to fade after a few months.

 

[Webster]

I would personally advise you to go with Zetaboards.

^ ^ ^ ^
What Sinion said.