Forumotion

[Randy]

Create a free forum | FORUMOTION

Create a free forum : free forum hosting, free forum skins, templates editing, chatbox, RPG mod... Choose PhpBB 2 - 3, Invision or PunBB. Create forums now!

www.forumotion.com

Forumotion is a free host that allows you to create a free hosted forum.

They offer 4 different software platforms to choose from: phpBB, ModernBB, Invision, and punBB.

Have you used them? Do you have experience with all the softwares they offer? Do you like their service in general?

 

[PGen98]

Haven't used Forumotion, but I have used all of the software they offer. Their service is a necessary one, but it's one that I simply don't need.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

They are a decent forum host as far as free hosts go. Probably in the top 2, the other one being proboards.

 

[nomad]

I have used forumotion as a user but never used this free hosted forum to create a forum. I like creating my own self hosted forum and use open source software

 

[safeinsanity]

I like the Forumotion platform. It's pretty cool!

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Forumotion would be better if it allowed you to have a global account like Proboards does, where everything is linked (in a way) and you can register on one of their forums in a couple clicks.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I think I might have played around them in the past.

I only ever really messed with Pro Boards and it was for a very short time.

I immediately jumped on the self-hosted forum train once I realized forum hosting services were a bit freedom-lacking.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

I think I might have played around them in the past.

I only ever really messed with Pro Boards and it was for a very short time.

I immediately jumped on the self-hosted forum train once I realized forum hosting services were a bit freedom-lacking.

Yes and they own your forum. Also "your" forum is in their hands. Seen plenty of free hosts suddenly go offline and everyone's forum was killed off in the process.

 

[PGen98]

Yes and they own your forum. Also "your" forum is in their hands. Seen plenty of free hosts suddenly go offline and everyone's forum was killed off in the process.

So much this. Xsorbit...so many millions of posts lost when they went under. Horrible how that happened.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

So much this. Xsorbit...so many millions of posts lost when they went under. Horrible how that happened.

How sad.

jcink seems to be the only one who got it right. They let you have a backup to your forum.

 

[PGen98]

How sad.

jcink seems to be the only one who got it right. They let you have a backup to your forum.

Absolutely agreed. ezBoard did this, too, I actually migrated my first ever forum off of ezBoard to vBulletin at one point. Still have the database saved but I don't think it's anything I can retrieve because it's all so old at this point. I was happy to have that, though, it holds a lot of memories for me . Absolutely terrible that some forum hosts don't give you access to your data. Proboards especially. The size they are, it's understandable people will want their data when they go self-hosted.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Absolutely agreed. ezBoard did this, too, I actually migrated my first ever forum off of ezBoard to vBulletin at one point. Still have the database saved but I don't think it's anything I can retrieve because it's all so old at this point. I was happy to have that, though, it holds a lot of memories for me . Absolutely terrible that some forum hosts don't give you access to your data. Proboards especially. The size they are, it's understandable people will want their data when they go self-hosted.

They should at least let their members buy their database. That could be a good source of income for them. However once they buy their database what could they do with it? The base software of proboards is YaBB. They could restore it on a YaBB installation and convert it to phpBB.

 

[PGen98]

They should at least let their members buy their database. That could be a good source of income for them. However once they buy their database what could they do with it? The base software of proboards is YaBB. They could restore it on a YaBB installation and convert it to phpBB.

Yeah, they'd need a proper convertor set up, which I'm sure companies like XF or vB could realistically make...well, XF at least. IPS as well, probably. It's not outside of the realm of possibility, and I'd assume at this point there isn't much actual YaBB left in Proboards...at least I would hope not!

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Yeah, they'd need a proper convertor set up, which I'm sure companies like XF or vB could realistically make...well, XF at least. IPS as well, probably. It's not outside of the realm of possibility, and I'd assume at this point there isn't much actual YaBB left in Proboards...at least I would hope not!

I just googled some YaBB forums and they look pretty much identical to proboards.

Examples:

The CLIMBoard - Maintenance Mode

climbonline.org

YaBB Development & Mods - Index

Web Forum: YaBB Development & Mods - Index

yabbforumsoftware.com

 

[PGen98]

I just googled some YaBB forums and they look pretty much identical to proboards.

Examples:

The CLIMBoard - Maintenance Mode

climbonline.org

YaBB Development & Mods - Index

Web Forum: YaBB Development & Mods - Index

yabbforumsoftware.com

Yep, it was THE go-to free forum for a while, but I'm hoping Proboards have been refactoring their code with each build, so at this point, even though it looks like YaBB, it shouldn't be anywhere near it technologically. If it is...yikes.

It's funny, YaBB is the forefather to quite a few different forum options, YaBB, YaBB SE, ProBoards, Xsorbit, there's one more I'm forgetting the name of, and then of course YaBB SE became SMF, so YaBB is still alive and well in that sense. I bet Zef Hemmel's still proud to see his baby alive in a couple of different forms.

 

[nomad]

Forumotion would be better if it allowed you to have a global account like Proboards does, where everything is linked (in a way) and you can register on one of their forums in a couple clicks.

I totally agree. Proboards allow you to have one global account. If you use a lot of forums, you will be saved from creating accounts on multiple sites.

 

[Ravenfreak]

My very first forum was on Forumotion. I was a complete newbie at the time, and I got confused with the ACP since their software is based on a modified phpBB. I also was disappointed that I couldn't have multiple themes too. Since I didn't know what I was doing at the time, my forum pretty much died because I only promoted it on Facebook and only a few of my family members and friends joined. Like most other free forum hosts, you're stuck with them if you decide to make a forum.

 

[safeinsanity]

I find the theming process a bit confusing on Forumotion too. 😟