Successful free forums

[~ True Legend ~]

Have any of you had experience with hosting successful free forum ? Did they manage to generate much activity?

Thinking of it myself but would rather not pay

 

[Ravenfreak]

There's actually a few forums that are hosted on free hosting that are quite active. The Lost Media Wiki forum uses Proboards, and Sonic 3 Angel Island Revisited modding forum is hosted on Forumotion. The platform doesn't really matter much IMO, I know there are people who won't join a forum if it's hosted on a free platform but you'll still get people who don't mind that. If you're wanting to make your own forum, I think free forum hosting is a good way to dip your toes in. From there you could eventually just move to self hosting, when you feel comfortable. If you do want to move your forum to self hosting, use jcink since they offer database backups of your forum.

 

[~ True Legend ~]

There's actually a few forums that are hosted on free hosting that are quite active. The Lost Media Wiki forum uses Proboards, and Sonic 3 Angel Island Revisited modding forum is hosted on Forumotion. The platform doesn't really matter much IMO, I know there are people who won't join a forum if it's hosted on a free platform but you'll still get people who don't mind that. If you're wanting to make your own forum, I think free forum hosting is a good way to dip your toes in. From there you could eventually just move to self hosting, when you feel comfortable. If you do want to move your forum to self hosting, use jcink since they offer database backups of your forum.

Thanks for the suggestion

 

[Cedric]

If you want to do some reading. I do comparisons on https://freeforumhosting.com

 

[~ True Legend ~]

If you want to do some reading. I do comparisons on https://freeforumhosting.com

Thanks !

 

[Cory]

I use Jcink and although my board isn't super active, I'd consider it at least semi-successful. We have daily log-ins and posts are generally made on a daily basis too.

There's a board on Jcink (Caution to the Wind) that has 140+ members online today, and there's another board (Daytime Dish) that has 3549727 posts.

It's possible to create a successful forum on free forum software, for the most part.

 

[~ True Legend ~]

I use Jcink and although my board isn't super active, I'd consider it at least semi-successful. We have daily log-ins and posts are generally made on a daily basis too.

There's a board on Jcink (Caution to the Wind) that has 140+ members online today, and there's another board (Daytime Dish) that has 3549727 posts.

It's possible to create a successful forum on free forum software, for the most part.

I see that funjoint looks to be pretty active too and is an inspiration on the most part.

 

[Megan Reynolds]

I just opened my new board and because I can't afford a paid one, I am using Jcink. I happen to like this host. I have seen a few successful boards which are successful.

 

[JoelR]

Can someone explain the difference between Jcink and Forumotion?

Not familiar with these free hosts.

 

[~ True Legend ~]

I just opened my new board and because I can't afford a paid one, I am using Jcink. I happen to like this host. I have seen a few successful boards which are successful.

Proboards is a popular one too, but jcink lets you migrate easily by taking database backups.

 

[Megan Reynolds]

Proboards is a popular one too, but jcink lets you migrate easily by taking database backups.

That is true!

 

[Cory]

Can someone explain the difference between Jcink and Forumotion?

I don't know much about Forummotion, but Jcink is based on an older version of IPB just like InvisionFree was.

 

[Nebulous]

Can someone explain the difference between Jcink and Forumotion?

Not familiar with these free hosts.

I don't know much about Forummotion, but Jcink is based on an older version of IPB just like InvisionFree was.

jcink is a heavily modified version of IPB 1.3, the first releases of Invision Power Board were available as a download free of charge under a proprietary license. The last version released under these conditions was Invision Power Board 1.3 back in 2004, almost 20 years ago.

Forumotion offers IPB 1.3 as well as ModernBB, phpBB3, phpBB2 and punBB. We you create a forum there you have the option to choose which software you'd like to use.