Staffing Best Board Host

[CovertSphinx 710]

I got the idea to ask from Kieran's thread "What matters most" thread.

 

Mainly as an admin, but also as a member. Which board host do you guys think is the best? Or even your favorites. I've always preferred Proboards myself, but I feel like the ToS sometimes can be a little...restrictive for certain game genres. At the same time, I can't complain about the ease of its skins, its admin areas, etc. Especially that simple-and-quick account switch feature they added with the remodeling a while back.

[KARA BELLA 18]

I have only had experience with Invisionfree and Jcink myself and they are both a lot a like in some ways in others Jcink has some better features, ie: Jcink also has a quick account switch feature.  They also have a feature where you can link accounts and make one account your main one so that you can post from it but still make the post as a different character.  That is if you have multiple characters.  That is part of the switch account feature though I think.  I think because of that I like Jcink better.  Also Jcink has this premium thing where you can get a premium subscription type and have less restrictive stuff on your site, not that I've done it myself.  The premium subscription can also be applied to more than one site, for people who have more than one site going.

[AKNyx 33]

My view might be slightly skewed since I a self-hoster, but I love phpbb3. While it may not be as flashy as others (unless you've got an awesome coder at your disposal), I've never personally had an issue. There've been some touch and go things with jcink, with invision, proboards, mybb, but I've yet to see the same problems manifest on my own site, nine years strong.

 

That's not to say I don't like other sites. I've had another site in the works on jcink for a while now, and am an active participant on several of the aforementioned hosts. For my own piece of mind, though, phpbb3 all the way for my main base.

[VirusZero 176]

Self-hosting is kind of a wide range... I mean there are dozens of different web hosts so that could be a whole other topic... So for the sake of brevity, I'm going to exclude them here and stick to free forum hosts. 

 

Between the main ones, it's really down to JFH and Icyboards for me. JFH just barely edges out IB simply because of the free database backups. Beyond that both services are solid and you can't really go wrong with either one. 

 

 

 

 

[Morrigan 1,826]

I'm like @AKNyx I self host and I haven't looked back since then.

 

Board software in terms of ranking:

1. IPS 4 (What DF runs on but only decent for RPing)
2. IPS 3 (Better for Roleplaying because of the character mod that creates subaccounts).
3. MyBB and SMF would be next up on my list as I prefer their account switching methods over phpBB3.
4. phpBB3

 

As far as non-self hosting goes:

1. IcyBoards
2. Jcink
3. IF/Proboards
4. Zetaboards

[Huskerdust 625]

I started out on Invisionfree and then switched to Jcink when it came out. It was IF with much better support and more options! Yay! But then my husband (my boyfriend at the time) offered to self host me on SMF. I HAD NO IDEA what I was getting into and had never heard of SMF before but he said there was a sub-account feature (something I had been complaining about nonstop while on Jcink--"WHY ISN'T THERE A WAY TO JUST POST FROM ONE ACCOUNT AND HAVE IT SHOW UP LIKE ANOTHER ACCOUNT???"-- which Jcink at the time didn't have) so I jumped right into it. 

 

I'm an SMF fangirl now. It's not just the sub-accounts anymore. It's the bookmarks and other mods as well, which I know phpbb3 also has. Self hosting and being able to create php pages to run claims lists automatically? I'm spoiled and don't want to go back. And I dunno. Some people don't like the look of SMF but I adore it. I will openly admit that SMF has a lot of issues but none of the issues I've personally encountered have ever broken my loyalty. 

[Tired Old Soldiers 10]

For self hosted I prefer SMF. I don't self host anymore though. While I know how to do everything behind the scenes and can do it fairly easily it was actually becoming stressful. I switched hosts and that still didn't fix the issues I had, even though the second host was highly recommended. Anyway, I adored SMF when I went that route. I also had paid software, and that had to be my favorite for self hosting - IPB. I had 3.4.5 not 4 [was going to save up to get updated everything eventually before I quit self hosting], but I adored it. 

 

For hosts out there already, like proboards, jcink, icyboards, etc. I've always been a fan of Jcink. I may have some issues with how things were handled in the past, and I may also have had some frustrations with loading times and IP issues, but for the most part they've been awesome. I love their premium, which is $10 a month and you can have up to 4 boards on one premium. I've used it for the ad free + the ability to up the rating, which is necessary for my sites for content & the comfort of myself and my members. I moved us back there with the help of the owner [I had a database he was able to convert so we didn't lose anything] and the lack of stress has been amazing. Sure there's been some downtime, but my hosts had about the same amount of downtime and with Jcink I can trust that he'll take care of it all rather than me having to chase down support and wait several days [or longer] for a response, let alone a fix.

 

Proboards is nice too, though I've not personally run anything there in at least 5 years. I've played on games there and I do like v5 quite a lot. Their premium service is quite nice, at least from a member's perspective, and I'd join games there again. Non-premium games are also a go, though you definitely have to watch what you write. I've been on sites that were shut down in the past and don't want to go through that again.

[CovertSphinx 710]

Is the premium on Jclink the only option as far as allowing for more age-restrictive content? Even at a low balance of $10, I'm not really a huge fan of monthly payments; especially when I don't even know yet if the board I want to make will even get off the ground.

 

I'm not sure I'm comfortable enough with code/have the time to put in the work for it to Self-Host.

[KARA BELLA 18]

@CovertSphinx I believe so.  As far as I'm aware you have to have premium on jcink to have more age-restrictive stuff on your site.

[CandleJack 0]

2 hours ago, CovertSphinx said:

Is the premium on Jclink the only option as far as allowing for more age-restrictive content? Even at a low balance of $10, I'm not really a huge fan of monthly payments; especially when I don't even know yet if the board I want to make will even get off the ground.

 

I'm not sure I'm comfortable enough with code/have the time to put in the work for it to Self-Host.

 

Well, I'm not sure what kind of content/genre you're running, but you can always make a 'dumbed down' version of your game for the first month to make sure it's something that you want to run? You can start premium at any time and it's not contract based, so you don't have to continue if you do not want to. John will give you the opportunity to remove the 'mature' content so you can continue with the game as well, if that is something that you want to do. Once the premium expires, no one will be able to log in (of course), but your forum will remain open until you either convert/remove the 'mature' content. It will not be removed from the database or anything of that nature (unless no one logs in after a while). 

[Guest Archaic Cyborg]

Jcink, because I don't have the time/pstience/energy to self-host. That, and rp to me is just a 'nice to have' hobby. I don't want to invest that much time into it, because Real Life can be a bitch at times. My onky issue is the downtime drama, and how the main trend is CFS- it glitches a lot, making navigation and access a hassle.

 

Next up is InsaneJournal, only because it's great for 1x1s... With people you've known fir a while. Finding new partners there is a waste of time. Other than that, it is quick and easy to set up IC accounts and the main community. I can't do the same elsewhere, so it doesn't matter if an rp doesn't work out. I can recycle my account or delete it forever.

[CovertSphinx 710]

On 2/21/2016 at 8:50 PM, CandleJack said:

Well, I'm not sure what kind of content/genre you're running, but you can always make a 'dumbed down' version of your game for the first month to make sure it's something that you want to run? You can start premium at any time and it's not contract based, so you don't have to continue if you do not want to. John will give you the opportunity to remove the 'mature' content so you can continue with the game as well, if that is something that you want to do. Once the premium expires, no one will be able to log in (of course), but your forum will remain open until you either convert/remove the 'mature' content. It will not be removed from the database or anything of that nature (unless no one logs in after a while). 

 

Dark Fantasy. The way I'm setting it up, I'm trying to focus a little less on the War Style gameplay and work a lot of the overworld conflict by intrigue and character relation-based power plays. When you throw Vampires, Warewolves, magical mortals, Deities, Demons, etc in the mix, it's bound to get in the 3-3-3 markings if we really want to play it as Dark as I'm hoping.

[Cloud 0]

I prefer Zetaboards. 

 

I used to be on EzBoards over a decade ago, swapped to InvisionFree and upgraded to Zeta when it came out by the same people. Now I use Zeta since I'm familiar with it, know a handful of the staff behind Zeta and know how to code for Zeta pretty effectively. Their ToS doesn't really care about Adult Roleplays as much as it cares about pornography being posted. So long as your signatures, avatars, pictures in profiles are not adult related, they turn a blind eye to it. 

 

I've had a number of custom JavaScripts written by their staff for my forum to get my desired results turned into a reality. So they really are top notch for me. 

 

I did try self-hosting once under using phpbb3 (which was surprisingly similar to Zeta), but the guy who ran the server I was on and I had a falling out. So he shut the whole server down in the middle of a roleplay and booted the ten forums he was hosting for us off of there. So I turned back to Zeta. 

[CandleJack 0]

43 minutes ago, Faylen said:

I prefer Zetaboards. 

 

I used to be on EzBoards over a decade ago, swapped to InvisionFree and upgraded to Zeta when it came out by the same people. Now I use Zeta since I'm familiar with it, know a handful of the staff behind Zeta and know how to code for Zeta pretty effectively. Their ToS doesn't really care about Adult Roleplays as much as it cares about pornography being posted. So long as your signatures, avatars, pictures in profiles are not adult related, they turn a blind eye to it. 

 

I've had a number of custom JavaScripts written by their staff for my forum to get my desired results turned into a reality. So they really are top notch for me. 

 

I did try self-hosting once under using phpbb3 (which was surprisingly similar to Zeta), but the guy who ran the server I was on and I had a falling out. So he shut the whole server down in the middle of a roleplay and booted the ten forums he was hosting for us off of there. So I turned back to Zeta. 

 

I used Zeta for a few years, myself. The forum is pretty powerful and it really is a nice software, but it is a pain in the ass to code for, unless you really spend some time (and I mean a lot of time) to figure it out. It's not as user-friendly as Jcink, and not as customization initially, but it definitely will work and you can make great layouts. 

 

Buutttt user friendly is kind of a must, as well. I can understand your position- I had to spend time learning how code for it, effectively. But Zetaboards isn't the easiest software out there. From my understanding, it's powerful and safe though. My server had downtime issues, though, but DDOS attacks are hitting everyone harder these past few years.

 

In terms of my favorite forum host, though. I'd pick Icyboards. Jcink is a favorite as well. I've operated and have done some beta testing with Jcink. Spork and John are great people and I'd recommend both services. For anyone who is concerned about "mature" stuff, I'm more familiar with how Jcink responds than I do with Icyboards.

Edited February 23, 2016 by CandleJack
I apparently don't know how to spell.

[Cloud 0]

3 hours ago, CandleJack said:

 

I used Zeta for a few years, myself. The forum is pretty powerful and it really is a nice software, but it is a pain in the ass to code for, unless you really spend some time (and I mean a lot of time) to figure it out. It's not as user-friendly as Jcink, and not as customization initially, but it definitely will work and you can make great layouts.

 

Buutttt user friendly is kind of a must, as well. I can understand your position- I had to spend time learning how code for it, effectively. But Zetaboards isn't the easiest software out there. From my understanding, it's powerful and safe though. My server had downtime issues, though, but DDOS attacks are hitting everyone harder these past few years.

 

In terms of my favorite forum host, though. I'd pick Icyboards. Jcink is a favorite as well. I've operated and have done some beta testing with Jcink. Spork and John are great people and I'd recommend both services. For anyone who is concerned about "mature" stuff, I'm more familiar with how Jcink responds than I do with Icyboards.

 

I can't quite relate with the difficulty part. I've been doing it for so long that I don't even remember when I started learning. The only issues I've had with Zeta is when I hit my character limit for board codes. But I just get around that by turning it all into scripts hosted on the forum. 

The difficult part is creating features that other forum hosts have that you like. Thankfully there are several fantastic websites with hundreds and hundreds of codes pre-made by amazing people that do that for you (like an in post color wheel. I don't think I can live without it now). 

I tried Jcink out once. It definitely had more built-in customization options. But I didn't feel like taking the time to learn another process. I've also found that most Jcink forums irritate me beyond all belief. So many forums with tiny tiny fonts that I can't read.