Have you ever used a free forum host?

[Shawn Gossman1]

Like ProBoards or something like that.

Have you ever used a free forum hosting service?

Are you still using one?

What are your general thoughts on using free forum hosts?

 

[ZandraJoi]

My forum is on Proboards. Free forums are great for those just starting out, to get their feet wet. Most allow you to migrate over & that's what many have done. That was my goal when I first started out. To start out on Proboards, which is very user friendly, then when I got bigger, to move to a paid one.

 

[Shawn Gossman1]

Can you migrate from ProBoards?

 

[Dilip]

I don't think we can, legally.

Personally, I have tried almost every kind of hosting, free included. I currently use a hosted one for one of my forums because it is easier to manage. It is free but has paid upgrades.

As long as they will allow you to download backups, you are safe.

 

[vortex]

I've used InvisionFree (RIP), and also ZetaBoards (Also RIP).

Considered using JCink, and they're amazing, but decided not to cause I don't have what it takes to manage a forum, nor do I have the time.

 

[Shawn Gossman1]

I've used InvisionFree (RIP), and also ZetaBoards (Also RIP).

I didn't realize they're gone.

Didn't CrowdGather buy one of them at one time?

 

[vortex]

They were bought out by TapaTalk, who then proceeded to gut the community. :/

 

[Shawn Gossman1]

They were bought out by TapaTalk, who then proceeded to gut the community. :/

Ohhh... I remember TapaTalk now. They used to have a really nice mobile platform until they started adding features without your ability to stop it.

I think there was a lot of worried about invasion of privacy as well.

 

[Dilip]

Is Tapatalk still around? I mean, there is still no proper mobile app available for many forum software.

 

[Shawn Gossman1]

Is Tapatalk still around? I mean, there is still no proper mobile app available for many forum software.

It looks like they are.

https://www.tapatalk.com/
While you can use your existing forum software, it seems to me they want you to use their forum feature more so than an alternative one.

They almost have a mobile-only proboards feel to them!

Interesting.

As for a good mobile app, yeah I don't think there is one for XF. I'm shocked XenForo never made any official ones.

 

[Papa Bear]

Nope never used free.I still have 3 Vbulletin licenses and my Xenforo licenses

 

[Shawn Gossman1]

Nope never used free.I still have 3 Vbulletin licenses and my Xenforo licenses

Do you still use vBulletin for anything?

 

[Papa Bear]

Do you still use vBulletin for anything?

No I don’t use vbulletin anymore

 

[Shawn Gossman1]

No I don’t use vbulletin anymore

I bet I still have licenses. I don't even remember how to get in my account, that's how long it's been.

I had a 3.8 and maybe a 4.0 license at one time.

 

[Papa Bear]

I bet I still have licenses. I don't even remember how to get in my account, that's how long it's been.

I had a 3.8 and maybe a 4.0 license at one time.

I can’t remember how to get in mine either so don’t feel bad..

 

[vortex]

I bet I still have licenses. I don't even remember how to get in my account, that's how long it's been.

I had a 3.8 and maybe a 4.0 license at one time.

I loved VB 4.0, and wanted to get it, but didn't have the funds back then. I thought of getting VB 5 just to play around, but the pricing is crazy.

 

[Dilip]

Price is one factor that is taking vB down. Free options are not very good either.

We cannot expect too much when providers are not charging for it.

 

[Elseb1]

Tapatalk is the worst forum provider I've ever used, so much so that when they bought out Zetaboards/Invisionfree, we left our forum of over 15 years to move to InvisionCommunity.

In the past, I've had forums on...

Cutecast: Anybody remember these from like 2002 haha
Suddenlaunch: Very basic but it was decent for our first ever forum. (I was 12). This went years ago.
Boardnation: Enjoyed it though the security wasn't great at the time. Not sure whatever happened to them.
InvisionFree/Zetaboards: Thought it was a fantastic free website host. I hate Tapatalk for ruining them!

 

[Shawn Gossman1]

Tapatalk is the worst forum provider I've ever used, so much so that when they bought out Zetaboards/Invisionfree, we left our forum of over 15 years to move to InvisionCommunity.

Were you able to migrate the content and users over or did you have to start over?

Why was it the worse? What made you dislike Tapatalk?

 

[Elseb1]

Were you able to migrate the content and users over or did you have to start over?

Why was it the worse? What made you dislike Tapatalk?

They basically migrated everything without even asking. The forum ended up having a massive amount of advertisements and the overall user experience is just really poor as the users needed to register a Tapatalk account which is then used across all tapatalk forums, it's just a really poor experience. The users hated it and I really couldn't stand it.

Tldr; don't use tapatalk haha