InvisionFree / ZetaBoards

[Cedric]

This was a software from sometime around 2002 until 2016 or something if I recall correctly that was bought by TapaTalk. Some of you might remember this free forum host from back in the good old days. For me, it was part of my childhood where I met many friends and formed my as a person. Where I have learned many things as a person.

Do any of you remember this free forum host ?

 

[Cory]

How could I not remember it? I was there almost from the beginning till the end. It was a pleasant experience on both forum software, building forums, making friends, learning to code, and starting the journey of my life basically! I offered a lot of support, codes, and coded skins for the software. I had a few bad moments with the software where I did some not-so-good things, but in the end, I definitely did more good for the software than bad. Helena, who was a staff member of the official board, still remains a friend of mine to this very day that we keep in contact with fairly frequently. I converted a lot of skins she designed to the Jcink forum software, which is where my coding/support journey led me after the end of Zathyus Networks.

 

[Nomad]

I don't know about this free forum host, in fact, I did not know about any free forum host until 2020 when I joined the first free hosted forum built with proboards. However, I knew about open source forum systems like phpbb, mybb, smf back in 2016.

 

[ladyquack]

Invisionfree was one of the first forum softwares I used. Definitely have some memories there. I kind of miss it sometimes.

 

[Lewis.]

Yep. Likewise, I remember it as a solid part of my childhood. It's where I learned to design graphics which, over the years, has led on to all sorts of different things.

 

[Shortie]

InvisionFree was where I got my start with forums. I enjoyed ZetaBoards as well and really felt it could've been even better with some re-coding for a new version. It's a real shame it was sold to Tapatalk and then just forgotten about and thrown away. When Revillution was on ZetaBoards a few years before they closed up ZetaBoards, we had a custom theme on it that was really nice.

 

[Clarice]

I personally use to love Invisionfree. It was my main host of choice for a long time. It was easy to use and coding for it was a snap to figure out.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I remember Zetaboards was the second forum host I came across whenever I first got into the hobby. I honestly wish I found Zetaboards before I found Forumotion, I would have picked Zetaboards over it for my first forum. For fun I made a Sonic theme for Invisionfree, and I think I might have imported it over to Jcink at some point. It's a shame what happened to Zetaboards and Invisionfree. I remember seeing quite a few folks from Forum Promotion on the Zetaboards support forums, I mainly lurked over there though.

 

[Cory]

I personally use to love Invisionfree.

Do you like Jcink more now or still like InisionFree more? Jcink is more secure and has more features than InvisionFree, so I'd probably choose it over InisionFree if I had both options available at this time.

 

[Clarice]

Invisionfree was easier to figure out and set up.

 

[Cory]

Invisionfree was easier to figure out and set up.

I'd probably agree with you at the time, but I've been using free forum software for so long that I'm used to some of the more complex stuff it offers.

 

[Clarice]

It's just harder to figure out the coding than it use to be and that is frustrating for me.

 

[Cory]

It's just harder to figure out the coding than it use to be and that is frustrating for me.

Well, you know who to come to when it comes to coding.

 

[Clarice]

LOL! Thanks, Cory!

 

[Henrywrites]

Yep. Likewise, I remember it as a solid part of my childhood. It's where I learned to design graphics which, over the years, has led on to all sorts of different things.

The software can be used to run some graphics and that is something that made a lot of people use it in the past.

 

[Mnikolic]

Invisionfree was my first forum host that I used. Actually, I used to move my boards from InvisionFree to JFH and back alot whenever there was some sort of internet attack on one of the forums hosts.

I also loved ZetaBoards, it's a shame it just got lost in the whole Tapatalk nonsense. The creators shoud have really found a partner or another company who would invest further into its development. iPBFree was also great, but I don't like how it went down basically overnight.

I just hope JFH stays around. I'd hate if another one would just disappear into thin air.

 

[Arantor]

Well, in the case of JFH, if John started doing it when he was 20 (say), he's now in his mid 40s. JFH is a viable business but I can't imagine it's his *only* business because it's not *that* big. (At some point I'll share what numbers I have that suggests that.)

The other folks I know in the same space have other side gigs (or even treat the hosting like a side gig) and at some point it'll be time to move on. It may even be the point at which it's too time consuming or difficult to keep the mutated version of InvisionFree running on more current supported versions of PHP - it was written for PHP 4, we're coming up towards PHP 9 and the language is getting more and more strict.

 

[Heatman]

Invisionfree was one of the first forum softwares I used. Definitely have some memories there. I kind of miss it sometimes.

It's the same thing with me here when it comes to making use of Invisionfree forum software back in the days. From my experience with using it and Proboards, I would say that the latter was more rounded in every aspect.

 

[Reverie]

Invisionfree was my true beginning of my obsession with forums. I had joined another forum on I beleive proboards or something, but then I wanted to build my own and decided I loved how Invisionfree looked and noticed there was a lot of support for it. I joined Invisionfree Skin Zone and it's all history from there. I joined many invisionfree and then when the release of zetaboards was just rumored, I was enthralled to join zetaboards and try it out! I remember creating a test site immediately when it became available because I wanted to learn it all!

Some of my best friendships came from there and I will always be thankful. I am sad that Tapatalk took over, I understand the want to move to mobile and they had the right things for that... and I understood the one dude (Brandon?) just ran out of time really... I get that... but it was so frustrating to lose all the customization we all once had!