Forums... TT.TT

[Tokki Wartooth]

I'm sure this question has been asked many times before, but I must ask it again.

Does anyone know of any free forums that don't make you download stuff and don't have any popup advertisements?

Thank ye in advance.

[Bahamut2000X]

http://www.phpbb.com/

That's a decent one. It's free, you just need a host to put the forums on and know how to install it. Enjoy.:)

[Tokki Wartooth]

Thanks, but you hafta download stuff for that one. It's too hard. TT.TT

[Bahamut2000X]

Ikon board is easy to set up.

www.ikonboard.com

Only downside is it isn't very good from what I've seen but it works for a while. Maybe if you know a lot about forums you might be able to do more then me, but meh, it's only decent.

[Tokki Wartooth]

You gotta download stuff for that one too! *kicks yer arse* Hehe, just kidding. n__n But do you know of any that require NO downloading?

[Agent Proto]

ezboard But who would want an ezboard forum? xD

[Bahamut2000X]

Actually somehow there is a way to get a ikonboard with out downloading. You just have to look carefully. It's the kind I'm using for my comic's forums, but ya, searching is the way to find the non downloadable ones, I think it's called Myikonboard or something like that.

[Yamaneko]

http://www.proboards.com/index.html

http://www.invisionfree.com/

That's all I can think of now.

[Citizen Bleys]

myikonboard.com is always down.

Try Hyperboard.com, if you don't mind waiting sixteen thousand years while they send you your password via email.

[Shlup]

I've used www.suddenlaunch.com before; they're not so bad.

[Dr Unne]

Just because it requires downloading doesn't mean it's that hard. Anyways http://www.google.com/search?q=free+message+board

[Samuraid]

Does anyone know of any free forums that don't make you download stuff and don't have any popup advertisements?
If its free, it will probably have advertisements. I have yet to see a free hosted forum that doesn't have ads.

[Heath]

Originally posted by terralith
If its free, it will probably have advertisements. I have yet to see a free hosted forum that doesn't have ads.

Delphi used to be like that *nod*.

[Citizen Bleys]

GSN's free hosting :)

You need to have a gaming site and your own domain, though.

[Tokki Wartooth]

Downloading is too hard for ME, Unnaah. Bleh. It's all too hard! I give up!

*searches for someone who will buy her a pretty vBulletin instead =D*

[Doomgaze]

AND set it up and run it for you? You DO know the first thing you have to do with the files? (I'll give you a hint, starts with d, ends in ownload)

[Miriel]

Seriously, if you want a good quality board, you're going to need to download the software. It took a lot of convincing for me to download and setup a board because I was positive that it would be too hard, and I was basically lazy. But Invisionboard is <i>extremely</i> easy to install. If I could do it I'm sure anyone can.

[Big Ogre Umaro]

You have to put up with so much crap when you have free hosts. I didn't realize how much crap I'd been put through until I started paying for my hosting. NOW I'm put through crap on a less frequent basis, but the crap that I am put through is all the more infuriating.

[o_O]

Invisionfree is a great, no B-S board.

[Samuraid]

Yeah, Invisionfree is great.

I am running an invisionboard now and highly recommend it:
http://216.101.198.21/~dan/ib/index.php

I can also recommend phpBB...but I haven't yet found any site that hosts it. In fact, I don't think that will happen since it is a GPL program.

[Sheik]

Is invision free customizable?

[Samuraid]

If it's anything like downloadable version, then yes: it's customizable. The downloadable version has tons of really coolio features too. (more than phpBB, and even a few more than vBulletin 2.x)

[Big Ogre Umaro]

Trust me, man, vBulletin does so much more than IPB.

[Loony BoB]

vBulletin is by far the best board I've ever had the luck of using. But it costs :( Otherwise, Invision is probably the way to go. Works for me (example in sig, heh).

[Burtsplurt]

<A HREF="http://www.woltlab.info/en/news.php">Burning Board 2</A> is almost as good as vB in my opinion, but only costs $25.

[Dr Unne]

http://www.phpbb.com is good too. The few things that is doesn't do that vBB does, people write hacks for. The templates are a bit harder to manage, but it's free so you can't really complain.

[Spatvark]

I'm a member of a phpBB which specialises in writing. I can tell you now that they are the devil for it; if you use HTML in your post and copy chapters from MS Word to the reply box, when you post, it replaces all the special Word characters with their HTML equivalents, making what you post as ugly as hell. It really gets on my tits at times. Apart from that, phpBB is great.

[Dr Unne]

What kinds of Word characters? If you're trying to post anything but plaintext, you might be accidentally posting code that can be run / executed and cause damage unless the MB parses it out. It's a safety measure.

[Loony BoB]

Even if it is a safety measure, I'd imagine if it does it, it would prove to be annoying. Particularly if vBB doesn't do it.

[Samuraid]

Originally posted by BOU
Trust me, man, vBulletin does so much more than IPB.
I have used vB version 2.2.8 control panel, and besides a few smaller features, it doesn't seem to have much more than Invisionboard, at least not enough to warrant the $160 (or whatever it is for a full vB license) price tag.

Just out of curiosity...how fast is vBulletin compared to the other boards? (I know Invision is a bit faster than phpBB since I have run both of them on the same webserver and compared benchmarks)

EDIT: Take a look at the options on the invision CP. It doesn't even begin to show the massive number of options and features inside each menu.
http://216.101.198.21/~dan/pub/ibcp1.pnghttp://216.101.198.21/~dan/pub/ibcp2.png

[Loony BoB]

I use the recently updated version of Invision with a hack for a decent Mod CP, and I've used an older version of vBB, and vBB is so much better in almost every freaking way.

No, really. And the options in Invision are half-arse =P Some are nifty, but they should have way more.

[Yamaneko]

IPB 1.2 is coming out soon. It looks quite nifty. If you're registered at their main boards you can check it out in action already. There's a pre-installed quick reply, the avatar gallery in vB style and there's a spot for a pic of yourself (or anything you want) in your profile. I love IPB, although the skinning system could be better thought out. Meh.