Free Message Board Providers (AND YOU!)

[DarkBlood]

Free Message Board Providers


And you!


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Free Forum service providers claim that they have the best service around; but in actuality they don't. I am writing this post to give you a better understanding of how free forum hosts work, and how to avoid hosts that give you false information—especially those who say they don't limit anything.

Free forum providers in the past have allowed users to have FTP access, since Invision Power Services had not yet come out with a release of their forum hosting script to the public. However, in the past couple years or so, I've seen more and more of these so-called mforum script providers that use either phpBB or IPB.

Not all is lost my forum searching friends, since in the years to come you may run into hosts that allow FTP access. But until that time comes, you're on your own in this world. Reporting on the Forum issue around the world, this is DarkBlood from Freewebspace.net.

I have included a list of non-FTP forum hosts below:
BBFree*, EXOCrew, InvisionFree, Proboards, HyperBoards, MyIkonBoard, phpbbforme, IBoardPlus, FastBoards, ForumCo, ASP.DEV, Homepage's Ultra Board, Conforums, forumer, EZBoard, SuddenLaunch, Clic!Dev, akheva, arborwood, DK3, Bravenet, groups.yahoo, groups.msn, Echleon, Xsorbit, Boardnation, getmybb, iPBFree, groupforums, ForumHoster, board-host.org (according to us, Board-Host only allows FTP access on their IPB Paid Accounts 2 and 3.), forum@t*... echk, I can't name 'em all. There's a bunch more.

Pending Forum Review...
RxMB, freeinvisionboard.com, ultimatephpbb...

Any forum service in bold has their server down.
Any forum host with bold AND blue font has a notice (the notice will be included in parenthesis such as this).
*Anything with a star indicates a possible host.

[phuckedup]

There's probably too many to list anyway...a lot of them just pop up overnight on somebody's free/cheap hosting and just put stress on the server.

[DarkBlood]

Thanks phuckedup for clarifying that. Indeed, there are REALLY too many non-FTP hosts out there. But If a FTP host is out there somewhere, I hope I can find it... and possibly have it with un-metered space.

[phuckedup]

Well most of these forum hosts are using a free hosting script which doesn't allow FTP. A lot of the ones who do are just creating the forums manually and giving them FTP access.

[DarkBlood]

Well most of these forum hosts are using a free hosting script which doesn't allow FTP. A lot of the ones who do are just creating the forums manually and giving them FTP access.
Thanks. However, you should also take a look at the ZHosting.tk thread that I just posted in now.

[DarkBlood]

I got my other forum hoster stuff back finally.

Wether or not you want a forum, or wether or not you're a forum hoster... you should definately take the time to read this post; since I'll highlight all the aspects on what makes a host goof or good. If you're not interested in such matters, fine by me... I'll just not be interested in your service.

Well, I should get the bad stuff off my chest right away, so the goof stuff is first.

GOOF #1 -- A Host doesn't allow FTP Access, or doesn't have a File Manager to comphensate. -- This means your service doesn't have one or more of the following: Enough Space for forums, Is hosted by a free service / can't change server settings, Doesn't have SSI, doesn't have rights to do such things.

GOOF #2 -- The host doesn't have decent support. -- This might mean the service doesn't have enough staff.

GOOF #3 -- If all else fails, put ads and restrict users even more. -- Not enough space, staff, etc.

And now for the good stuff (if any):

GOOD #1 -- If you cannot allow certain things, just use SSI and a File Manager. If you can't do this due to server settings, you can't even host anybody right, and get your OWN server!

GOOD #2 -- If you can't get boards set up in enough time. Just use a PHP Script so that the PHP Script extracts a ZIP/GZIP/SIT archive to a directory indicated by the directory the user has specified (ACNOVA used to do this).

GOOD #3 -- Don't rely on people 14 and under, they can't run a forum sometimes, or get members as fast as others; or just plain don't know how to modify PHP/HTML/CSS coding by themselves (sometimes).

GOOD #4 -- DO NOT allow uploading of PNG/BMP or other non-standard emoticon files through the emoticon upload.