Mind you, I have only lurked this forum up until now, but from what I can tell, there isn't much respect for ProBoards when compared to services like IPBB and IF.

I'm just wondering why this is and/or what features these forums have that make it so much more elite than ProBoards.

Thank ye kindly. ^^

Well lets see... ProBoards is clunky. Only loads once in a blue moon. Has almost no tech support and - unlike Invisionfree - is very difficult to code.

Also, Invisionfree has an index of boards that is very well organized - as well as multiple sites with an index as well. ProBoards doesn't.

All in all, IF and the rest win out because they are far more streamlined and continue to be so.

Nothing personal against them, but I just find their interface cumbersome and difficult to use in comparison to IF and IPBB. Matter of taste, I suppose. XD

Dunno what you're talking about, because it loads just fine. If you're talking about the 'Too many connections' page that plagued Proboards, that stopped showing up years ago.

And what do you mean 'difficult to code'? You mean like...to create from scratch? If not, I don't see what is so difficult about copying and pasting.

There isn't much you can do with proboards. Personally, Invisionfree just has alot more options, for me, as far as skinning and things go. You can really shape it to your will.

By once in a blue moon I mean that oftentimes the page will only load half-way and I'll have to reload it two or three more times before it goes all the way... even on a higher connection.

And by difficult to code I mean that the system FOR coding isn't very well marked or organized

I'm not trying to pick a fight here... just voicing my opinion since you asked.

Oh, oh, I don't mean to come off as wanting to fight either.

My tone has a habit of sounding like that, though. Tis the curse of the internet. Sorry.

So far I've got:

- Reliability
- More options (which is something I'd like to see expanded upon)
- Easier coding
- Flexible skinning
- Board layout

My problem with proboards is loading. I have a crappy computer and it seems that everyone and their grandmother on Proboards needs Javascript to do anything with it. This includes sidebars, fixing the header, etc. That's a heck of a lot of javascript on most pretty sites which is really hard on my computer.
There actually is a LOT more options on Proboards than there is on any Invision Power Board that doesn't have file access due to the javascript. Point systems that aren't a pain int he butt with post counts, a lot of profile options. Just check RPGC for a great example.
But again; the loading time is horrible and the lag is even worse due to all the code put into making these features work.
It can at times look a lot like an invisionfree board. Really it's all in the sites you find. I also find that IPB users are a bit nicer and more mature, but that's just generalizing people which isn't called for.

Actually, Proboards has a very good community/index forum. I lurked on it long before I joined RPG-D. Although it is extremely on the immature side in a lot of ways, which is where my above generalization came from :p I'm just a horrible person, I know.

For me, I have to say it's really the looks. I have nothing against the ProBoards administration panel or whatsoever, I'm just more used to the IF and iPBFree ones because I use them more. Anyway, I find proboards a little, well, messy might be the word. Dunno. But I tend not to join them much.

I don't mind Proboards at all. If given a choice when making an RPG, I'll pick IF over Proboards any day of the week, but there's no reason I won't play on a Proboards site. I'm just happier with the InvisionFree admin CP.

Agreeing with all above I have to say I prefer using IF when making my own site. I think PB was easier for me when I first started, but then once I got the hang of using IF I realised how much more organised and how much more professional it was set out, which suites me perfectly. OCD about appearence and presentation so I find it so much better to use IF and I actually worked it out a lot quicker... A for skinning though... Proboards has a template which I use and love, you haven't got that on IF and so I have to use premade skins coz I suck at coding. ;)

But I have no issues RPing on Proboards sites, but when it comes to actually making a site I find I enjoy using IF a lot better.

Proboards, to me, definitely has a more difficult admin panel, which makes it tough on new users. I also find the system of modding and coding clunky, the use of javascript on both PB and IPB-based softwares (IF and IPBFree) is terrible and very insecure.

There's more that you can do with invision power board than you can do with proboards. Plus invision power board looks a lot nicer. Modified proboards forums, when you first load them, always look really weird, but if you modify an invision power board, it will still look the same regardless. To modify a proboard forum there's a lot of confusion because you've got ot add codes into either the header or footer and that can just be plan annoying and tedious to go through all of it, but invision pwoer board is simple and to the point. From my perspective a lot of people that are new to coding seem to like to go to proboards purely for the ease and not having to actually learn anything about coding, whereas the people that are more advanced in what they know seem to gravitate towards invision power board.

For me, it's the loading thing...Proboards and my computer just don't get along. It takes me several tries for the page to load properly, and sometimes can take me several minutes for a page to load at all, even if it isn't completely loaded. It's really a pain in the neck for me to deal with. Thus, to keep my sanity, I've only joined one Proboards site (which, let me tell you, was a fight to join...the darn thing wouldn't let my registration go through for I don't know how long...I think it took me three days of trying before I finally got it to load properly and get an activation email dealy).

I didn't realize that the page loading problem was so common. o.O

ProBoards has hundreds and hundreds of 'hacks' and further codes to customize appearance and add features and more. Does IF or X other service have the same?

But, most of what I'm getting is that it is all opinion? Guess I should have been prepared for that.

I have never admined on or played on a proboard, but I can tell you what I see from advertising. Even the best run boards lack the sort of sophisticated formatting you can easily attain on invision. It looks... clunky. Oversized. Invision looks sleek and organized in comparison, more visually appealing.

Yes, at least IF does. There are so many codes out there at the moment, and that really helps to create the feel you want on a board.

From your posts, I'm sensing you are really angry about this. Look, IF is just used more because to most people, it's more comfortable to use. Proboards doesn't have the professional quality I want like IF has. I've looked through Proboard forums that I was interested in joining, but found that Proboards just confused me. I'm so used to IF these days, that it's hard to switch to Proboards. I think this is the case for a lot of people - we grew up in IF, and we want to stay there. See, I know how IF works, and I don't want to learn how to work a whole other server type. I just don't. I'm sure people could agree with that.

No one looks down on Proboards, and those who do, well, they're idiots. Like the ones who say No Proboards on their Guest Advertising sections. I don't understand the problem with that. I let Proboard forums advertise at my site, and I could care less if my codes for my advertisement doesn't work on a Proboard forum. I just don't advertise there, then *shrug* And to clarify me saying those people are idiots, it's because some people feel more comfortable in Proboards like how we feel more comfortable in IF. They're just servers, and they're not hurting anyone.

Hope that answers your question on my end of the rope.

XD I'm really not angry at all, guys.

Just ignore any tone I have.

I don't see anything wrong with proboards. Given that I'm phpbb's bitch, I'm used to the coding, and the basic functions are pretty similar. Phpbb has evolved somewhat, but it's still similar.

I've never had loading issues, where proboards may have ugly skins because of a limit on premade skins, IF has a big problem with the same handful of skins being used repeatedly. If it's not the same skins of course, it's the same style of skin, and so on. Where people have loading issues with proboards, IF has more downtime.

There are good and bad sides to both board types, but I wouldn't use either when making my own board, not when I have the benefit of my own domain name.

For joining a game, I'm not fussed about what it's hosted on so long as it is what I'm looking for in a game. The only things that put me off are things within the game itself and not the board platform. I am an adult, and I have a brain, meaning I can adapt pretty easily to new board formats without getting lazy confused. I think it's a perfectly respectable format and one I would use, but people hate change and will dig up for any half-arsed excuse not to change. So until IF royally cocks it up, people will stick there like glue.

For all the people that have issues with proboards loading, you know I've never had a problem except maybe once or twice. Does it really not load for this many people? D:

I don't think I've ever really had a problem with Proboards, but the ones with more codes and too many images will lag quite a bit for me. I usually just sit there and watch as the board gets narrower and everything loads.

I only admin IF because that's what I'm familiar with, but I would join any RP no matter what server as long as the plot looks good and the crowd looks fun. Heck, I think I would even RP by messenger pigeon if need be.

I'll just comment and say that this site caters to mostly IF users, so that's the opinion you will mostly get here. There are other sites that cater to mostly PB users.

I vote....IPBFREE! Sorry, but I think both lose out to IPBFree....same software as IF, same level of skin customization, but with lots more features, like store, arcade, bot tracking, users online/legend w/o coding it, multiple skins, and others. Plus, they seem to have solved a lot of their early issues with timeouts and such. I tried to go back to IF for something and immediately switched back.

XD

Z.R. covered a bit of what I wanted to say with javascript, but...

Proboards uses Javascript. I cannot stand Javascript, so I have the FireFox extension NoScript. It has saved me a few times in the past, too.

Unfortunately, Proboards uses Javascript to dictate the width of a board. No Javascript for me means that boards are as wide as my screen with fixed backgrounds behind it. Ick. And the board features also use javascript- you cannot go back a page unless you enable Javascript. Urgh.

Proboards loads extremely slow for me as well, so I avoid them. I have high speed internet and it loads really, really slowly. Sooo I just don't touch proboards if I can help it. Even advertising is a hassle since it's so slooow and since I can't go back a page to see if the site I'm advertising has been posted already. @__@;

And it seems as though all the proboards I find have really bad layouts. As a result, proboards has the reputation to a lot of people as being ugly or a newbie board.

I just wouldn't like to frequent a board I can't use or load properly. :P

Proboards has built in spell checker, which I need and Online RPing for me is more about writing than about features on the board...

I've never been on a proboard forum, so I can't really say anything about how well it works (or doesn't work). Part of why I haven't been on one is because it just looks bad. All of the proboards sites I've ever visited just looked amateur-ish compared to most IF boards. I'm not saying there aren't bad-looking IF boards out there, because there definitely are, but in my opinion, IF just offers a sleeker, much more professional style.

You can click on the link in my siggy to see one :D


Shameless of me, but, there you go.

I personally don't like the way Proboards looks. I think that they're ugly and their format makes me want to vomit butterflies.

Not only that but I'm much more familiar with the workings of InvisionFree. And the options for coding are so easy to modify.

That's just how how I feel... I never admin'ed a proboard, so I know nothing of the coding, but really I think proboards look ugly and... yeah, I just don't like the looks of them :)

I've got nothin' against proboards. I've played on proboards in the past and I would again (if I had the time to join other RPGs; my two games keep me busy ;D). I honestly don't care about forum software or what the skin looks like or whatever as long as I can read the writing and the game and players are good and fun. I'm not shallow at all (I've played by IM, e-mail, and heck, even bravehost forums among many, many other things) so as a player I could care less what fancy forum features there are or how streamlined the board is. And all forum software essentially functions the same way, so the whole "confusion" excuse holds no water. xP Loading and stuff I can understand, though it loads fine for me.

RPing is about writing to me, first and foremost. I could care less what software the game is hosted on if it's got friendly members and good plot.

That said, as an admin I'm a phpbb3 gal for life. <3

Having played around with ZetaBoards, I can see how little features ProBoards has. I'll give you all that.

However, can someone elaborate on the appearance aspect that is continuously being talked about? Because I see little difference in both general forum look and the way skins come out, which have both been commented upon.

I actually don't mind Proboards. Many of the sites that have given me problems with Proboards have been sites that have been designed by someone who doesn't know jack squat about decent webdesign, and usually end up loading like myspace.

Invisionfree is okay, but seriously, it's not the greatest thing out there. The coding is OMG AWFUL. As far as skins go, while Invisionfree may have more of them, the ones that I see used quite a bit are ones that all follow a general design scheme - so a good bulk of them look the same.

I'll tell you - and Cal will tell you this as well - go to SMF. SMF kills...no, MURDERS invisionfree.

I'll second that, go to SMF! :p

But ok, I'm biased.

.... That seriously made me ell-oh-ell.

It's true, I am not quiet about my love for SMF, but a lot of that is contained in my utter bafflement that the majority of the users here, being IF fanatics, are perfectly happy having no actual control over their boards whatsoever. This absolutely blows my mind. Folks, you do not have to settle for crappy javascript and poorly-written CSS! You can control your own filesystem! You really, really can! Don't settle!

That is why I am an IPB 1.3.x junkie. :] It trumps IF in so many ways. <3

Here, Here!

No, actually, I'm really biased. I'm a team member on SMF (under the name Eliana Tamerin). Like super, totally biased. :p

But seriously, if any of you kiddos want to convert, just let me know. Even if from IF/IPBfree, there's a dirty crawler converter that at least does something.

Dear Eliana,

<insert code-fanning here>

<3,
Cal

Seriously, if I had the resources for large-scale hosting, I would do it in a heartbeat JUST to let more people see how much awesomer a forum can be when you can actually work with it. Especially with the amazing leaps and strides being made with things like the Aliases mod for 2.0b3 -- that so awesomely solves the problem of APC vs APP.

If you've got a decent grasp of web design and coding, you can make anything look reasonably nice. To be honest, there's just as many crappy looking IF boards and Proboards. I've seen some beautiful Proboard games that blow so many IF boards out of the water.

I've personally never been on a Proboard forum, but not because I don't care for the interfaces, or they look ugly, or they confuse me. It has more to do with finding a good game. XD

I've always been interested in SMF. It seems like a good system. I haven't been able to explore it much, however, as it does require hosting and such, and I'm just a poor student. It does seem like a great system, and I've heard some pretty awesome things about it. Yet, every system has its pros and its cons.

Back on track, though. I think a lot of people from IF boards are biased against Proboards because of a stereotype of 'immaturity' and 'boards run by twelve year olds who have no idea what they're doing' for what ever reason. It is unfair, but people are going to think what they want. Despite the fact that there are many such boards hosted on IF, and on most system, I think.

It's so true, too. It seems like Proboards has gotten a bad reputation from those who use any other kind of board.

Not to mention the unreadable CAPTCHA's that guest-posting has that has made them the bane of advertising forums (well, I guess it has something to do with the coding being different, but... you don't NEED to centre your ad all the time D: )

In any case, Proboards has been sort of 'looked down upon' by a lot of people as exactly that- ugly and run by twelve year-olds. >__<;

I'm more than double twevle, I promise.