Discussion Topic: Proboards or Nice-Board?

So I've discussed this with Firestorm, and got basically a neutral answer but I need to discuss this with the rest of you as well. I know we've made many many many moves over the years, but they've all been for the better of the roleplay. Now, nice-board is....nice...but I'm not a big fan. I've had several Proboards forums and IMO Proboards is a wonderfully versatile forum-builder. There are many many many different codes to input into the forum so that they not only look different in ways of coloring and different buttons and icons but I've used codes to input 'money' into the forum, where you earn virtual money by posting or by having it added or subtracted by staff and this money can be used to 'buy' things such as art from other players, or extra character slots, etc etc (which we really would not implement at TBMS anyways), or by having quick links at the top of the page for the websites, rules, and all information, by adding weather (see here for an example), sidebars, etc etc etc. Now, I know we have Avadedra here, and we'd assign her as Designer if we did move also but being at Proboards would also allow me to design as well in her absence...which is often no offense to Ava >< we've all been absent after all and I understand that life is more important. But in any case it leaves our designing at a stand still.
Proboards also allows hex coloration in your text instead of limiting you to only what the forum offers. Back when I was Admin here, I recall the navigation for Admins was confusing for me to figure out..but at Proboards is very simple. Of course I suppose that only applies to Staff o-o.

But, of course, the move is not official. Not even close in fact. I need to know what you guys think. We will not move if you do not want to, which is why I've made this a discussion topic and not a poll. I want to hear your opinions, not just a 'yes' or 'no' P:

Personally, I like Proboards better, I find it more organized and easier to use as a whole. The silverblood/ SilverViened boards are a good example of this. Although I have seen many other examples as well, I just cant remember their names... Derp, I wish I could think of something more to say XD

EDIT: proboards also has a thing where you get two points for every time you post something, and you can use these points to but art/ characters/ etc from other RolePlayers, which can be very fun ^^

Yes :3 the points is what I meant by 'money' and has to be coded in ^^ there are...pssh...thousands? of codes to choose from for :3

First of all, Niceboard is only the domain name. :p It isn't the actual board system, which is built on top of the highly-stable PHPBB3 system. It was that stability that caused me to choose this forum. I've dealt with proboards before as well, and stability, though better than say, EZBoard (*coughYukucough*), it's still not nearly as stable as I feel it should be. That's the biggest issue I have. Despite how long this board has been here, we've never had to deal with maintenance downtime. If it's an issue of design or giving the board an overhall we can definitely do that, but I don't see any reason that moving to a new board would be overall beneficial, apart from things being a bit shinier.

Okay....This was pretty out of the blue but okay.

Personally, I don't really want to move boards again. This would be our fourth move in the course of the roleplay and I don't honestly think that another move would be beneficial to us at all. We have some members that have disappeared from here and I feel that if we move yet again, we will lose them. (Heavensgaze, FaunaMyth, Mercury) are a few examples.

And Meo, you can actually use hex codes on these forums. Hex codes are basic HTML coding, and just involve changing the colors listed from the color name to the hexadecimal code.

Example:

This is how the coding would appear, with a lime green color based out of a hex code that I got from http://www.colorpicker.com/

Code:

[color=#0BFC03]"This is my character's speaking section. I will make it lime green."[/color]

And this is how the board executes the HTML command.
"This is my character's speaking section. I will make it lime green."

Basically I just pick a color and then delete the color name and replace it with a hexadecimal code of my chosen color shade. Many of my own character's speaking colors are custom colors of varying shades (this includes Ocean Storm, Silver River, Twilight, Night Owl, Rising Moon, and Amaranth.)

While I admit that it sounds like proboards has more shiny bits and bobs and whatnot, I don't think they are honestly applicable to our board. We have no true use for virtual money; considering that many of our roleplayers do not request artwork of their characters and it is oftentimes done for fun rather than because we are required to. Also, we don't have a very large artist database from which to request/commission artwork from artists.

More on points/currency, it appears that niceboard has a method of doing this; located in the FAQ that I found after a simple Google search: http://help.forumotion.com/t38437-the-points-system

They also have scrolling announcements: http://help.forumotion.com/t38436-scrolling-announcements

And a thank/reputation system: http://help.forumotion.com/t38434-reputation-system-evaluation-thanks-button

And an advanced profile (which must be activated in order to use the points system): http://help.forumotion.com/t38433-the-advanced-profile
(The advanced profile also works a bit like a facebook profile would; where you can post comments on profiles and whatnot.)

And there is even a thread that has a runthrough of the whole admin panel: http://help.forumotion.com/t38433-the-advanced-profile

And many thanks to Firestorm, he allowed me a bit of time to see what the admin panel looked like. I have to say that the admin navigation seems pretty standard to me. I have seen the backends of web hosting services that were more complicated.

Stability has always been a big concern, ever since ezboard screwed up and lost posts 6-7 something years ago and much of our information with it, requiring us to start over again and then change over to Yuku.

My vote is that we stay.

Okay okay, guys, no need to bust my chops :/ this is why I set up a discussion...FS you yourself told me to make a thread about it when I tried discussing it with you on furcadia.

ANYWAYS. We will stay, then. I know how to use hexes, just whenever I tried using them here they never worked for some reason.

To quote Zeroki:

Quote :

We have no true use for virtual money; considering that many of our roleplayers do not request artwork of their characters and it is oftentimes done for fun rather than because we are required to. Also, we don't have a very large artist database from which to request/commission artwork from artists.

To quote my first post:

Quote :

...used to 'buy' things such as art from other players, or extra character slots, etc etc (which we really would not implement at TBMS anyways)

Okay so we'll just drop it. I had meant for this to be a discussion but I feel like I'm getting some attitude out of it -.-

I'm not trying to sound like I'm giving you attitude Meo; I'm simply pointing out that niceboard has many of the same things that proboard does but it simply needs to be implemented on the backend of things.

I'm just giving you the information that I know off hand and what I was able to find, no attitude in it unless you take it that way.

No one's busting your chops Meo. Please don't take it that way, but you have to expect that with a thread like this, not everyone's opinion will necessarily agree with your own. If you feel there are any major benefits to moving boards, I'm sure we'd all be willing to listen. That's the purpose of a discussion afterall.

I know that's the purpose of a discussion and I'm fully aware not everyone's opinion will agree with mine. That's why I opened a discussion.
Anyways. It's just how it sounded to me.

Interesting for a discussion of what host is better and what is better.

Before I start to say what one is better or going to point out my vote to what I want. I want to say that I am on this board all a member here for the past 4,5 years. Maybe in the beginning not much of a wolf player and stuck to the general section.

Placing that to the side, I know someone with who I was roleplaying also, even that was just with a few persons, till other things came up and the end result was that only 2 persons tried to keep it alive. The other person and board owner also had shifted around to some boards. but in the end the circle was round and back to where it started, even that the name was only changed. (I think you know what I mean by that.)

My feeling for having another board (server) hop, is that for some reasons, my energy levels can get drastically low. Just because you need to (re)build it up and hoping that all the members are willing to make the hop too (or well forcing them, if they want to continue to be a part of the Saga).

I don't know it.... I just like it here and to be honest, i don't even know if i have an account somewhere on some forum that runs on Proboards. So i can't say much about Proboards and their functions as a normal member, as well for a mod or admin. Even then, you need to look also to what is easier to maintain, to modify to your needs, but mostly and important one is the Stability. Is the server where it runs on, always 24/7 available throughout the year? without unscheduled maintenance messages.

I have found here the comparison for the two hosts:
http://www.forum-software.org/forum-comparator/forumotion-vs-proboards

Feel free to look at the pro's and con's to say for yourself which one is better. Self i would say Forumotion. As a webdesigner, or forumbuilder, its nice to have this function: WYSIWYG Editor. (What You See Is What You Get) So that you get a preview on a change you made before you actually insert it. If you made something that turns the whole board purple while you just wanted to have the background of it that, you can play with it till you have it right. Without interfering or scaring the users / visitors on the board while you work on it.

At last see this as my opinion and NOT going to point fingers / paws to someone or telling we all should stay here or go to somewhere else.

I have looking self into things, there is even a module for Roleplay Game
http://help.forumotion.com/t3347-the-rpg-feature

Only i think it is not needed for us here that one, as we have our own character sheet(s) and posting order in the rp's.

Personally I favor proboards. Its where I have always role played. But I do like that there aren't any ads that show up everywhere. On proboards there are quite a few ads that pop up.

Well Ads can be blocked Zan I use self for Firefox Adblock Plus and No script

So I don't need to worry about those annoying ads everywhere I go.

What also count to who favors what is, how long you have been using it, or been playing on it. If you ask me what browser the best is is. I say Firefox, while someone else can say that it stinks and favors Opera, or Google Chrome over Firefox.

That all comes down how your experience with it is. (Goes the same for Windows, MAC, Linux, Android, Apple)

Umm.. i think i have been trailing off from the subject of forum host, to something totally different, so i shut up and enjoy a nice cup of coffee.

[Post deleted]

Let me lay this out real quick. Future posts on the public side about that particular subject, from anyone, will be deleted without warning. I don't want fighting to start again over that. Personal disagreements should be handled via PM. If it continues, I will hand out warnings, as per forum rules, with disciplinary action to follow.

Excuse me? I didn't freak out and go on a big rant or anything ridiculous. And no, I do not feel like talking about this again. He said something, and that's how I took it. Do not target me please. This is my forum too.

Meo,
No one is targeting you. I also deleted Kotie's post regarding the subject. I don't want this thread developing into a rehash of old grievances which I would hope have been settled. My warning applied to everyone. Not just you. That will be the end of it. Not another word on the public forum should be said regarding it.