SMF looks like Proboards!

[BMW-Guy]

I just started to notice this, but SMF looks suspiciously like Proboards boards (cheapy, free-hosted, cgi bulliten boards that have no value). The icons are identical, the dialog boxes are identical................even the News Fader gadget is identical. What's up with that?

I mean, feature-wise, I think SMF is one of the best out there, but it almost looks like you guys were trying to copy the Proboards look.

[ryanbsoftware]

actually i think yabbse was out before proboards and smf just keeps the yabbse type appearance.

proboards copied yabbse.

[Alexandre P.]

I think Proboards offers free YaBB forum hosting.

[Kirby]

No no no, see YaBB was made by a group of developers, and one of them who was named Patrick left the team and used the code to make Proboards. YaBB SE, SMFs predecessor was a PHP & MySQL remake of YaBB, and it was then revamped to make SMF. Now if you seriously think SMF is just like Proboards, you are wrong. With Proboards, the only thing you could really do is modify some basic settings and be trapped in the slowness of their servers. YaBB is MUCH better, and SMF is better than them all. With SMF, you can modify almost every freaking aspect just by using templates. I even made a mimic IPB template (which I'm still working on) for a forum, and they're liking it. When everyone downloads SMF, their first impression is "omg its proboards it sucks", but thats because they never took the time to see its true powers. SMF is just as proffesional as any other forum software out there, and IMO it is by far the most customizable and easiest to use.

[[Unknown]]

Sigh.  I actually rewrote the whole newsfader javascript to work in other browsers - it's 100% my code, and proboards does not use it.  It just looks similar, because it's a similar feature.

-[Unknown]

[Meriadoc]

Sigh. I actually rewrote the whole newsfader javascript to work in other browsers - it's 100% my code, and proboards does not use it. It just looks similar, because it's a similar feature.

-[Unknown]

he also rewrote a huge and vast portion of the forum itself...

[scottb]

Proboards is terrible, I had a forum there and it got hacked so I switched to YaBBSE and now use SMF which is loads better.

[BMW-Guy]

Okay, I understand. It doesn't bug me or anything, I was just curious.

Oh, and like who has ever had a Proboards board that didn't ever get hacked?

[Trekkie101]

I just cant stand the slowness of proboard boards it must be there server loads and then there are horribles ads, fair enough you control the look but thats no good having a black forum and having a green banner it will get noticed.

[ryanbsoftware]

Okay, I understand. It doesn't bug me or anything, I was just curious.

Oh, and like who has ever had a Proboards board that didn't ever get hacked?

proboard is unhackale, its that the admin account passwords get craked cause people use weak passwords, so they say, i never had that problem when I used proboard though they locked me out of my admin account, they changed my password via the database.

[Kirby]

Nothing is "unhackable" >_>

[ryanbsoftware]

Nothing is "unhackable" >_>

like i said, thats only what they say.

[Trekkie101]

I dont like proboards, not a fan of them, id rather set up a yabb forum, that brings me onto another topic, do you think free smf hosting like invisionfree, do you think it would make money, i was thinking about this and how much it would cost to start and maintain, plus the smf script would need to be edited for it to work right. Its a good idea i think.

[ryanbsoftware]

I dont like proboards, not a fan of them, id rather set up a yabb forum, that brings me onto another topic, do you think free smf hosting like invisionfree, do you think it would make money, i was thinking about this and how much it would cost to start and maintain, plus the smf script would need to be edited for it to work right. Its a good idea i think.

we willprovide it, me and a friend, compleatly free of charge even, people can get paid smf hosting from Lewis Media if they want paid hosting but they get alot for free, no ads, we keepd smf compleatly unmodified exept that we want to modify the copyright to add a tage line at the end thats it rather then specifiying in in the tempklate cause all themplates pull the copyright apparently from another file and thats where we want to put it so it applies to any templae thats made to show the copyright, wich is all I know of since it's illgall to not show it.  well we want to modiffy it in the other file or whatever we need to get permissin still and be told where that is.

[Ben_S]

If you keep it completly unmodified, then you are going about it totally wrongly, are you going to duplicate every single file for every single install?

Good luck keeping hundreds of boards upto date if thats what your planning on doing.

[ryanbsoftware]

we won't have to keep them up to date that is up to the owners, we give them ftp access.   and what would we need to modify since you are an "expert" on this?

[Ben_S]

I was under the impression you wanted to offer something like proboards or boardnation, you may as well just let them install it themselves if you are doing it like this.

[ryanbsoftware]

I was under the impression you wanted to offer something like proboards or boardnation, you may as well just let them install it themselves if you are doing it like this.

so what u are saying is that we should just provide hosting not smf hosting but put in the tos that you can only install an smf board?

[Peter Duggan]

so what u are saying is that we should just provide hosting not smf hosting but put in the tos that you can only install an smf board?

Look, if you need to ask this sort of stuff...

My advice is simply to leave hosting to folk who know what they're doing and try to target some more suitable projects for yourselves!

[Ben_S]

so what u are saying is that we should just provide hosting not smf hosting but put in the tos that you can only install an smf board?

If you allow ftp are you going to disable the mail() function, if not where do I sign up, I have a few thousand spam emails to deliver.

[ryanbsoftware]

umm obviouslt you seem to think that we overlooked that???  well you are wrong.

[Peter Duggan]

umm obviouslt you seem to think that we overlooked that???  well you are wrong.

we keepd smf compleatly unmodified

Hoisted with your own petard!

[Trekkie101]

His idea is cool, i think he is brave for taking this on, good luck.

[ryanbsoftware]

His idea is cool, i think he is brave for taking this on, good luck.

tnaks, i think they are affiliated with another free smf host and are afraid of competition, lol. 

[BMW-Guy]

LOL, ryan, you have a looooooooooooooooooooong way to go before you reach that point! 

[ryanbsoftware]

LOL, ryan, you have a looooooooooooooooooooong way to go before you reach that point! 

haven't yo ever heard of a joke, lol. 

[Trekkie101]

LOL @ Ryan, well just show how well you can dom and come on folks support him, he helping expand SMF.

[BMW-Guy]

If he really pulls this off, more power to him, and I'll recomend people to his site, but like I said, he has a very long, long way to go before he ever reaches that point. 

[Trekkie101]

An install script would be great, i have one for YaBBSE which you upload 2 files and run the script, very cool, but a smf one would be the best script on the net.

[Ben_S]

His idea is cool, i think he is brave for taking this on, good luck.

tnaks, i think they are affiliated with another free smf host and are afraid of competition, lol.

Or he is being realistic and doesn't think that you can safely provide what you want to with any longevity and therfeore risk loosing the data of your users boards.

[Trekkie101]

Nothings totaly safe its part of the fun taking the risk, plus i want to do this one day when i learn php properly.

[Peter Duggan]

tnaks, i think they are affiliated with another free smf host and are afraid of competition, lol. 

Look, if I'm afraid of anything here, it's what's likely to happen to you and your customers. I'm offering you impartial advice based, like Ben's, on years of experience and a fair grasp of the issues involved. So please don't suggest (even as a joke) that we're trying to 'compete' with you because, quite frankly, we've both got more sense. Now, of course you know better because you're so young and full of yourself, but we've seen countless hosting wannabe lemmings and 'programmers' here before and I'm afraid the blueprint fits you like a glove!

[Trekkie101]

LOL!

[morph]

And don't forget allowing the owners of the boards to see the database password and so forth wouldn't be the smartest idea. But man you really need to go through and fix the 534212424547564 typing errors in that paragraph.. or blob of letters put together

[ryanbsoftware]

And don't forget allowing the owners of the boards to see the database password and so forth wouldn't be the smartest idea. But man you really need to go through and fix the 534212424547564 typing errors in that paragraph.. or blob of letters put together

who cares if they see the db password, each board will have its own db and they won't know the url to phpmyadmin.

[Erik Mabry]

Wow, some people definately don't like Proboards....

I like them for many reasons.

But lets get some things straight;
It's definately not cheaply made, and/or crappy.
It's highly customizable, you jsut look at the main stuff, there are TONS of scripts and codes to make it exactly what you want.
Its not slow at all... That's ludacris (spelling?)
A LOT of Proboards have NEVER been hacked...
The maker of the forum is Patrick Clinger, whom made it many years ago, and didn't copy off of anything...

So basically everything that has been said about it is either an opinion, or false... Don't lie to people, they might actually beleive you.

[morph]

How do we know that you're not lying?

Its the internet, what do you expect.

[† ÐëepÇuT¹ †]

Proboards suck. SMF is a god compared to Broboards.

[Ben_S]

Prehaps this topic should be locked.

Theres nothing wrong with proboards, they provide a sevice and they provide it well, they are still here after all.

[[Unknown]]

Although I happen to know for a fact that much of proboards... let's use the words... "coincided strongly" with YaBB because of his previous affiliation.  Since then, it has undergone many changes, and is definiately a separate script by now....

And also... tons of VBScripts doesn't mean didley or that it's not slow.... .

I'm locking this... not really fruitful for some person to come by and accuse the team members and other people posting in this topic of lying when they are, for the most part, telling the truth - even if it is biassed truth.  I suggest you read your own words and play devil's advocate.

-[Unknown]