Re: Board Alternatives -- Comments and Voting

[Bob Juch]

Thanks, Ed. PhpBB is certainly a nice software package. Still curious about our mystery benefactor here.

Is it the same situation for the Grand Slam board (being hosted on a generic "free board" site) or is Ogi the official registrant of the URL and sponsor of the site?

The Grand Slam board is hosted in Toronto! The owner is hidden.

[DevilKitty100]

Your avatar is so wrong!

What's wrong with it, huh? It's just a delusional dog that thinks it's a cat!

[TheConfessor]

Is it the same situation for the Grand Slam board (being hosted on a generic "free board" site) or is Ogi the official registrant of the URL and sponsor of the site?

Ogi registered the grandslamshow.com domain name and once that site was up and running, he linked it to a phpBB message board, so I assume he's getting the same free ride on the message board as this one gets. The two boards have essentially the same capabilities, depending on which features are turned on and off, and which release of phpBB they use. Based on the Wikipedia article, the benevolent programmers are working on future new versions with even more bells and whistles. I still don't know anything about who provides the free hosting and storage space.

[15QuestionsAway]

Ogi registered the grandslamshow.com domain name and once that site was up and running, he linked it to a phpBB message board, so I assume he's getting the same free ride on the message board as this one gets. The two boards have essentially the same capabilities, depending on which features are turned on and off, and which release of phpBB they use. Based on the Wikipedia article, the benevolent programmers are working on future new versions with even more bells and whistles. I still don't know anything about who provides the free hosting and storage space.

The phpBB board is probably provided by whoever is hosting the Grand Slam site. At my site (wwtbam.biz), I do have the option to add a phpBB board at no cost as part of my hosting package. The phpBB program runs on a server, just like the Apache webserver that (probably) serves this site.
Gratuitous emoticon added just because I like it:

[Bob Juch]

Ogi registered the grandslamshow.com domain name and once that site was up and running, he linked it to a phpBB message board, so I assume he's getting the same free ride on the message board as this one gets. The two boards have essentially the same capabilities, depending on which features are turned on and off, and which release of phpBB they use. Based on the Wikipedia article, the benevolent programmers are working on future new versions with even more bells and whistles. I still don't know anything about who provides the free hosting and storage space.

The phpBB board is probably provided by whoever is hosting the Grand Slam site. At my site (wwtbam.biz), I do have the option to add a phpBB board at no cost as part of my hosting package. The phpBB program runs on a server, just like the Apache webserver that (probably) serves this site.

That's another alternative. If you won't have to pay more for more storage or bandwidth, I'd rather see the Bored on a private site.

I'll be happy to export my settings so you or anyone else can use them.

[tanstaafl2]

I'm still trying to get a sense of who's paying for this board, and I suspect that's a concern for other BBs, too. Megabb.com seems to link to forumotion.com, which provides a lot of information about setting up free forums, but they don't say how they do that--or who they are. It's nice to see messages without any banner ads or other advertising garbage, but TAANSTAFL. Bob or somebody, can you enlighten us?

Hey! I resemble that remark. Although it is a bit off. But what is an errant "A" here and there.....

Does seem odd that someone out of the goodness of there heart is making this site possible. Makes the old spidey sense tingle.

[Bob Juch]

Does seem odd that someone out of the goodness of there heart is making this site possible. Makes the old spidey sense tingle.

I do have to wonder how they pay for it, but I'll take whatever they're willing to give.

[DevilKitty100]

Your avatar is so wrong!

What's wrong with it, huh? It's just a delusional dog that thinks it's a cat!

So does this one appeal to your sensibilities? Beware, I have others.

[silvercamaro]

Your avatar is so wrong!

What's wrong with it, huh? It's just a delusional dog that thinks it's a cat!

So does this one appeal to your sensibilities? Beware, I have others.

Oh, DK. Your new avatar, like the old one, is sick, sick, sick.




I like that about you.

[TheConfessor]

The Grand Slam board is hosted in Toronto! The owner is hidden.

Okay, if you say so. I didn't know that. How did you learn that? Is there some significance to that?

Where is your board hosted?

I've told you everything I know about the Grand Slam board, which isn't much. I know that Ogi set it up, but I don't know what the process was or who is paying for it. It was just an option that I was able to offer to the group because it already existed.

You haven't explained how you set up your board or who is hosting it or paying for it or what site(s) you visited to get it started. I would be interested in learning what you know about the process and what steps your went through. This board's domain name is megabb.com, but if you go to the megabb.com URL, it redirects you to something called forumotion.com. Is that the site where you set up this board? Are they the people who are hosting it? How do they make money from free forums?

I don't see any point in debating the merits of two boards that are both in the phpBB format. The sooner we resolve any remaining questions and pick the final site, the better. If it turns out to be this one, that's fine with me. Have you figured out why your search doesn't work? To me, that's one of the biggest issues.

[Bob78164]

Let's give this a try. Can I post from home using Firefox? --Bob

[TheConfessor]

Since it appears that this forum is hosted by forumotion.com, I looked at their support pages for information about the non-functional search button they provided us. It appears that that's just the way it is, so take it or leave it and they don't care about fixing the problem. Other people on their forums apparently have had the same problem for many months, according to this poll:
http://help.forumotion.com/Archives-f33/Improve-the-Search-Feature-t2542.htm?highlight=search

I still barely know enough about phpBB to be dangerous, but it appears that there are several other hosting sites that offer different variations of the free phpBB board software. Maybe we can take our business to a different host that gives more priority to supporting actual useful functions than to providing an endless supply of obnoxious animated emoticons and avatars.

If anyone is interested in doing some comparison shopping, here are some leads. Note that some of these are free and some are not. I'm guessing that a free site could probably pull the plug at any time, whereas a paid site might have more longevity. Who knows? I wonder if Google offers message boards. They seem to do everything else.
http://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&lr=&rlz=1T4ADBR_enUS237US237&as_qdr=all&q=phpbb+hosting&btnG=Search

[Bob Juch]

The Grand Slam board is hosted in Toronto! The owner is hidden.

Okay, if you say so. I didn't know that. How did you learn that? Is there some significance to that?

Where is your board hosted?

I've told you everything I know about the Grand Slam board, which isn't much. I know that Ogi set it up, but I don't know what the process was or who is paying for it. It was just an option that I was able to offer to the group because it already existed.

You haven't explained how you set up your board or who is hosting it or paying for it or what site(s) you visited to get it started. I would be interested in learning what you know about the process and what steps your went through. This board's domain name is megabb.com, but if you go to the megabb.com URL, it redirects you to something called forumotion.com. Is that the site where you set up this board? Are they the people who are hosting it? How do they make money from free forums?

I don't see any point in debating the merits of two boards that are both in the phpBB format. The sooner we resolve any remaining questions and pick the final site, the better. If it turns out to be this one, that's fine with me. Have you figured out why your search doesn't work? To me, that's one of the biggest issues.

We've had a long discussion of who hosts this Bored that questions why they do it for free.

The search function works, but only on topic titles. That might be fixed, especially if I get the source.

[Sponsored content]