If you start a ProBoards forum you will never own it

[pclinger]

From what I hear they like to argue that they own the post content for some reason.

This is completely false. At no time does ProBoards ever claim to own your posts. You always retain the copyright on your own postings. The only thing we do is acquire a license from you (just like Facebook, Twitter, etc) so that we can display the content on the forum.

But yes, Proboards does say you can never own your forum content if its hosted with them and claims its stated in their terms of service.

Again, this is simply not true. Our Terms of Service states in plain English "You maintain full ownership of all your User Content posted to ProBoards."

If every person one by one asked proboards for their "own" content, would it then be possible to say we would reconstruct a forum legally somewhere else from this?

Yes, you can do this. To request a copy of your data you go to www.proboards.com, login at the top, go to Account Settings > Export.

You know, now you say that, it does make me think it's taking advantage of new forum owners.

It reminds me of PublishAmerica and other vanity publishers in the book publishing world. Lure people in with no experience and the promise of free services, then basically lock their work into 'contracts' they can't escape from and generally foster a sort of cult like mentality.

This is insulting, honestly. We provide a service at no cost to the Internet community - over 3.5 million forums have been created using ProBoards. To imply that we are somehow taking advantage of people is ridiculous. We are very up front about how our service works. We provide hosting, security, backups, forum software, free tech support, etc. For that service, we place advertisements on the forum (or you can pay to remove them).

Again, you can export your data as described above.

 

[Train]

Yes, you can do this. To request a copy of your data you go to www.proboards.com, login at the top, go to Account Settings > Export.

Be honest, that has not always been an option, some of us who used ProBoards from 2004-2006 know that as a fact. Don't make it out as if we aren't looking at information that's being presented please. I want to know, when you added that feature, and why so many of your customers do not have any knowledge of its existence.

This is insulting, honestly. We provide a service at no cost to the Internet community - over 3.5 million forums have been created using ProBoards.

How many of those are in active use?

To imply that we are somehow taking advantage of people is ridiculous. We are very up front about how our service works.

So are the policies of government and DMCA, that doesn't make them justified.

We provide hosting, security, backups, forum software, free tech support, etc. For that service, we place advertisements on the forum.

You provide hosting that is on par with other free service providers, I'm not going to argue that. I would argue with security, what reports are you using that tell you that ProBoards is secure? Do you guys have a developer forum that tells you what is actually being fixed? When was your last bugfix?

Backups, on what condition other than the new export feature has that ever been offered to a client?

Forum Software, which to date is a good frame behind any competitor on the market, but I will hold my judgment on ProBoards 5 for now.

Free Tech Support, I am constantly hearing complaints about poor service and support from ProBoards, how can you possibly back that claim up?

I want you to realize, if you are making positive changes, great. But don't expect anyone to not question it, and for the love of god don't make it out to seem like everything was always okay.

 

[pclinger]

Be honest, that has not always been an option, some of us who used ProBoards from 2004-2006 know that as a fact. Don't make it out as if we aren't looking at information that's being presented please. I want to know, when you added that feature, and why so many of your customers do not have any knowledge of its existence.

Yes, the export feature is a new option in our software. Every time the topic is brought up we do mention it.

How many of those are in active use?

Off hand I would estimate over a million

So are the policies of government and DMCA, that doesn't make them justified.

The DMCA is a whole different debate, but while there are many aspects of the DMCA I do not like (e.g. circumvention), it has provided a safety net for user generated content sites online. Without it, service providers would be liable for the postings of third parties and you would see websites shut down left, right, and center.

I would argue with security, what reports are you using that tell you that ProBoards is secure? Do you guys have a developer forum that tells you what is actually being fixed? When was your last bugfix?

We have many developers in house that work on our software every single day pushing out new code. Server wise we take all the precautions you would expect, such as hashing passwords, running strong firewall rules, enforcing strong passwords, etc.

Backups, on what condition other than the new export feature has that ever been offered to a client?

We run binary logs on all our forums so that we can restore to any point in time, and backups are kept offsite (in a different state) from our primary servers. We restore content for free if there is an issue caused by us, or in other cases where it was user error deleting something we charge a small fee for the restoration process.

Free Tech Support, I am constantly hearing complaints about poor service and support from ProBoards, how can you possibly back that claim up?

Go check out our Support Forum. Many times we reply to a person's question within a minute or two of the question being posted. We have more support staff than any other free forum host, and we constantly get praise from our members for being so quick to handle their issues for them. Here's a few topics that were posted on our Support Forum in the last few months:

Platform / Access Resolution - A HUGE THANK YOU!!
Love V5 and the support team!
Scared to begin with but now loving V5
Pleasantly Surprised
Thanks to the coders and frontline support for V5
ProBoards V5--Your telling me this is FREE?
.. the list goes on.

We receive many compliments day in and day out for providing quality tech support. Our support team works very hard to ensure our customers are well cared for. I think they do a fantastic job, and I know they put in the hard work to ensure our customers are happy.

 

[gogoblender]

Thanks for the info
To review, noone can take their proboards community with them, if an admin ever wanted to turn their project into their own thing, they can't.
Proboards pays for everything while you're with them, only things is... you're kind of like on a cell phone contract
One that lasts forever



gogo