Zetaboards.
“Want to build a community? Let us do the work for you. No matter what you’re interested in, we’ll give you the tools you need to set up your own place to discuss your passion. Your community is important, so trust it to a company with a proven track record and experience.”
Can’t afford a vBulletin or Invision Power Board license? Have insufficient funds to pay off your hosting bills? No, it isn’t the end of the word, its time to give Zetaboards a shot.
If you haven’t heard of Zetaboards, it is v2 of InvisionFree.
Whats so good about Zetaboards? Why recommend it?
Zetaboards is definitely worth its price (FREE), it is also extremely easy to utilize, No FTP is needed, no complicated uploading methods are needed to install mods etc.
This forum host/software has many pre-installed features including:
- Collapsable categories.
- Color key for online user list.
- Topic/Post search.
- Advanced Account Security page.
- New PM system which groups back and forth messages into a single PM conversation.
- New style for PM pop-up.
- Markers for topics that you have posted in.
- Online status of a user is listed in their posts and profile.
- A topic starter can edit topic title if the post can be edited.
- List of all posts made by a member.
- Ignore posts by a member.
- Enhanced avatar gallery.
- New bbcode tags: indent, spoiler, text border color, and text background color
- Joinable groups
- Blogs
- Custom profile fields
- Enhanced portal
- Theme (Skin) selector
- And so much more..
They have also an extensive database of custom made mods on the official support forum. The installation of additional mods is as easy as copying and pasting.
The speed of Zetaboard servers are also quite fast and reliable, there are obviously downtimes once in a while for server maintanence etc but thats acceptable.
What could be improved.
Because this software is v2 of InvisionFree, it’s still under minor constructions on small glitches/features etc. At the moment skinners/theme designers for this software are still ‘playing around’ with the CSS and limitations of the forum styles, so for now, finding a nice skin would be quite difficult.
Some significant features which are used quite often, such as Topic Subscription and Pre-Registration still isn’t integrated as a feature, so users must wait a while for the next update of new features.
Overall, Zetaboards would be my most recommended free forum software and you must give it a try.
If your interested the following links will assist you significantly.
Written by
Michael. W
© MESKOS Forum Development Blog 2008
Redistribution of this article will be violating copyright laws.
Please contact me if you would like this doc. submitted to your forum/website.
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