Cloud based forums?

[Neil E.]

A user asked why our club was not using a cloud forum, so I went and had a quick look at them. Website Toolbox / Plush forums / Ninja Post / Vanilla Forums / Active Board are the ones he suggested. His thought was that a cloud based forum would be better due to reduced admin work. I guess he thought I might get hit by a bus.

The idea of "always current" software seems to be the benefit of cloud based operation. It does look to be aimed heavily at mobile users. The downside I see is that it will cost more to operate due to the monthly "management fee".

I suspect many users here on the XF forum would not go this way. It would mean giving up a fair bit of control. What are your thoughts on this?

 

[Neil E.]

After doing some experimenting, I can answer my own question. Compared to XF they seem very light. I tried Website Toolbox and it could not offer the one important thing I was looking for: direct video upload from an iphone into a player displayed in the post. Same old requirement: upload to YouTube and imbed.

 

[=MGN=RedEagle]

It really depends on your neat if you're trying to become as hands off as possible with your forum go with a cloud-based forum IMO. But if you're really trying to go to build an awesome community I suggest you go with one on your own local server you can edit.

 

[D.O.A.]

• ninja post
• $99 $199 $499
• Monthly Pageviews 100K 500K 2MM

overpriced hipster crap, I run a server in the middle of this pricing doing over 1 million pageviews a month on the forum not to mention the 15TB of video we stream from it. Ridiculous pricing for a forum and no incentive to go near it with a ten foot pole. Who owns the data also? will they hand it over? these types of company screw you into staying with them forever, that's the business model.

edit: this is outright highway robbery
http://vanillaforums.com/plans

Who's dumb enough to pay $6oo for a million pageviews? a limit on staff members depending on your $input? how generous of them. I need to get into this business, cashed up people must be stupid and I can finally be the soup nazi I've always wanted to be.

YOU WANT PROFILE POST? THREE DOLLARS!

 

[=MGN=RedEagle]

I always like to OWN my data.

 

[tyteen4a03]

Well it's either your time or your money...

 

[rafass]

overpriced hipster crap, [...]

Perfect description. +1000000

 

[AdeFlit]

I'm the founder of PlushForums and no hipster, honest! We also do unlimited pageviews (and real-time discussions) for $49 per month, which really isn't bad for those who prefer not to administer hardware/software.

That said, cloud-based solutions aren't for everyone. I've always loved hosting my own sites and - if you have the time and inclination - I'd encourage people to do it. It's instructive, rewarding and cheaper in an absolute sense. For everything else...

-Adrian

 

[Ridemonkey]

overpriced hipster crap,<snip>

Who's dumb enough to pay $6oo for a million pageviews? a limit on staff members depending on your $input? how generous of them.

I don't think you understand what you're buying there.

It's not about the technical feasibility of a million pageviews. That's just a way to size their pricing model. What you're buying is the time that another full time employee of a company would otherwise spend doing initial install, migration, maintenance, patching, support for problems, the CRM and SSO integrations, testing and rolling out product upgrades, someone to pick up the phone and yell at when there's a problem, etc. Should you buy this if you're just running a forum on the side? Of course not. You're not in their target demographic. You subscribe to an high end plan like that because your full time employees are talented and expensive, and would spend more than $7,000/year worth of time working on the site instead of other projects.

How many hours a year do you think you spend on your forum(s)?

 

[Marcus]

I found one approach so interesting, they host all their forums only on REDIS, not on a relational database.

For all guests visiting this page xenforo is a far better approach when you want to truly develop a community and monetize it later.

 

[AdeFlit]

I tried Website Toolbox and it could not offer the one important thing I was looking for: direct video upload from an iphone into a player displayed in the post. Same old requirement: upload to YouTube and imbed.

If you're still considering a cloud service, we (PlushForums) have just rolled out support for direct video upload into a HTML5 player.

 

[Neil E.]

I'm sure that will be handy for your users. I changed to a different ISP that has the tools I'm looking for. I imported my old forum and am running on XF now.