How long have you been running forums?
- Thread starter Razasharp
- Start date
ForestForTrees
Well-known member
Much respect to the guy who has been at it for around 25 years. In comparison, I've a real newcomer, with only 5 years under my belt. I do take it quite seriously and am currently working full time, having incorporated along the way, but there is no substitute for experience in your field.
Razasharp
Well-known member
That's quite some time! Is the forum still going? What's the URL?
I remember the bulletin boards on the Amiga, but thankfully, I did not start any up back then! They are too time consuming
wedgar
Well-known member
There has been some downtime in between software.
The MajorBBS, WorldGroup ran from 1989 to 2008. We went from a primarily dial-up BBS with two lines to an internet connected system. The software was developed by a very forward thinking developer Tim Stryker, who put together a very talented team.
The support team and operators of that software were a very close-knit group and provided excellent support. (Much like the xF community today)
The two big BBS packages then were MajorBBS/WorldGroup and Mustang BBS. We about 1,000 members which as a good number back then.
Tim passed away at an early age and the company lost its direction.
The software didn't keep up with technology and we lost our users.
About 5 years ago, I tried setting up a community with phpBB and found more spammers signing up than members and I spent more time getting rid of spammers than building up a community. It lasted for about a year.
Last year I came across VB 5.05 and installed it and starting building another community. The problem with sustaining this group is that members expected to be notified (alerts) by email on updates/replies and VB did not send those alerts out. Right after New Year's I came across xF and researched it and the user community.
Had to start from scratch as I could not find an importer to bring in VB 5.05 users, forums, etc to XenForo 1.22.
So we're back in the game and building. I'm involved with a several organizations and out team is developing forums to offer resources to members of those groups.
The MajorBBS, WorldGroup ran from 1989 to 2008. We went from a primarily dial-up BBS with two lines to an internet connected system. The software was developed by a very forward thinking developer Tim Stryker, who put together a very talented team.
The support team and operators of that software were a very close-knit group and provided excellent support. (Much like the xF community today)
The two big BBS packages then were MajorBBS/WorldGroup and Mustang BBS. We about 1,000 members which as a good number back then.
Tim passed away at an early age and the company lost its direction.
The software didn't keep up with technology and we lost our users.
About 5 years ago, I tried setting up a community with phpBB and found more spammers signing up than members and I spent more time getting rid of spammers than building up a community. It lasted for about a year.
Last year I came across VB 5.05 and installed it and starting building another community. The problem with sustaining this group is that members expected to be notified (alerts) by email on updates/replies and VB did not send those alerts out. Right after New Year's I came across xF and researched it and the user community.
Had to start from scratch as I could not find an importer to bring in VB 5.05 users, forums, etc to XenForo 1.22.
So we're back in the game and building. I'm involved with a several organizations and out team is developing forums to offer resources to members of those groups.
wedgar
Well-known member
Lost everything. Been there - done that. Did you have problems with the spammers trying to access to your php system?
MattW
Well-known member
No, it was the host who just turned everything off and vanished. We were hacked on phpBB2 (2.0.17 IIRC), but luckily he wasn't malicious and didn't do any damage. We also lost about 8 months of posts again due to shared hosting going missing, and having to restore from an old backup (that was all before I started doing the hosting myself).
wedgar
Well-known member
That would be a bad day at the office. I can see why you started doing your own hosting now.
ForestForTrees
Well-known member
What was it?!!!
wedgar
Well-known member
Excellent. What platform were you running?
Razasharp
Well-known member
This thread is perfect for you guys
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/how-do-you-think-forums-have-changed-over-the-years.67872/
@wedgar @Jaxel
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/how-do-you-think-forums-have-changed-over-the-years.67872/
@wedgar @Jaxel
Jaxel
Well-known member
It was a Pokemon website... and we ran on UBB for our forums, and raw HTML with SSI for everything else.
