Need advice before starting a forum

[fanoffanchises]

Total newb to forum stuff (no tech skills and haven't ever hosted)

About to start a discussion forums for a community. The vital aspects I'm seeking are how images and quoted text will display, also the presentation of boards. (see below)


I really like the style of the raspberry pi forum at this link: forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?p=2066480#p2066480.  

Pros:

- the clean way it displays any images that people upload
- how the quoted text cleanly stands out from the normal discussion
- the front page looks different from the discussion page so people can tell the difference solely by the layout pattern of page
- the topic headers stand out with enough contrast so you can visually sort them faster

No luck finding templates because:

Already tried browsing several websites that offer templates, but their problem is with zero examples of content, you cannot see how images and video would display, nor quoted text.

Here's an example of that issue at this link: 33.phpbb3styles.net/index.php.

I found the raspberry pi forum in a helpful list of example forums, but unfortunately that list doesn't specify what template each example used. See list at this link: www.phpbb.com/showcase.

Gonna start with paid version because don't want ads, so want to ensure there's a template worth paying for on proboards.

Thanks for any help.

[Kami]

Jan 23, 2023 11:22:44 GMT -8 fanoffanchises said:

Total newb to forum stuff (no tech skills and haven't ever hosted)

About to start a discussion forums for a community. The vital aspects I'm seeking are how images and quoted text will display, also the presentation of boards. (see below)


I really like the style of the raspberry pi forum at this link: forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?p=2066480#p2066480.  

Pros:

- the clean way it displays any images that people upload
- how the quoted text cleanly stands out from the normal discussion
- the front page looks different from the discussion page so people can tell the difference solely by the layout pattern of page
- the topic headers stand out with enough contrast so you can visually sort them faster

No luck finding templates because:

Already tried browsing several websites that offer templates, but their problem is with zero examples of content, you cannot see how images and video would display, nor quoted text.

Here's an example of that issue at this link: 33.phpbb3styles.net/index.php.

I found the raspberry pi forum in a helpful list of example forums, but unfortunately that list doesn't specify what template each example used. See list at this link: www.phpbb.com/showcase.

Gonna start with paid version because don't want ads, so want to ensure there's a template worth paying for on proboards.

Thanks for any help.

There's no "paid version" or "not paid" version, really. There's ProBoards with ads, or ProBoards without ads. The service is identical otherwise.

Those forums are not on PB, so we can't really speak to how they were crafted. However, PB itself is customiseable to get pretty much everything you see there and that you have in your list. That said, it's unlikely you'll find a pre-made theme with these features, I don't think anyone has created one in the library like this.

We (the PB Support community) and the PB Admins are always available here through the support forum to help you figure out how to accomplish certain changes, if a template doesn't already exist.

Please note, however, that ProBoards is NOT phpbb. Templates that are not made for ProBoards will not work here.

[fanoffanchises]

Jan 23, 2023 11:32:47 GMT -8 Kami said:

There's no "paid version" or "not paid" version, really. There's ProBoards with ads, or ProBoards without ads. The service is identical otherwise.

Ok great!

I don't think anyone has created one in the library like this.

We (the PB Support community) and the PB Admins are always available here through the support forum to help you figure out how to accomplish certain changes, if a template doesn't already exist.

Sounds good! Should I start a forum merely to test a template and ask for help when I encounter a hiccup? Making changes until we get the features to be how I'd like.

[Kami]

Jan 23, 2023 11:51:57 GMT -8 fanoffanchises said:

Jan 23, 2023 11:32:47 GMT -8 Kami said:

There's no "paid version" or "not paid" version, really. There's ProBoards with ads, or ProBoards without ads. The service is identical otherwise.

Ok great!

I don't think anyone has created one in the library like this.

We (the PB Support community) and the PB Admins are always available here through the support forum to help you figure out how to accomplish certain changes, if a template doesn't already exist.

Sounds good! Should I start a forum merely to test a template and ask for help when I encounter a hiccup? Making changes until we get the features to be how I'd like.

Yeah absolutely! Creating a forum is free, and there's no obligation. You'll also get i think 2 weeks of ad free as a gift when you create a forum, so you can see if you like the ad free feature enough to pay for it.

Just remember that all premade themes have to be PROBOARDS (the file type for this would be pbt). If the premade theme isn't a pbt file, it will not be compatible. However, if you find a non-PB theme you like on another service, we can walk you through how to recreate it (with potentially some differences) on ProBoards.

[fanoffanchises]

Got it, use only any compatible template for Proboards! 👍

Jan 23, 2023 12:01:41 GMT -8 Kami said:

However, if you find a non-PB theme you like on another service, we can walk you through how to recreate it (with potentially some differences) on ProBoards.

That's great, I've already got a few examples on hand.

Wondering, do you have templates that showcase how images and quoted text will look? The example templates I had found anywhere were all empty of content. Would be nice if each would have a single post with multiple images, quoted text, etc. (even reusing the same images at each).

The style of display is important for the community I'm forming.

[Kami]

Jan 23, 2023 12:22:40 GMT -8 fanoffanchises said:

Got it, use only any compatible template for Proboards! 👍

Jan 23, 2023 12:01:41 GMT -8 Kami said:

However, if you find a non-PB theme you like on another service, we can walk you through how to recreate it (with potentially some differences) on ProBoards.

That's great, I've already got a few examples on hand.

Wondering, do you have templates that showcase how images and quoted text will look? The example templates I had found anywhere were all empty of content. Would be nice if each would have a single post with multiple images, quoted text, etc. (even reusing the same images at each).

The style of display is important for the community I'm forming.

Not really, but ProBoards allows you access to the CSS Stylesheet for every theme you create. You can target images that are posted using CSS and configure the style any way you'd like. Same thing with quotes, or literally any element available on any given page, with the exception of ads (per TOS, we cannot modify the ads).

What you could do is create a thread with an example of every feature you can add to a post, then create a list of changes you'd like based on how they look by default. I, or another helper, would be happy to provide instructions on how to accomplish it.

[fanoffanchises]

Jan 23, 2023 12:27:30 GMT -8 Kami said:

What you could do is create a thread with an example of every feature you can add to a post, then create a list of changes you'd like based on how they look by default. I, or another helper, would be happy to provide instructions on how to accomplish it.

👊 Thanks, will get on that in a couple of days after finish a job.