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Post by Lesa on Jun 15, 2004 4:19:04 GMT -6
Personally, I've been wanting to leave ezboard for a long time. The president of their company has been a thorn in my side for well over a year. He won't do his job unless it's for a big money-making board, makes promises that he has no intention on keeping, and is extremely rude to his customers. When I ask him to keep his promise, he tells me in not so many words and with a very condescending attitude, that he isn't going to help me anymore, then totally ignores my last email asking for troll handles to be globally banned. He even banned one of our best members for troll posts when there were no such thing, and when her handle was completely cleared of all guilt that originated in his head, he wasn't professional enough to admit to his mistake and apologize for it. Despite all this, I've put up with it for the members of this board, and the reason we are leaving is because the system just plain doesn't work anymore. Every time they "upgrade," they cause more bugs, which far outweigh any "features" or "speed" that they promise. This last thing they did that was supposed to improve things, actually made it so that about 1/3 of their members (including myself) couldn't get into their Help forums for well over a month, so nobody could report the bugs they were experiencing or even read the forum to see if others were having the same problems. One of our moderators couldn't post at Whoosh's ezboard since their last big "improvement," and another moderator couldn't even view the board. I have had countless reports of people having posting problems, getting "Page cannot be displayed" or "Some fields were missing" error messages, not knowing if their post went through unless they hit the back button a couple of times and refreshed the page. I got those same error messages, and even got a "This reply has been deleted" error message while editing a post over there just now, along with a few blank white pages before I was finally able to edit it. Because of all of this, the post count at our ez Whoosh board dropped in half immediately after the big "improvement." I remember a few years back when I first started posting on ezboard, and everything used to work fine. But every time they "upgrade," things just get worse. This last time, and I'm not exaggerating here, they nearly caused a system-wide crash. And you want to know why? Because these new servers that they moved all the boards to are not better like they claimed... No, these new servers were supposed to be cheaper for them, to increase their bottom line. They didn't do it for us, they did it to get even richer, and it came back to bite them in the ass, because a lot of people are now leaving ezboard because of it, and now we've left because of it. I hope ProBoards proves to be better. So far, it's looking good.  |
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Post by katearoobee on Jun 15, 2004 8:01:57 GMT -6
I think that just about everyone is getting to the point of finding something else. I know that I post at another board called Yada Yada Yada and it's getting ridiclous. Someone lost there ezsupporter because one of the updates. It's nuts. I think that many others might be finding some new boards such as this one.
I am glad that you decided to do this.
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Kak
Whooshite Candidate
Posts: 74
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Post by Kak on Jun 15, 2004 8:56:53 GMT -6
I know what you mean Gig, them trolls are just taken over the ezboards. But, I got some good online friends there & I don't want to leave them. I do like this board & hope to see more here, soon.
Kak
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Post by Lesa on Jun 15, 2004 22:21:11 GMT -6
katearoobee Thanks for your support, katearoobee!  It is ridiculous how bad ezboard has gotten.  My own account was actually deleted by a glitch a couple of years ago, and although it was easy enough to re-register it and have them give me back my ezSupporter, that was before the system overall got to be so bad. Kak I hope to see more boards leaving ezboard, too. I already know a couple of gold admins who plan on doing so, and one of them already has a ProBoard set up in advance. I haven't been so concerned about trolls in a long time, since the worst they were able to do at our board was lurk with a vulgar name, and since it's proven that they don't have any actual cracking OR hacking skills. Just the other day, a certain troll came around in the whosonline, and I used the word-swapping code to change its name to "I'm a dumbass" as soon as it came around.  I'm kinda going to miss doing that, since there won't be any vulgar handles here. 
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Post by celamowari on Jun 17, 2004 11:23:32 GMT -6
I think ezboard has a rep for being the home to a lot of boards that are of, shall we say, suspect quality. The ease of creating a board leads to a lot of poor quality boards run by people who really shouldn't be running boards. Just my opinion, but the term "ezboard" has a lot of negative connotations these days, based on what I have seen.
Besides Whoosh, I know of at least two other boards that have left ezboard. One went to Invision and the other became a PHP board. Kayfabe Memories, the one which went PHP, was a HUGE board with over 5000 members! They constantly had to pay huge fees for Gold, but I don't think ezboard gave them the kind of service they wanted. They were particularly unhappy with the "Search" feature. Finally, they took all their toys and left, taking their huge Gold fees with them. You know that had to hurt ezboard.
I'm not planning on taking my board off ezboard, mostly because I don't do a lot with it anymore. I also haven't experienced nearly the problems with mine that others have had. So, for my purposes, keeping the OWARI board there makes sense. Still, I can understand why a lot of people are leaving.
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Post by Lesa on Jun 18, 2004 0:41:08 GMT -6
Hi, Chris.  It's amazing how many times I've gone to Forumfind (that is, when it's actually working) and found all sorts of boards on the list that have 1 or 2 members that have abandoned the board, either because the person who built it didn't know how to make it look decent, their images were all broken because they had them uploaded on a site that doesn't allow remote linking, they had waaaay too many redundant forums with no posts in them, they didn't have any interesting content, they didn't know how to advertise it, or any combination of the above. A ProBoard is pretty simple to put up too, if you don't want to customize it much. But ezboard's whole sales pitch seems to be about how "EZ" it is to put up, thus attracting a lot of people who don't know the first thing about setting up or running a message board. Then ezboard goes does things like putting the option to enable posticons in the security section (of all places) of individual forums and confusing the hell out of people.  Add that to another reason a lot of newbies probably abandon their boards, because it's not nearly as "ez" for some as they claim.  I have no doubt that Kayfabe Memories had to pay up the wazoo with 5000 members. I'm guessing it probably cost them AT LEAST a few thousand bucks a year for all the page views that board must've been racking up. I'm actually a little surprised that ezboard didn't give THEM better service than they got, because I thought they were interested in keeping at least the big-paying boards happy. I guess that just means they weren't able to do so. After all, I'm sure the search function (for example) would be working if they had the knowledge to make it stable, instead of being down all the time, right? Then there's always Forumfind and the spell checker, to name two other things that almost never work. I wonder if Forumfind works any better, now that they've changed it. But I'm not going to waste my time trying it out, when I'm not trying to advertise the old board anymore, and when I'm not looking to join any new ezboards anytime soon.  I'm glad to hear your Owari board hasn't had all the problems that ours and others have had. I guess it just happens to be on a better server.  |
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Post by celamowari on Jun 18, 2004 18:19:53 GMT -6
Well, I think there is a feeling among the net populace at large (and it's true, to some extent) that ezboard is a place where a lot of under-18s gather together to put together poorly planned boards with a lot of so-called "AOL-speak" - mostly because it's so easy to start up a board. Not to generalize ezboard users or under-18s at all (I've had good & bad experiences with both), but there seems to be a stigma that ezboard is not the place to go for stimulating discussions. KM had a lot of issues of their own which I won't go into, so I'm sure having total control of account registration played a big part in their decision. As far as the price, I think I recall something like $800 for one 6 month renewal. They just didn't feel they were getting their money's worth. Eh, OWARI was on one of the older servers, I think (pub14). I never moved it when I had the offer. Haven't had any real problems on the new server (yet), but I'm sure craziness will happen. It just doesn't get used so much for it to be an issue. |
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Post by Lesa on Jun 18, 2004 22:23:33 GMT -6
I've been to quite a few ezboards, and it's no wonder that ezboard has that stigma.  We've had the ads-based "free" gold for a while, and it wasn't even worth what we were (not) paying, either! It seems like every board that has willingly moved to new servers always had more problems after they moved. Maybe all these problems are related, and they just don't know how to move things from one server to another. It's too bad for them that Charlz isn't one of their developers instead of being the person who cleans up their messes, because he actually seems to know what he's doing. But let's not go telling that to ezboard and give them any ideas, because we still have the issue of how crappy their Legal department treats their customers.  BTW, what's "AOL-speak"? Are you talking about the crap that goes on in AOL chatrooms and message boards? I've been in a couple of those, but haven't returned because they just suck.  |
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Post by celamowari on Jun 18, 2004 22:36:08 GMT -6
"AOL-speak" - here is an example, courtesy of ssshotaru.homestead.com/files/aolertranslator.html I CANT BLEIVE U HAEV N3V3R HEARD OF AOL-SPAAK L3!1!1!! OMG WTF LOL I THINK U R JUST SAYNG TAHT 2 MAS WIT MAH MIND!!!!!!! OMG WTF LOL DONT DO TAHT!11! OMG WTF LOL AFT3R AL U DONT KNOW MA
ONLY!!1! OMG KIDNG!1!! LOL BUT SE THIS IS WUT IT LOKS LIEK RIGHT HER311!1!!11For the record, this was the original input : I can't believe you have never heard of "AOL-speak", Le! I think you are just saying that to mess with my mind. Don't do that! After all, you don't know me!
Only kidding. But see, this is what it looks like right here. |
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Post by Lesa on Jun 19, 2004 0:04:33 GMT -6
OMG!!1!!1!! TAHTS SO FRIKNG HILARIOUS11!! OMG WTF LOL YEAH NOW I KNOW WUT UR TOKNG ABOUT AND I HOP3 THAY DONT JOIN THIS BORD!!! OMG WTF LOL LMAO1!1111 WTF LOL   |
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LiviasBoyToyTig
Whooshite Candidate
Residing at Blackwood Farm w/ Quinn, Eve and Virgil
Posts: 19
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Post by LiviasBoyToyTig on Jun 19, 2004 18:39:20 GMT -6
LMAO! I avoid speaking to people like that  But yeah, I've seen the mass migration from Ezboard to other boards that do work better, like proboards for example. I'm thinking of moving my forum where I had my Livia stories to a proboard eventually. There's too many problems with ezboard each time they upgrade. *shakes head* Tig |
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Paige
Whooshite Candidate
Whitelighter Witch
Posts: 15
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Post by Paige on Jun 19, 2004 22:37:33 GMT -6
[glow=red,2,300]I lost my ezSupporter THREE times. TWO of the mods on my board can't even view the board because they get the error page. Some UK AOL users are banned from THREADS  it's crazy!!! They're not banned from the board, in fact, they can view it, but they can't post on certain threads.[/glow]  [glow=red,2,300]I think we're going to be stuck with ezboard for a while though.  We still have $350 on our community chest and we only pay like $70/6months. I'd hate to waste the community chest money and move to PHP.[/glow]  |
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Post by Joxcenia on Jun 19, 2004 23:06:30 GMT -6
You can hide the community chest and then move when the gold expires... or just before it expires do the gold w/ads and then move.  |
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Post by Lesa on Jun 20, 2004 0:05:28 GMT -6
Tig said: That's good, because I avoid people who speak like that! Tig said: Yep, ezboard has really screwed themselves by always trying to make things cheaper for them, while always claiming their "upgrades" will improve speed and stability. The only thing they're really trying to upgrade is their wallets.  Have you ever considered putting your stories on a website, then connecting that site with a message board, so people can discuss your work? You could have so much more control over layout and formatting with a website. Paige said: My gold ezOp "The Giggly One" account was completely deleted once, so I had to re-register it and have the staff reenable my ezSupporter. Paige said: Have they tried using Netscape? Since you seem to be stuck with ezboard for a while, maybe they should download and install it. Or maybe they can find a board that they can view, and you could ask ezboard to move your board to that server. For some reason, a lot of ezboard's problems seem to be server-specific. Paige said: That's just plain weird and irritating. Are they always the same threads they're having trouble with? Paige said: That's another beef I have with ezboard, their no refunds policy. It's bad enough to say you can't have your money back because you found something you like better... It's even worse for them to totally screw up the entire system and still not give people their money back.  Policy or not, there should be a way to get your money back. Wouldn't the Lemon Law or something similar apply here? Jox said: Most definitely!  That way, you can use up what's left in your community chest, then use your old board as an archive when you move, with the free gold w/ads keeping it popup-free.  We got off lucky, because we've been on the free gold w/ads for a while.
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LiviasBoyToyTig
Whooshite Candidate
Residing at Blackwood Farm w/ Quinn, Eve and Virgil
Posts: 19
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Post by LiviasBoyToyTig on Jun 20, 2004 10:35:18 GMT -6
Yes, I have actually, but have no idea on how to go about doing that! me and creating a web site do not go hand in hand! |
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Post by Lesa on Jun 21, 2004 18:03:59 GMT -6
That's even more pathetic. Geeze... There must be a way to launch a class action suit or something. You should open a ProBoard and let the members post on it, and see just how much they think they like ezboard. Thanks! All I did was throw a little CSS in there to rearrange a little bit at the top and add a little padding on the sides. I'm sure that with the help of others, they could put something nice together.  |
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Post by Lesa on Jun 21, 2004 18:11:37 GMT -6
Oops, sorry to skip your post, Tig.  I just went straight to the 2nd page and forgot about the first. Some services make it real easy with their drag and drop tools, but if you want more control over things, check out htmlgoodies.com. The easiest thing for a beginner to do would be to put everything in tables. You can write the pages in NotePad and save them directly to your computer (just save as filename.html), and then get a web hosting account to put them up on after you've figured out what you're doing. ICDSoft has been great for me, and they don't charge an arm and a leg. Or you could use a free host, and deal with the ads, of course. |
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it's crazy!!! They're not banned from the board, in fact, they can view it, but they can't post on certain threads.[/glow] 
We still have $350 on our community chest and we only pay like $70/6months. I'd hate to waste the community chest money and move to PHP.[/glow] 
That way, you can use up what's left in your community chest, then use your old board as an archive when you move, with the free gold w/ads keeping it popup-free. 
You are SO RIGHT!!! 
So then we put it at the bottom of the main page... and then people started donating more money into it. ;D Even though we told them it's not necessary. 