When looking for a forum RPG, is the host important for your choice?

Personally, I think that jcink is a lot more user friendly as both a member and an admin. I haven't been on a pb site in years, but it's not off the table if I find one that I like.

 

If you can afford a server, SMF is utterly the best, or VBulletin, but that is expensive even without the server

 

For me, I stay clear of graphic heavy sites. To me, the forum should fade to the background as I'm reading a story. It should be clean, simple, and readable. By this I mean- you can easily read the post contents without the visual competition of graphics.


I have also seen forums that were graphic intensive themselves- because of the features they offer. Overly large avatars, fancy coding to dress up a post like making the background look like parchment or notebook paper. Sure, it looks cool- but these things compete with the story content for attention.


I was once a member of a Trek heavy RP site. They allowed for large and multiple images in signature lines. They did not have a minimum word count. So, someone could post a single sentence to a story thread but it would be lost amid the flashy, colorful, multiple or large images in their signature. I get being able to show off site awards in the signature but there should be limits.

 

Yes i think the host is very inportant i use Proboards and they have helped me a lot with my site for the last 17 years or so

 

I find myself very specifically drawn towards hosts I know and enjoy working with. More specifically JCINK. I'm not a lover of proboards, as I've used it as both a member and an admin/owner of a site. We all have our preferences here, and I've heard a lot of people fight the good fight, so to speak, for the Proboards community, but I honestly have always found that it just isn't a host I enjoy.

I have checked out a few self hosted sites, but I've yet to find any that I enjoy the layout/functionality of.

 

I hate to admit it but, as often as they keep changing themselves which isnt too bad but when they do, its all hell, i can only RP on proboards due to comfort and ease these days

 

For me, I only join Jcink now a days. Solely because I enjoy not having to write within a rated environment. So the freedom that is allowed on premium boards really matters to me. If I want to swear, or punch or b*$g, I like to have that ability lol. Too many years spent having to 'fade to black' on proboards for me to go back.

 

I usually use Proboards because that's what I'm most familiar with. When joining an rp, however, if the concept interests me enough and it's on another host I'll still join. As an admin, I use proboards because I know my way around it pretty well.

 

Personally, for me, I can write on any software but as an admin I am currently only comfortable with using Proboards. Probably a downfall, tbh.

 

Well, I've played on and understand proboardsm, Jcink, Phpbb, Xenforo, but I prefer Xenforo I suppose. I run a Xenforo game.

 

I don't care at all what/who the host is, as long as I can look at the forum without having to squint, or without the colours giving me a headache.

 

I honestly don't care about the host. For me, it depends on the set-up, lay-out, and features. That said, a lot of hosts are extremely feature restricted, and that tends to cause more of a snag than anything else. I also prefer more modern hosts, as opposed to those that simply haven't changed to accommodate the needs of users. I like to look into the software itself to see what features it offers, versus which features the RP site actually implements and utilizes.

 

Personally, I don't care about what host it is. As long as I can find everything and it's not all over the place, I'm fine with whichever. I guess the other thing is, I'd rather not be limited, so that may be something else that keeps me from joining one site over another.

 

I could care less what a site is hosted on. What matters to me is aesthetics and content. If the board burns my eyes, no amount of lore is going to get me to join that, though. I need it to feed my muse as much as the reading does. So many boards are blinding white with plain text and square designs. It's not conductive to my writing.

 

I don't so much look at the host, but I do look at the quality of the website. Does everything work, has the GM done everything they can to make their site easy to follow and use. Also how does the community interact plays a big part, do they have a Discord or chat server?

 

Wow, there a some interesting thoughts here - as someone who has built software for other role play groups it is really great to see the varied feedback on what people like X or prefer Y.

I think I'll have to re-read this thread a few more times to finish getting my head around everyone's point of view.

For me as a GM, I've always built my own system whether that is from the ground up or built on software like vBulletin or Invision.

As a player, I'm drawn to the game - not a specific hosting package.

 

The host isn't really important to me, with the exception that I've tried forumotion and found it quite unpleasant to use -- as both an admin and a user, actually.

I find ProBoards pretty easy to work with (again as an admin and a user). Jcink is OK; only ever RP'd on one jcink site, so maybe it has more features that I would like but that the site I used just didn't implement. Probably the nicest site architecture I've RP'd on was custom-made, as far as I can tell.

 

For the most part I haven't really been impeded by any single type of site, but I've noticed the jcink crowd likes their aesthetics and prim, proper profiles. That stuff just isn't my jam, and I tend to avoid jcink sites because of it. No real beef with the site itself, just the tendencies.

 

It's very important to me because I am familiar with a particular host and know what to expect from other roleplayers there, their style, coding, etc. But I think it's great if people can branch out.

 

I don't care very much. The important part are always the people. That being said, I host my own RPs on a custom software. So as an admin I care.