penpapernovel said:
I would love to find a message board for writers that is NOT indexed by Google and has "can't read until you register" forums (as in you can see the forums exist but can't read the posts unless you're a registered member). I hate that so many are open and indexed by search engines.
If anyone has recs for a forum like I described, please post!
WasAnn said:
Seriously...anyone know of a board we can migrate to that isn't erotica and doesn't have TOS that says they own what you write? Even if it's paid.
It's not difficult to build a new site, where nothing can be read without being registered. All you need is your own site, and the right up to date forum software.
Such things like the offending wording here, can be edited as part of the installation. And you can make areas visible to the non-registered, and completely private, including sections for specific people only.
I've done this a number of times in the past. The main problem is, not enough people move to the new forum to make it viable, and given a few month down the track, the few dozen starters drop out because there are no new people joining.
One thing I am very disappointed about was the fact the previous owners didn't offer to sell to forum users first, either as a collective, or to someone for whom the costs of running the forum are not even an issue. We didn't even know the forum was for sale, and I for one would have been interested in buying it. I may not have been able to raise the price, but there are people here who could have.
I can build an alternative forum, without the ads, without the rights issues, without the post editing, but still moderated as fairly as possible. It can have more areas, such as for craft and marketing, keeping the posts separate. But we'd lose a lot of the tools, including the signature maker.
But will anyone use it? Probably not. I would set one up if a couple of hundred people wanted it, all of whom are here daily. Otherwise, it isn't worth the effort.
I think it is worth doing, but it needs a significant number of people who not only register there on day 1, but actively post every day, the same as here.
My experience though is people never like to move, regardless of the problems where they are. I've been monitoring the recently set up board, which has the same issues as mentioned in this thread, and while it gets posts, it's not what I call viable yet, and possibly never will be.
It might be simpler to get a group together and attempt to buy Kboards back from the new owners.