ezBoard on the way out

[Dasquian Belargic]

http://www.ezboard.com/component/option,com_mamblog/Itemid,55/task,show/action,user/id,69/

Check out the ezboard CEO blog. It looks like they are intending to move all ezBoards over onto this new system called Yuku. The reason for this?

"Ezboard was built on an older technology that has reached its end of life for web site development. It is time to replace ezboard's software platform so that we can bring you the new features you want while the improving security and stability of the service. It is not possible to attach new technology to ezboard's software in a reliable way. This is why we are building a completely new message board platform called Yuku."

From the list of features they're offering, it basically looks like they're trying to provide some actual competition to the likes of vB. There isn't going to be any choice about whether or not to move - somewhere down the line it's going to be a forced thing:

"Yes, all boards will move to Yuku eventually. But NOT until Yuku is ready for prime time and it is proven to be easier to use, more stable, faster and better than ezboard. We anticipate that Yuku will be ready for prime time in late 2006."

It'll be interesting to see how smoothly all of this goes. Based on their less than exemplary track history, I anticipate some major slip-ups on ezboard/Yuku's part.

[Morgan Evanar]

It will all end in tears.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

It's an interesting development to say the least. :)

[Nikkiah Wintermoon]

Looking over the Yuku, it appears to be nothing more than a glorified supporter account that now lets you use a blog. Whoopie :rolleyes

Haven't seen anything about the cost posted just yet, so I wonder if it'll be more than what ezboard's current coughripoffcough charges are.

Anyways, nice to see Fans is still active and busy :)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Hi Nikkiah :wave Been a while!

[Nikkiah Wintermoon]

:wave Hi, hi! Life's been really insane for quite some time, but I pop in now and then for a quick read :)

[Ryan Pode]

Oh sad. Reminds me of when TalkCity died. :(

[Morgan Evanar]

Originally posted by Ryan Pode
Oh sad. Reminds me of when TalkCity died. :( Ezboard being junked is something to celebrate. The damn thing runs mostly on FLAT FILES.

[Atreyu]

To be fair, ezboard (at least back in the day) was wonderful for people (like me) that may have wanted to establish a message board but did not have the skills, server space, coding experience, time etc to set up their own (ala. UBB, vBulletin, IkonBoard, phpBB etc). *

That was one of the primary reasons SWFans (or SW vs. Titanic as it was back then) moved to ezboard back in May/June 1999 and why it lasted on there for nearly 2.5 years.

Unfortunately, when ads took over the free product it became kind of crappy, and the prices they were charging for the full product at that time were just plain ridiculous (from memory I think the SWFans bill was going to be $1100 - for 6 months). Obviously all this stuff needs to be paid for, but as has been mentioned the handling of it wasn't the best and ticked a lot of people off.

Anyhoo, I've had a brief look over this Yuku product they're developing. I have to say I'm not overly thrilled with it so far, but since it's still a prototype I'll withold any firm judgement until it's properly released.



* - a paraphrase of a post I did back in 1999 - back then it was all UBB vs. ezboard (vBulletin et al. hadn't even been heard of - ah for those old days :))

[Samantha Koortyn]

I believe yuku will not have an ezSupporter feature, but they will have a gold feature. They really want the ads to be seen and if you visit the place now there are quite large blocks reserved for what will soon be ads.

The idea is that board owners will actually get a kickback from ads on their boards which are clicked on.

[Morgan Evanar]

Urg, yes, hooray advertising!