What does everyone think about all of 6 of us migrating to Pro Boards Forum (free version)

I have been tossing this idea around for a while now. Well, I have been asking RKS to add more features to this forum since it launched. While Bug fixes are immediately addressed and taken care of, improvements and/or adding features to this forum seems to be put on the back burner. Sure, it's a nice and quiet forum with zero trolls, but let's face it, it's dead here, and only having Desktop access to this Forum only compounds the problem. and without being able to post pics it makes it even more of a ghost town. The Grow Journal feature here is severely handicapped without being able to post pics. Words are great, but a picture says 1000 words as the old saying goes. My thoughts are TerpenesFan and AutoQueen would be Admins because both of you are online frequently and could catch any spamming or troll posts. One of you would have to create the Forum to be an Administrators. I would sincerely like to be a Moderator and anybody else from this current board (the whole 6 of us lol) could be Moderators as well (if they so choose). We just have to come up with a cool non-cringy name for our new Forum, if we all decide to migrate. I have been using and creating Forums since the old BBS days back in the late 90's and let's face it this place kind of blows without pics. What does everyone think about all of 6 of us migrating to Pro Boards Forum (free version) ~~~ https://www.proboards.com/free-forum-features ~~~

19 comments

19 Comments

Experienced14h ago

Honestly i've been thinking the same thing for a while. The no pics thing kills me because half of what i want to share is visual, like trying to describe a terp profile in text only goes so far before you need to show people that frosty pheno you found. I'm down. Admin role is fine, i'm on here enough anyway. Only thing i'd say is we pick a name that actually means something and isn't just another generic "cannabis growers" type deal. Something that hints at quality hunting, not just growing in general. Let me know when there's a consensus and we can get it rolling.

Seedling13h ago

Great Idea about choosing a name that actually means something. o.k. cool will do, thumbs up! Hopefully people will reply to this post/thread, and we can get it rolling. Peace

Experienced13h ago

Alright lets see if the others chime in. We need AutoQueen to weigh in at minimum before we start spinning anything up, and it'd be good to hear from the other 2-3 regulars too. On the name, im gonna think on it and maybe throw a few ideas out in a separate post once we get enough buy-in here. No point debating names if half the crew is ghosting the thread lol.

Seedling13h ago

Totally agree 100%

Experienced13h ago

Cool, one more in the "yes" column. Still waiting on AutoQueen and a couple others before we do anything. Not trying to build a house before everyone agrees on the lot lol.

Experienced12h ago

Pic sharing is honestly the thing that's been killing my journal updates here. I wrote out this whole post about my last dry and cure and it just felt flat without being able to show the trichome shots. I'm in, but I do want to throw one thing out there that nobody has mentioned yet. ProBoards free version has ads, and depending on how they serve them it can get pretty sketchy looking on a cannabis forum. Worth checking what the ad situation actually looks like before we commit. Last thing we want is a bunch of random garbage ads plastered all over the place when we're trying to run a clean community. Has anyone actually poked around the free version recently to see what it looks like from a visitor standpoint?

Grower11h ago

the ad concern is real but honestly the bigger issue for me is what data proboards collects and how they handle it. free platforms need to monetize somehow and it's not always just banner ads. i'd want to know their privacy policy before i'm posting grow details there.

Experienced11h ago

The data thing is a real concern but i think people sometimes overthink it for a hobby grow forum. The actual risk of posting "my plants are in week 6 flower" on a free platform is pretty low compared to, say, posting your address or real name, which you just don't do anywhere. Keep the personal stuff out of the post and the data policy matters a lot less.

Seedling10h ago

yes. I use a metadata remover that deletes all the information from the pics before I post them online.

Experienced10h ago

That's a good habit regardless of platform. Phone cameras especially will embed GPS coordinates in EXIF data by default, most people have no idea. A metadata stripper before uploading is just smart practice.

Seedling10h ago

It's 2026, privacy on the Internet is a thing of the past. Your phone is "always" listening and knows exactly where you are located. You can only control it to certain point. Almost every time your phone or computer updates its software, the privacy settings go back to the original factory settings (shut off).

Grower10h ago

fair point and i'm not arguing that privacy is some solved problem. but there's a difference between accepting that google knows i searched for nutrients and voluntarily posting detailed grow info on a platform where i don't know who owns the data or where it ends up. i keep my phone out of my grow room. old habit. not because i think i'm invisible, just because i try not to hand over more than i have to. minimal exposure where i can manage it. doesn't mean i'm against moving, just means i'd spend 10 minutes reading their TOS first.

Seedling10h ago

Totally agree 100% Reading the TOS is very important. I figure the TOS is probably all a bunch of lies anyway, but yes, a good idea to read it.

Grower10h ago

yeah probably some corporate boilerplate in there, but you can still learn a lot from what they DON'T say. if they're vague about data sharing with third parties that tells you something. silence in a TOS is almost worse than the fine print.

Experienced12h ago

count me in, was waiting to see if there was actual momentum before throwing my two cents in. the ad thing someone mentioned is a real concern. i'd poke around proboards as a guest on a few existing forums before we commit. if the ads are cannabis-friendly or at least neutral it's probably fine, but if it's serving up addiction recovery ads or whatever next to grow journals that's a weird vibe. my one gripe with proboards specifically is mobile. the free version can be rough depending on the theme you pick. that was half the original complaint here right, desktop only. worth making sure we're not just trading one limitation for another. name wise i'll think on it but i agree with what terpenesfan said, something specific. "perpetual garden" crossed my mind but that might be too niche, lol. open to ideas.

Seedling10h ago

I don't think we would get recovery or addiction ads, that would be weird. I think we would get Seed Bank ads and Grow Equipment ads like from Spider Farmer or Vivosun, and soil and nutrient ads. Ads on the side of the screen don't really bother me. I stopped reading them years ago. Desktop only access on this Forum is a blessing and curse. Nice and quiet is awesome and we all know each other fairly well, or we all get along with each other fairly well I should say, but this place needs more people and pictures. It's getting moldy lol and needs a breath of fresh air imho. Not being able to post pics in a Grow Journal is just silly lol. RKS Development Team needs to put the bong down and get to work lol, they know I still love them :) I'll take a tour of Pro Boards and see what I find, join a cannabis forum and see what happens and report back here.

Experienced10h ago

that's the move, firsthand recon is way better than us just speculating. curious what you find, especially on mobile. and yeah you're probably right on the ads, seed banks and grow gear makes way more sense given the context. i think i was overthinking it. "RKS put the bong down" killed me lol.

Seedling10h ago

LOL

Experienced10h ago

short replies are contagious, now we're all doing it lol