Forums! Forums! Forums!
Cyan Ta'eed
After many emails (from you) and lots of cajoling (from me to Collis), we now have forums!
The forums will be the place to ask questions, chat, and interact with the FSw community. We all have a wealth of knowledge to share with one another, and aside from that it will be great to get to know you all!
To kick it all off, we’re running a little competition! Simply answer the question “What’s The Most Important Lesson You’ve Learned About Freelancing?”, and if we like your answer we’ll give you a copy of Tim Ferriss’ fantastic book, The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.
We’re looking forward to seeing you all there!
Rob Hawkes
August 8th, 2007
Great news, the forums will definitely be very popular!
Cyan
August 8th, 2007
We sure hope so!
John
August 8th, 2007
Looks like they are going off, lots of comments already! Go FreelanceSwitch
Darren
August 8th, 2007
how have you found vanilla?
Collis
August 8th, 2007
Hey Darren, its not too bad actually. It’s quite lightweight which is nice. Most of those other PHP forums like PHPBB and co are so overbundled with features its crazy, I don’t think people use most of it or at least not everyone uses the same feature sets. Vanilla has this thing called Extensions which are like Wordpress plugins in that you just FTP up some files and activate the extension and you can add functionality. This seems like a much better way to go, start clean and add what you need.
In terms of customizing the skin, it was like most forums, troublesome if you want to make it look the way you want it to, but not too hard just to clean up. I’d started out planning on matching it to the main FSw site, but that turned out to be a bad plan as that would have been pretty damn hard, however just tweaking the CSS and hacking the occasional PHP file to insert an image was pretty simple.
Are you thinking of using it?
Mike Panic
August 8th, 2007
I’ll be honest, the functionality of those forums is a put off.. I’ve been using phpBB (to host my own photography forum for nearly 5 years) and been members on nearly every other type of forum that uses vB, zeroform, etc… Please find a backend that is more user friendly.
Travis
August 8th, 2007
We made the switch from phpBB to Vanilla on YoungGoGetter.com well over a year ago, and haven’t looked back.
I agree, the themes/styles can be tough to customize at times, but it integrates into sites (Wordpress) like no other.
Once you add a few extensions (GuestSignIn, Panel Categories, etc…) people will feel a little more comfortable using it.
Viktor Reiter
August 8th, 2007
Good idea but the design of the forum is horrible.
Verne
August 8th, 2007
Great addition to help us all interact a little more!
But *GASP* it doesn’t look like it’s IE(7) compatible! May want to check that out.
Laura
August 9th, 2007
This is terrific news! I was just thinking today that I needed to find another work-at-home forum. I really enjoy the contacts that I make and the advice that I receive through my participation in (can I name a competing forum?) let’s just say, through my participation in the forums that I belong to.
Cyan
August 9th, 2007
Hey Laura - of course you can name other forums! Then we can go check out the competition
Ryan Bickett
August 9th, 2007
Great! This will be a great resource in addition to the survey responses as I continue moving towards the freelance lifestyle!
Arun
August 10th, 2007
Wow! Great idea! We can definitely gain a lot from forums.
Carmen
August 10th, 2007
Coool!!! This is great news!!! Now you only need to find a way to make days of 48 hours so we have time to read articles, participate the forums and earn some money freelancing
FreelanceVote.com
August 10th, 2007
I’ve been reading your blog for quite some time now and I think adding a forum to your site is an excellent idea. I think every website should have an area where members can communicate with each other.
Viowlicummori
October 23rd, 2007
Hi everyone,
I’m a noob here. And it seems like a sweet forum.
I just wanted to give a nice “how’s it going” to all of you here.
-Cameron
xztheericzx
November 5th, 2007
i’m eric. joining a couple boards and looking
forward to participating. hehe unless i get
too distracted!
eric
GenaSuslik
November 6th, 2007
Hola
Do you like Ramstein?
oOgerryOo
December 16th, 2007
Hi,
I’m Gerry.
Just saying hi - I’m new.
lizzyfirt
January 7th, 2008
hello, i’m lizzy!
josephanthony_2@yahoo.com
June 17th, 2008
Looking for free lance writters near Ramstein Air Base,any ideas for us?
Thanks