MyBB Community Forums

If a member has questions about their particular situation, they are allowed to post in Private Inquiries where only staff can see their thread.

(2017-03-10, 10:34 PM)Euan T Wrote: [ -> ]Many people confuse MyBB as being a forum host rather than simply being a provider of software. We frequently get contacted by people asking us to disable sites running MyBB because it offends them in some way (such as by hosting copyrighted content without permission, or sharing personal details of people without their consent, or through countless other ways).

"Powered by" actually means "Hosted by" in many contexts. If you see a powered by google sites somewhere chances are it's actually hosted by google sites, too.

It's your own policy putting your own signature under everything. If there's a <insert-illegal-activity-here> site running MyBB it's "Powered by MyBB, © 2002-2017 MyBB Group.". That's the only thing that remotely comes across like a contact info so of course people will knock on your doors.

(2017-03-10, 11:39 PM)Ben Cousins Wrote: [ -> ]1) The Support Eligibility Policy is based on the fact this is free software and they expect a link back. That's fair, IMHO; don't want to have the link back? Learn to program

From my point of view, removing backlinks is doing you a favour.

The backlink serves zero practical purpose. It may be harmful. Google likes natural links, it does not like unnatural, spammy, low quality links. And a link forced to appear on every page generated by MyBB is just that.

I hope that MyBB 2 will rethink about backlinks. Either remove it altogether, make it optional, or limit it to the main index page only. Forcing it on every page still only counts as one (at best) or might be confused with spam and that'd harm both sites, mine and mybb.com...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTjN9x-by-I

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356



The main reason why MyBB should stop forcing backlinks on everyone is that it has long outgrown the need for them. You have tons of content. You have tons of natural links. You have tons of localized spin-off sites ( http :// mybb . <insert-native-lingo-here> ). Huge community. It's more than enough to be self sufficient without backlinks.

(2017-03-11, 12:55 AM)frostschutz Wrote: [ -> ]

(2017-03-10, 10:34 PM)Euan T Wrote: [ -> ]Many people confuse MyBB as being a forum host rather than simply being a provider of software. We frequently get contacted by people asking us to disable sites running MyBB because it offends them in some way (such as by hosting copyrighted content without permission, or sharing personal details of people without their consent, or through countless other ways).

"Powered by" actually means "Hosted by" in many contexts. If you see a powered by google sites somewhere chances are it's actually hosted by google sites, too.

It's your own policy putting your own signature under everything. If there's a <insert-illegal-activity-here> site running MyBB it's "Powered by MyBB, © 2002-2017 MyBB Group.". That's the only thing that remotely comes across like a contact info so of course people will knock on your doors.

(2017-03-10, 11:39 PM)Ben Cousins Wrote: [ -> ]1) The Support Eligibility Policy is based on the fact this is free software and they expect a link back. That's fair, IMHO; don't want to have the link back? Learn to program

From my point of view, removing backlinks is doing you a favour.

The backlink serves zero practical purpose. It may be harmful. Google likes natural links, it does not like unnatural, spammy, low quality links. And a link forced to appear on every page generated by MyBB is just that.

I hope that MyBB 2 will rethink about backlinks. Either remove it altogether, make it optional, or limit it to the main index page only. Forcing it on every page still only counts as one (at best) or might be confused with spam and that'd harm both sites, mine and mybb.com...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTjN9x-by-I

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356



The main reason why MyBB should stop forcing backlinks on everyone is that it has long outgrown the need for them. You have tons of content. You have tons of natural links. You have tons of localized spin-off sites ( http :// mybb . <insert-native-lingo-here> ). Huge community. It's more than enough to be self sufficient without backlinks.

I couldn't agree more on the backlinks. At the current point with the amount of sites with the exact same text, depending on how search engines make decisions, could actually become harmful to mybb.com.

Something to note as far as back-links go is that some of the largest sites which run phpBB don't have back-links.
Same for some big boards which run SMF. I don't think it's even *possible* to have a back-link in NodeBB or Discourse.

Wordpress has a back-link, although you can remove it, if you really wanted to. But it does not say powered by.
For the most part, forum admins have a good idea of what the various software, and it's not that hard to figure it out if you don't.
Every big software is distinct for the most part. I can tell that something is XenForo or MyBB just by *looking* at it.

(2017-03-11, 03:27 AM)Azah Wrote: [ -> ]Something to note as far as back-links go is that some of the largest sites which run phpBB don't have back-links.
Same for some big boards which run SMF. I don't think it's even *possible* to have a back-link in NodeBB or Discourse.

Wordpress has a back-link, although you can remove it, if you really wanted to. But it does not say powered by.
For the most part, forum admins have a good idea of what the various software, and it's not that hard to figure it out if you don't.
Every big software is distinct for the most part. I can tell that something is XenForo or MyBB just by *looking* at it.

The URL Structure of pages says a lot about what software is being run.

Azah Wrote:Wordpress has a back-link, although you can remove it, if you really wanted to. But it does not say powered by.

I'm sorry; how does "Proudly powered by WordPress" not say Powered By?

dont mess with the system, leave it as it is. as ben said, keep it public, imo

(2017-03-11, 12:55 AM)frostschutz Wrote: [ -> ]

(2017-03-10, 10:34 PM)Euan T Wrote: [ -> ]Many people confuse MyBB as being a forum host rather than simply being a provider of software. We frequently get contacted by people asking us to disable sites running MyBB because it offends them in some way (such as by hosting copyrighted content without permission, or sharing personal details of people without their consent, or through countless other ways).

"Powered by" actually means "Hosted by" in many contexts. If you see a powered by google sites somewhere chances are it's actually hosted by google sites, too.

It's your own policy putting your own signature under everything. If there's a <insert-illegal-activity-here> site running MyBB it's "Powered by MyBB, © 2002-2017 MyBB Group.". That's the only thing that remotely comes across like a contact info so of course people will knock on your doors.

(2017-03-10, 11:39 PM)Ben Cousins Wrote: [ -> ]1) The Support Eligibility Policy is based on the fact this is free software and they expect a link back. That's fair, IMHO; don't want to have the link back? Learn to program

From my point of view, removing backlinks is doing you a favour.

The backlink serves zero practical purpose. It may be harmful. Google likes natural links, it does not like unnatural, spammy, low quality links. And a link forced to appear on every page generated by MyBB is just that.

I hope that MyBB 2 will rethink about backlinks. Either remove it altogether, make it optional, or limit it to the main index page only. Forcing it on every page still only counts as one (at best) or might be confused with spam and that'd harm both sites, mine and mybb.com...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTjN9x-by-I

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356



The main reason why MyBB should stop forcing backlinks on everyone is that it has long outgrown the need for them. You have tons of content. You have tons of natural links. You have tons of localized spin-off sites ( http :// mybb . <insert-native-lingo-here> ). Huge community. It's more than enough to be self sufficient without backlinks.

Very good point actually. I wonder if we could re-word it in some way to make it more obvious that we provide the software only - something like "Software by MyBB"? XenForo use "Forum software by XenForo™ ©2010-2017 XenForo Ltd.", though they also have the backlink on every page.

I would be willing to rethink the backlink thing, though I doubt we'd make such a change in 1.8.x.

(2017-03-10, 01:17 PM)Lunorian Wrote: [ -> ]Denied Support a public badge of shame?
The MyBB Group has a system in place that will publically show everyone who is denied support. This should only be viewable by staff and not by the public.

It serves two main purposes:

• Explaining why the user doesn't receive official support.
  
• Giving other users the chance to decide whether they want to support a forum violating our SEP. How are they supposed to able to decide that without having the needed information?
  

Also please note there are several reasons to be denied support. For example we have a minor on this forum so banning links to forums with adult content or pornography is pretty much inevitable.

(2017-03-11, 12:55 AM)frostschutz Wrote: [ -> ]"Powered by" actually means "Hosted by" in many contexts. If you see a powered by google sites somewhere chances are it's actually hosted by google sites, too.

The wording doesn't really matter. We at MyBB.de add a backlink that says "German translation: MyBB.de" (Deutsche Übersetzung: MyBB.de) and despite an obvious note right next to our contact information we frequently receive requests to remove content from 3rd party forums. We've even received several cease and desist letters from lawyers (Abmahnungen) requesting us to pay hundreds of Euro. Not to mention a call from a police officer.
People seem to imply we run the website because we've provided the translation? I don't get it...

(2017-03-11, 12:55 AM)frostschutz Wrote: [ -> ]The backlink serves zero practical purpose. It may be harmful. Google likes natural links, it does not like unnatural, spammy, low quality links. And a link forced to appear on every page generated by MyBB is just that.

It's a pretty common practice used by many content management systems (even paid ones) and web design agencies. Considering there are similar backlinks on mostly every website I'm pretty sure Google is able to classify these links correctly.

(2017-03-11, 12:55 AM)frostschutz Wrote: [ -> ]The main reason why MyBB should stop forcing backlinks on everyone is that it has long outgrown the need for them. You have tons of content. You have tons of natural links. You have tons of localized spin-off sites ( http :// mybb . <insert-native-lingo-here> ). Huge community. It's more than enough to be self sufficient without backlinks.

And still a lot of our users discovered MyBB by using a MyBB forum as a guest or user and clicking on the backlink... It's literally the only way we advertise MyBB.

Regarding the backlink point, at this point I'd say the backlink is irrelevant for Google search rankings. As stated, Google doesn't really value these links any more, and we have a lot of natural content. The purpose of these links is to advertise to those who may want to run their own forum.