This list is meant to compare and contrast ezboard and Yuku features, as well as point out the benefits and downsides of both. You will also find instructions
for where things have been moved that are similar/the same as features that were once on ezboard and are now on Yuku (this may be helpful for those who have
just migrated to Yuku and are lost). If you have questions or suggestions on what to add to this, feel free to private message me...
Blue text refers to the way things are on ezboard, and regular grey text is the way things are on Yuku.
new thread/add reply
- to make a new thread (topic) on ezboard, you go to a board, click on a forum, then click "new topic" in the upper right hand region of the page.On ezboard, a box comes up with bold, italic, underline, typeface, font color, font size, add image, add link, add e-mail, quote, center, code, horizontal line and emoticon options. On Yuku, a WYSIWYG editor (which is different from what ezboard has - WYSIWYG allows you to see the changes you make to your post live, rather than with confusing codes). This editor has font color, font size, typeface, font background color, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, left align, center align, right align, indent, outdent, quote, remove formatting, number list, bullet list, horizontal line, add a link/remove a link, add a picture, add a picture from Photobucket, emoticon, insert flash, HTML mode, and spellcheck (yes, it works) options. The new features are italicized, and almost all of these have been improved from ezboard.
Add reply has the above options on both ezboard and Yuku as well.
- With ezboard, threads are not marked read unless specifically marked as read, while Yuku marks threads you read as read.1
personal signature
- ezboard allows 1 signature per username, while Yuku allows a total of 5.
- on ezboard, ezCodes or plain text may be used; on Yuku, plain text, WYSIWYG editor, or HTML.
- ezboard requires you to access your signature via My Control Center > Account Preferences, while the edit signature page on Yuku is accessed with two clicks; one to open the Navigation bar > edit signature.
- Yuku allows users to change signatures within posts.
edit profile
- To alter contents of your profile, on ezboard you would go to My Control Center > Edit Profile, make changes, and then you would have to click the View Profile link to see the changes in action. With Yuku, simply open the Navigation bar and click either "edit layout" or "view profile".
- Edit layout: This page allows you to move the "blocks", or boxes, of your profile around by literally dragging each box to where you want it to be placed. This was not an option on ezboard.
- View profile: This is where you alter the actual contents of your profile. Your name, about yourself, your favorite links; whatever you like can be changed on this page. Click "edit" above the box you want to change the content of. This is also where you can activate restrictions on who can view the content.
my photo/personal avatar
- To edit your avatar on ezboard, you have to go to My Control Center > Edit Profile, and then enter the URL into the "my photo" textarea. With Yuku, all that is needed is a visit to your main profile page (http://yourname.u.yuku.com) which you can reach by opening the Navigation bar and clicking "view profile". Then you click on the avatar that is currently on your profile, next to your name, age, gender, etc. This will bring up a page of avatars you have uploaded to your profile.
- If you have not uploaded any yet, you can do so here. All of the avatars on all of the usernames you use are automatically placed in this area. Select which one you would like to change to by clicking on it.
- You cannot link to an avatar by inputting a URL; this is so that the avatar is never removed from the host, which leaves unsightly red Xs.
switching usernames/profiles
- With Yuku, you can switch profiles (usernames) by opening the Navigation bar and clicking the "switch profiles" button at the very top. A window will come up asking which profile you would like to switch to.
- You can also switch profile names when making a post, just as it is on ezboard.
recent posts
- To view your recent posts, open the Navigation bar and a list will be right in the center. With ezboard, you go to My Control Center and then view a list of your six most recent posts. You can also activate a special box in your profile that will publicly show your last posts, as you can do on ezboard with your profile.
- You can view a much longer list of this by clicking "more | manage".
comments
- To see the last comments you made on someone's profile, open the Navigation bar and click "Comments" under the "Recent Posts" tab. This will bring up a list of profiles, along with the dates, that you last commented on. This feature is not available on ezboard.
- To make a comment on someone's profile, visit their profile and click the link "Leave a comment". Some people may not have this block enabled, however, or the link "Leave a comment" may be worded differently depending on the profile. This feature is not available on ezboard.
community memberships
- To view the list of your Yuku community memberships, open the Navigation bar > click Communities > My Communities. You can click on "more | manage" from there to delete community memberships (or opt out of community e-mails) and rearrange the list that appears under this tab. With ezboard, click on My Control Center > Community Memberships.
- This section also doubles as what used to be "My Favorites" in My Control Center. You can arrange which order you would like these communities to show up on in the list. "My Favorites" on ezboard is buggy and often links are overwritten when a new one is added, when they shouldn't be. The idea behind this feature, however, is that you could create a list of your favorite communities, to have a quick links area right in your control center.
- You can also view a list of communities you have recently visited by opening the Navigation bar > Communities > Recently Visited. A list of five of these is available in My Control Center, but these cannot be deleted as they can in Yuku.
friends
- On Yuku, if you choose, you can connect yourself to other profiles by "requesting to be their friend." Making this request creates a "friends list" (which you can reach by opening the Navigation bar > Friends). this list can be used to keep track of your friends/acquaintances profiles; it can be used to create a list of people that you feel comfortable viewing certain blocks in your profile, thus allowing you to put more private information in your profile but to set it to "friends only" so that only a limited number of people may view it; or you can enable the "friends block" in your profile, and all of these names and their avatars will show up on it, showing everyone who your friends are and getting their profiles traffic. This feature is not available on ezboard, although one can set up a "friends list" that keeps track of names a user commonly PMs if they have ezSupporter (My Control Center > Friends).
- To request to be someone's friend, simply visit their profile and click the button that says "Friend". The person you ask will then need to confirm/deny this request. This feature is not available on ezboard.
- To accept a Yuku friend request, look along the navigation bar at the top of this page for a little icon that looks like this:
. The number to the immediate right of it indicates the number of incoming friend
requests you have. Click the number to view them. This feature is not available on ezboard.
kudos
- the kudos system is a new concept for many ezboard immigrants, having not had this feature on ezboard. A kudo can be given by clicking on a person's username and viewing their profile; then, clicking the "Kudos" link on the left hand side of the page. A kudo might be given to someone for whatever reason you like, but basically it is just a nice little point that goes into someone's kudo count, which moves them higher or lower on the kudos hall of fame. The kudos hall of fame showcases all of the people with the highest kudo counts.
- kudos can be earned in other ways; some are gained based on secret formulas that only developers know, some are from direct invites to Yuku, some are from having a certain amount of friends on your friends list.
- the kudos count on your profile CAN be hidden if you do not wish to participate in the kudos feature. (Navigation bar >> edit skins >> WYSIWYG next to your active profile skin >> Miniprofile tab >> scroll down; click hide under "kudos")
- kudos can also be given to posts that you like, and these add to the count of the topic starter's kudo count.
private message (PM) system
- to view your PMs, either (a) click the following icon on the navigation bar:
, or open the Navigation bar > Inbox. This will take you to all of your PMs, and they will be color-coded
by unread or read. To reach your inbox on ezboard, click on My Control Center >
Inbox. New messages are bolded, but not color-coded, and they cannot be expanded/contracted as with Yuku.
- composing a message on Yuku can be done by opening the Navigation bar > Write message. From here you can add a CC or BCC (just as with e-mail, CC sends a copy to another person with their name visible; BCC sends a copy to another person without their name showing) and write your message using the WYSIWYG editor. You can also switch usernames while writing a message here. To compose a message on ezboard, go to My Control Center > Send a Message.
forum tools
- with ezboard, when tools are needed to manage a forum (close topic, sticky topic, feature topic, reopen topic, move, delete topic), an admin or mod checks the boxes next to the topics they want to alter and scrolls to the bottom of the page to access the "Choose an action" dropdown list.copy, feature, unfeature, hide, and merge (new features italicized). This dropdown is also at the top of the page in addition to the bottom.
- Stickied topics do not change order when new replies are added to them on ezboard, however on Yuku they do.1
social bookmarks
- this feature allows users to submit threads, forums, and message board to a list of social bookmarking websites. This can help promote your board, and is entirely optional and removable.
- this feature is not available on ezboard.
search
- Yuku has a search feature that can be used in simple, intuitive ways or for complicated tasks. The simple search bar can have its appearance altered with CSS and is useful for quickly looking for something. Clicking "advanced search" leads to a page which allows a user to check which forums he or she might want to search in exclusively, search by keyword and username, sorts posts by relevance or date, and if desired, excludes posts from particular dates.
- ezboard has a search feature that is bug-ridden and is full of strange quirks; it allows users to search by username, keyword, and in subject or body.
forum specific skins
- On ezboard you're limited to different colors/images/buttons in each forum and with a great deal of effort and complex javascript you could manage to put different html in different forums. On Yuku you can apply skins - colours, images, buttons AND any html you like - to different forums with the click of a button (click apply, then check each forum you want that specific skin to go in).
- Posticons and emoticons/smilies can also be installed to individual forums.
changing default forum text
- On ezboard you can't without javascript, and you are limited to it working for only one browser, IE. On Yuku you can change any of the default text on your board from "whosonline" to interact menu options, just by entering the text in the "edit labels" page. It works for all users and it's not just for foreign language boards, you can replace it with text to suit your board.
my community / admin control panel
- To access your admin control panel, visit the board you want to make changes to and click the "Admin" link in the navigation bar at the top (next to "Support" and "Find"). This will bring up a table of different options, laid out in a logical way.
- Everything from "Security Settings" on ezboard, in your My Community area, can now be found in "Security Options" but with even more options than before.
- Everything from "General Settings" on ezboard, in your My Community area (with the exception of time settings), can now be found in "Community Info". An option for a community avatar has been added here as well.
- The time settings from "General Settings" and "Feature Settings" on ezboard can now be found in "Display Preferences", with many more options possible.
- "Member Management" from ezboard is spread out in the big box on the top left of the Yuku main admin control panel page, with so many more options than ezboard they are not going to be listed here. Visit the gethelp FAQs section to find FAQs on the new member management system if you need help.
- "Custom Colors" and "Custom Images" are now "WYSIWYG" and "Images" respectively, on the "Community Customized Skins" page. WYSIWYG is similar to custom colors but it shows you changes as soon as you press the "preview" button, so it is very much improved over the "custom colors" section. There are many more options in "images" for new buttons and icons, but they are not all required.
- "Custom HTML" can be found by clicking "edit" on the "Community Customized Skins" page.
- "Theme Management" has been expanded drastically; Yuku has a large skin library with more professional looking skins. Because of the way Yuku is coded, the possibilities for design are massive and therefore complex, artful skins are possible to create. Click on "Yuku Skin Library" to view this. ezdesign's Yuku skin library has some Yuku skins as well that are not in the official library. On ezboard only communities with Gold status could export TDFs - with Yuku any board can export/import XML files (basically Yuku's answer to TDFs) at the click of a button.
This is the same as with Yuku, unless there is a subforum you want to post in - in which case, click the subforum's link and click "new topic" or "new thread". On Yuku an admin or mod does the same; however, there are many more options. These include stick, unstick, close, open, delete, move, moving a forum into a different category
Ezboard:
Click on my control center
click on my community
click on the forum name
click on forum general settings
select category from the dropdown
click save changes
click arrange forums and categories
change the number in front of the forum to move it up or down within the category
click save changes.
ezboard: 9 clicks
yuku: 3 clicks
Yuku
click admin menu
click forum and chat management
drag and drop the forum in its new location
viewing your members
Ezboard
click my control center
click my community
click member management
click view
Yuku
click admin
click members
ezboard: 4 clicks
yuku: 2 clicks
denying a member access to one specific (public) forum
ezboard: impossible
yuku: possible
preset individual forum permissions for invited members who have not posted on the board yet
ezboard: impossible
Yuku: possible
1 - Thanks, Professor Tibble!
Blue text refers to the way things are on ezboard, and regular grey text is the way things are on Yuku.
new thread/add reply
- to make a new thread (topic) on ezboard, you go to a board, click on a forum, then click "new topic" in the upper right hand region of the page.On ezboard, a box comes up with bold, italic, underline, typeface, font color, font size, add image, add link, add e-mail, quote, center, code, horizontal line and emoticon options. On Yuku, a WYSIWYG editor (which is different from what ezboard has - WYSIWYG allows you to see the changes you make to your post live, rather than with confusing codes). This editor has font color, font size, typeface, font background color, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, left align, center align, right align, indent, outdent, quote, remove formatting, number list, bullet list, horizontal line, add a link/remove a link, add a picture, add a picture from Photobucket, emoticon, insert flash, HTML mode, and spellcheck (yes, it works) options. The new features are italicized, and almost all of these have been improved from ezboard.
Add reply has the above options on both ezboard and Yuku as well.
- With ezboard, threads are not marked read unless specifically marked as read, while Yuku marks threads you read as read.1
personal signature
- ezboard allows 1 signature per username, while Yuku allows a total of 5.
- on ezboard, ezCodes or plain text may be used; on Yuku, plain text, WYSIWYG editor, or HTML.
- ezboard requires you to access your signature via My Control Center > Account Preferences, while the edit signature page on Yuku is accessed with two clicks; one to open the Navigation bar > edit signature.
- Yuku allows users to change signatures within posts.
edit profile
- To alter contents of your profile, on ezboard you would go to My Control Center > Edit Profile, make changes, and then you would have to click the View Profile link to see the changes in action. With Yuku, simply open the Navigation bar and click either "edit layout" or "view profile".
- Edit layout: This page allows you to move the "blocks", or boxes, of your profile around by literally dragging each box to where you want it to be placed. This was not an option on ezboard.
- View profile: This is where you alter the actual contents of your profile. Your name, about yourself, your favorite links; whatever you like can be changed on this page. Click "edit" above the box you want to change the content of. This is also where you can activate restrictions on who can view the content.
my photo/personal avatar
- To edit your avatar on ezboard, you have to go to My Control Center > Edit Profile, and then enter the URL into the "my photo" textarea. With Yuku, all that is needed is a visit to your main profile page (http://yourname.u.yuku.com) which you can reach by opening the Navigation bar and clicking "view profile". Then you click on the avatar that is currently on your profile, next to your name, age, gender, etc. This will bring up a page of avatars you have uploaded to your profile.
- If you have not uploaded any yet, you can do so here. All of the avatars on all of the usernames you use are automatically placed in this area. Select which one you would like to change to by clicking on it.
- You cannot link to an avatar by inputting a URL; this is so that the avatar is never removed from the host, which leaves unsightly red Xs.
switching usernames/profiles
- With Yuku, you can switch profiles (usernames) by opening the Navigation bar and clicking the "switch profiles" button at the very top. A window will come up asking which profile you would like to switch to.
- You can also switch profile names when making a post, just as it is on ezboard.
recent posts
- To view your recent posts, open the Navigation bar and a list will be right in the center. With ezboard, you go to My Control Center and then view a list of your six most recent posts. You can also activate a special box in your profile that will publicly show your last posts, as you can do on ezboard with your profile.
- You can view a much longer list of this by clicking "more | manage".
comments
- To see the last comments you made on someone's profile, open the Navigation bar and click "Comments" under the "Recent Posts" tab. This will bring up a list of profiles, along with the dates, that you last commented on. This feature is not available on ezboard.
- To make a comment on someone's profile, visit their profile and click the link "Leave a comment". Some people may not have this block enabled, however, or the link "Leave a comment" may be worded differently depending on the profile. This feature is not available on ezboard.
community memberships
- To view the list of your Yuku community memberships, open the Navigation bar > click Communities > My Communities. You can click on "more | manage" from there to delete community memberships (or opt out of community e-mails) and rearrange the list that appears under this tab. With ezboard, click on My Control Center > Community Memberships.
- This section also doubles as what used to be "My Favorites" in My Control Center. You can arrange which order you would like these communities to show up on in the list. "My Favorites" on ezboard is buggy and often links are overwritten when a new one is added, when they shouldn't be. The idea behind this feature, however, is that you could create a list of your favorite communities, to have a quick links area right in your control center.
- You can also view a list of communities you have recently visited by opening the Navigation bar > Communities > Recently Visited. A list of five of these is available in My Control Center, but these cannot be deleted as they can in Yuku.
friends
- On Yuku, if you choose, you can connect yourself to other profiles by "requesting to be their friend." Making this request creates a "friends list" (which you can reach by opening the Navigation bar > Friends). this list can be used to keep track of your friends/acquaintances profiles; it can be used to create a list of people that you feel comfortable viewing certain blocks in your profile, thus allowing you to put more private information in your profile but to set it to "friends only" so that only a limited number of people may view it; or you can enable the "friends block" in your profile, and all of these names and their avatars will show up on it, showing everyone who your friends are and getting their profiles traffic. This feature is not available on ezboard, although one can set up a "friends list" that keeps track of names a user commonly PMs if they have ezSupporter (My Control Center > Friends).
- To request to be someone's friend, simply visit their profile and click the button that says "Friend". The person you ask will then need to confirm/deny this request. This feature is not available on ezboard.
- To accept a Yuku friend request, look along the navigation bar at the top of this page for a little icon that looks like this:
. The number to the immediate right of it indicates the number of incoming friend
requests you have. Click the number to view them. This feature is not available on ezboard.
kudos
- the kudos system is a new concept for many ezboard immigrants, having not had this feature on ezboard. A kudo can be given by clicking on a person's username and viewing their profile; then, clicking the "Kudos" link on the left hand side of the page. A kudo might be given to someone for whatever reason you like, but basically it is just a nice little point that goes into someone's kudo count, which moves them higher or lower on the kudos hall of fame. The kudos hall of fame showcases all of the people with the highest kudo counts.
- kudos can be earned in other ways; some are gained based on secret formulas that only developers know, some are from direct invites to Yuku, some are from having a certain amount of friends on your friends list.
- the kudos count on your profile CAN be hidden if you do not wish to participate in the kudos feature. (Navigation bar >> edit skins >> WYSIWYG next to your active profile skin >> Miniprofile tab >> scroll down; click hide under "kudos")
- kudos can also be given to posts that you like, and these add to the count of the topic starter's kudo count.
private message (PM) system
- to view your PMs, either (a) click the following icon on the navigation bar:
, or open the Navigation bar > Inbox. This will take you to all of your PMs, and they will be color-coded
by unread or read. To reach your inbox on ezboard, click on My Control Center >
Inbox. New messages are bolded, but not color-coded, and they cannot be expanded/contracted as with Yuku.
- composing a message on Yuku can be done by opening the Navigation bar > Write message. From here you can add a CC or BCC (just as with e-mail, CC sends a copy to another person with their name visible; BCC sends a copy to another person without their name showing) and write your message using the WYSIWYG editor. You can also switch usernames while writing a message here. To compose a message on ezboard, go to My Control Center > Send a Message.
forum tools
- with ezboard, when tools are needed to manage a forum (close topic, sticky topic, feature topic, reopen topic, move, delete topic), an admin or mod checks the boxes next to the topics they want to alter and scrolls to the bottom of the page to access the "Choose an action" dropdown list.copy, feature, unfeature, hide, and merge (new features italicized). This dropdown is also at the top of the page in addition to the bottom.
- Stickied topics do not change order when new replies are added to them on ezboard, however on Yuku they do.1
social bookmarks
- this feature allows users to submit threads, forums, and message board to a list of social bookmarking websites. This can help promote your board, and is entirely optional and removable.
- this feature is not available on ezboard.
search
- Yuku has a search feature that can be used in simple, intuitive ways or for complicated tasks. The simple search bar can have its appearance altered with CSS and is useful for quickly looking for something. Clicking "advanced search" leads to a page which allows a user to check which forums he or she might want to search in exclusively, search by keyword and username, sorts posts by relevance or date, and if desired, excludes posts from particular dates.
- ezboard has a search feature that is bug-ridden and is full of strange quirks; it allows users to search by username, keyword, and in subject or body.
forum specific skins
- On ezboard you're limited to different colors/images/buttons in each forum and with a great deal of effort and complex javascript you could manage to put different html in different forums. On Yuku you can apply skins - colours, images, buttons AND any html you like - to different forums with the click of a button (click apply, then check each forum you want that specific skin to go in).
- Posticons and emoticons/smilies can also be installed to individual forums.
changing default forum text
- On ezboard you can't without javascript, and you are limited to it working for only one browser, IE. On Yuku you can change any of the default text on your board from "whosonline" to interact menu options, just by entering the text in the "edit labels" page. It works for all users and it's not just for foreign language boards, you can replace it with text to suit your board.
my community / admin control panel
- To access your admin control panel, visit the board you want to make changes to and click the "Admin" link in the navigation bar at the top (next to "Support" and "Find"). This will bring up a table of different options, laid out in a logical way.
- Everything from "Security Settings" on ezboard, in your My Community area, can now be found in "Security Options" but with even more options than before.
- Everything from "General Settings" on ezboard, in your My Community area (with the exception of time settings), can now be found in "Community Info". An option for a community avatar has been added here as well.
- The time settings from "General Settings" and "Feature Settings" on ezboard can now be found in "Display Preferences", with many more options possible.
- "Member Management" from ezboard is spread out in the big box on the top left of the Yuku main admin control panel page, with so many more options than ezboard they are not going to be listed here. Visit the gethelp FAQs section to find FAQs on the new member management system if you need help.
- "Custom Colors" and "Custom Images" are now "WYSIWYG" and "Images" respectively, on the "Community Customized Skins" page. WYSIWYG is similar to custom colors but it shows you changes as soon as you press the "preview" button, so it is very much improved over the "custom colors" section. There are many more options in "images" for new buttons and icons, but they are not all required.
- "Custom HTML" can be found by clicking "edit" on the "Community Customized Skins" page.
- "Theme Management" has been expanded drastically; Yuku has a large skin library with more professional looking skins. Because of the way Yuku is coded, the possibilities for design are massive and therefore complex, artful skins are possible to create. Click on "Yuku Skin Library" to view this. ezdesign's Yuku skin library has some Yuku skins as well that are not in the official library. On ezboard only communities with Gold status could export TDFs - with Yuku any board can export/import XML files (basically Yuku's answer to TDFs) at the click of a button.
This is the same as with Yuku, unless there is a subforum you want to post in - in which case, click the subforum's link and click "new topic" or "new thread". On Yuku an admin or mod does the same; however, there are many more options. These include stick, unstick, close, open, delete, move, moving a forum into a different category
Ezboard:
Click on my control center
click on my community
click on the forum name
click on forum general settings
select category from the dropdown
click save changes
click arrange forums and categories
change the number in front of the forum to move it up or down within the category
click save changes.
ezboard: 9 clicks
yuku: 3 clicks
Yuku
click admin menu
click forum and chat management
drag and drop the forum in its new location
viewing your members
Ezboard
click my control center
click my community
click member management
click view
Yuku
click admin
click members
ezboard: 4 clicks
yuku: 2 clicks
denying a member access to one specific (public) forum
ezboard: impossible
yuku: possible
preset individual forum permissions for invited members who have not posted on the board yet
ezboard: impossible
Yuku: possible
1 - Thanks, Professor Tibble!
