ProBoards Free Forum History
1999
ProBoards' pioneering young founder, Patrick Clinger, begins developing the original ProBoards free forum software V1 (version 1) from the quiet confines of his home, coding furiously into the wee hours of many a long night.
2000
The legend is born. January 1, 2000 recorded as the official launch date of ProBoards Free Forum Hosting. On January 20, 2000, the very first ProBoards Support Forum is put into action fielding support requests from numerous early message board enthusiasts.
2001
ProBoards acquires licensing from message board software developer YaBB (Yet Another Bulletin Board) thus converting ProBoards from a "nested" forum structure to a "flat" forum configuration (aka "modern" forum design).
2002
In the pursuit of excellence, our fearless leader (Patrick) takes it upon himself to re-write the forum software from the ground up. Mid-year 2002, after several hectic months of work, ProBoards V2 is released to the unsuspecting masses, bringing with it vastly improved processing speeds and functionality.
2003
February 2003 marks the registration of the 1 millionth ProBoards free forum account created. Ever the perfectionist, Patrick reverts to commando developer mode and revamps ProBoards' V2 message board software resulting in the creation and deployment of ProBoards V3. V3 offers vast improvements to processing speed as well as the addition of 30 entirely new forum features for members to enjoy.
2004
Early 2004, ProBoards continues to see phenomenal growth and is now responsible for the secure hosting of over 500,000 active message boards. Later that year, the number of hosted free forums skyrockets to over 1 million. Meeting the service demands of a rapidly expanding forum community becomes the challenge.
2005
ProBoards continues to improve on its forum hosting software resulting in the mid-year release of V4, bringing with it a host of new features to an appreciative community of forum owners. With over 100 enhancements, ProBoards V4 represents a quantum advance in the functionality of free message boards and spurs additional, phenomenal growth in forum account creation.
2008
Flashing forward to 2008. ProBoards releases the next big advance in free forum hosting; ProBoards V4.5, codenamed Blue Dragon. While V4.5 enhancements were primarily to the "back-end," improvements to performance, functionality and ease-of-use were readily apparent to ProBoards' message board aficionados.
2009
While V4.5 brought much needed technological improvement, bigger things were in the works. Development on the ProBoards V5 forum software begins, promising to revolutionize the online forum through the integration of AJAX, Web 2.0 technology, and the functionality of a traditional message board.
2010
It's official. ProBoards has opened it's first office. As of January 2010, ProBoards is joining the local Orange County business community with the opening of our office in beautiful Lake Forest, California.
2012
Still going strong and getting better every day. Here we are, 12 years later and now with 12 full-time team members. Serving over 700 MILLION page loads a month, ProBoards has grown to monumental proportions boasting membership from every corner of the planet. Moreover, as of this writing, we're on schedule for the release later this year of ProBoards V5, an evolution in forum software that we anticipate will transform the Internet community's expectations of forum software forever.