View source for Yuku

{{Distinguish|Youku}}
{{short description|Hosted internet forum}}
{{Infobox website
| url          = {{URL|http://www.yuku.com/}}
| commercial   = Yes
| type         = Hosted [[Internet forum]]s
| registration = Required
| owner        = [[Tapatalk]]
| author       = [[ezboard]]
| launch_date  = {{start date and age|2005|9}} (alpha)<br>{{start date|2006|9}} (beta)<br>{{start date|2008|1}} (public release)
}}

'''Yuku'''<ref>[http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/names/abornames2.htm Aboriginal words]</ref> was an upgraded version of [[ezboard| ezboard, Inc.]]'s internet forums. Yuku described itself as "Message Boards 2.0".<ref>[http://www.yuku.com/ Message Boards 2.0 - Yuku<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> This tagline was most likely derived from the [[Web 2.0]] features of Yuku message boards, such as [[Tag (metadata)|tags]] and [[RSS]].

Yuku ceased to exist as a separate entity in 2017, following an acquisition by [[Tapatalk]] and subsequent migration to the Tapatalk platform.

==History==

Yuku was first revealed at DEMOfall 2005<ref>[http://www.demo.com/demonstrators/demo2005fall/55021.php DEMOfall - ezboard, Inc.]</ref> in September 2005, at which time it was in [[Software release life cycle#Alpha|alpha]]

<!-- Image with unknown copyright status removed: [[Image:Message-board-2.0-yuku.jpg|thumb|Message Boards 2.0, Yuku.com|{{deletable image-caption|1=Friday, 20 February 2009}}]] -->
At the DEMOfall launch, Robert Labatt (CEO of ezboard, Inc.) explained that advertising revenues would be shared with the individual board owners. Labatt estimated that "an average large community" could receive $3,000 to $5,000 (speculated) a month. The launch was reported by media outlets such as [[Computerworld]], [[USA Today]], [[Bloomberg L.P.|Bloomberg]] and [[CNN Money]].

More [[Product demonstration|demos]] were given at the New York City BlogOn 2005 event<ref>[http://www.blogonevent.com/blogon2005/exhibitors/ BlogOn 2005 - The Business of Social Media]</ref> where it was selected as a "BlogOn 2005 Social Media Innovator". Another demonstration was given in November 2006 at a monthly technology networking event in San Francisco: SFWIN 1.10. Instead of the revenue feature mentioned at DEMOfall 2005, only combining message boards and blogs with multiple profiles per person were discussed.

Yuku was acquired by [[KickApps]] on February 13, 2008,<ref>[http://support.yuku.com/topic/6031/t/A-new-chapter-in-the-Yuku-Story.html A new chapter in the Yuku Story]</ref> and later sold to Inform Technologies Inc. on December 24, 2010.

On September 8, 2011, Crowdgather, Inc. publicly announced acquiring the domain name, website and assets related to yuku.com including the ezboard domains and its integrated forums.<ref>[http://www.marketwatch.com/story/crowdgather-grows-monthly-traffic-by-50-through-purchase-of-yukucom-2011-09-08 Acquired by CrowdGather]</ref> Then in 2016, Yuku was acquired by [[Tapatalk]], which migrated the contents of all its boards to their own platform in July 2017 and switched from a forum to a group style of format.

==Pricing==
As with [[ezboard]], free Yuku boards are supported through [[advertisement]]s.

==Features==
Some of the key features of Yuku are listed below.

===Profiles, message boards and blogs===
Yuku's user profiles are interactive and similar to those at other [[Social Networking]] web sites. Friends can be added or removed, comments can be posted, and private messages exchanged between users. Each account offers the possibility of having five profiles.

Profiles, message boards and blogs can be personalized via pre-made themes in the skins library, or custom-built using [[HTML]] and [[Cascading Style Sheets|CSS]]. The ''Mini Profile'' provides basic user information, e.g. name, location, age etc. The rest of the profile comprises blocks that can be turned on, moved up and down, or removed.

The available blocks include a location block, which displays the location of the user's [[Internet service provider|ISP]] using [[Google Maps]]; favorite links; media; blog; tags; friends; recent posts; comments; and empty blocks, which can be customised using HTML.

===Image hosting===
Each user gets 30MB of free image hosting, with 100MB of image hosting available for paid accounts. The profiles offer members image galleries with slideshows.

===Points===
Kudos was changed to points in September 2010. Points, earlier called kudos, forms the basis of a simple [[reputation system]]. User-based points is accumulated across Yuku - it is not specific to individual boards. Topic-based points allows users to give positive ratings to good topics. This also gives a small fraction of points to the user who started the topic.

The Yuku Hall of Fame<ref>[http://yuku-team.u.yuku.com/vote/top/t/The-Top-Profiles.html The Yuku Hall of Fame – Top Profiles<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> shows the top 100 profiles on Yuku, ordered by points.

===Tags===
Tags are search terms that can be added to topics. Tags make it easier to find topics on certain subjects. They are an alternate way to search for information, as they will only show topics if the word you are looking for was used as a tag.

===Feature voting===
[[Image:Yuku1.gif|thumb|Feature Voting, Yuku.com]]
The Feature Voter<ref>[http://support.yuku.com/feedback/viewitems/ Login to Yuku: - Yuku<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> allows users to vote on which features will be developed in the future. [[Photobucket]] integration is an example of a feature that was developed ahead of other features based on user feedback.

==Technology==
Server-side processing is handled via [[PHP]]. On the client-side, Yuku makes heavy use of [[Ajax (programming)|Ajax]]. With JavaScript disabled, Yuku is still functional, but some features are simplified. For example, rather than a [[WYSIWYG]] posting editor, non-javascript users are presented with a simple [[Text box|text area]] instead. As some menus are hidden using JavaScript, these are displayed in full.

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Portal|San Francisco Bay Area|Internet}}
* {{Official site|http://www.yuku.com/}}

[[Category:Internet forum hosting]]
[[Category:American social networking websites]]
[[Category:Companies based in San Francisco]]
[[Category:Internet properties established in 2005]]
[[Category:Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area]]
[[Category:Software companies of the United States]]