yuku

Yuku is a brand name that has been used for several products and services, most notably an online forum hosting platform that allowed communities to create and manage discussion boards without running their own server software. The platform targeted non-technical users and emphasized ease of setup, moderation, and social features within a hosted environment.

The Yuku service offered standard forum capabilities such as board creation, multiple forums under a single account, threaded discussions, and user accounts with profiles. It provided moderation tools, including roles for administrators and moderators, post approval workflows, and user management. In addition, it supported features like private messaging, polls, file attachments, search, and theme customization, along with mobile-friendly access and basic social integrations.

History and status: Yuku emerged in the mid-2000s as a hosted alternative to self-hosted forum software and competing platforms. It attracted a range of communities, from hobby groups to fan clubs, by offering an easy-to-use interface and turnkey forum management. Over time, shifts in the online forum ecosystem, changes in ownership, and increased competition led to changes in the service’s prominence. By the late 2010s and into the 2020s, the original hosted Yuku platform diminished in prominence, with many communities migrating to other platforms or self-hosted solutions. Archived content and forum migrations remain as remnants of the service.

See also: related forum platforms such as ezboard, ProBoards, VBulletin, and other hosted or self-hosted forum software.