Bini Posted February 14, 2015 Report Share Posted February 14, 2015 I am literally bombarded by the vast array of options when it comes to choosing a community forum host. Some friends and I are wanting to start an online group. We need something that is easily setup and easily maintained, without much or any prior web design/programming knowledge. We can afford about a $30/month subscription fee. Does anyone have a couple recommendations for us to look at? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PolarVortex Posted February 15, 2015 Report Share Posted February 15, 2015 What specifically do you need that a free solution (e.g., Facebook or Yahoo Groups) won't give you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bini Posted February 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2015 What specifically do you need that a free solution (e.g., Facebook or Yahoo Groups) won't give you? Don't want a Facebook group, that is currently one of our outlets, we need to graduate to something bigger with more options. What does Yahoo Groups offer? We are looking for a community discussion forum layout, much alike what this site is, and other based types. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PolarVortex Posted February 15, 2015 Report Share Posted February 15, 2015 Yahoo Groups is similar to an online forum. Wikipedia has a good description: "Yahoo! Groups is one of the world’s largest collections of online discussion boards. The term Groups refers to Internet communication which is a hybrid between an electronic mailing list and a threaded Internet forum, in other words, Group messages can be read and posted by e-mail or on the Group's webpage like a web forum." Members can post messages, which are then posted to a common area that all other members can browse. IIRC, members can set up their account to have all new messages emailed directly to them, or have a single daily update mail with all new messages from that day, or no email notification at all. It can be closed so the messages are not visible to the public. I don't believe you can use it for commercial purposes, though. It's good for some small clubs, like a 50-member hiking club that wants to publicize upcoming events or do simple discussion. You can just go to groups.yahoo.com and set up a group with 3 or 4 test members and try it out. If you decide you don't like it, just delete it and move on. I'm not a huge fan of Yahoo stuff, but I know several nonprofit organizations that use Yahoo Groups a lot. The big advantage is that it's free and very easy to use. Good luck... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelMarvel Posted February 15, 2015 Report Share Posted February 15, 2015 (edited) I owe a graphics forum that has a ton of options. I purchase my domain and hosting through lunarpages. Cost about $200 a year. That's with the domain name, hosting, recovery database, help desk. You can check out my forum here... and see if it's what you are looking for.http://www.marvelousartworks.com There are forums there that you can't see because they are hidden forums for student lessons and debate forums. You can also add sub forums... like I have a testboard, a healthy living forum, and another forum for my sissy to do her own thing on. They are not part of my real forum...but based off of it. And, there is no extra charge for it. Edited February 15, 2015 by AngelMarvel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HawaiianShirts Posted February 15, 2015 Report Share Posted February 15, 2015 I used https://www.proboards.com/ to make two different forums for my workplace. We host various data reporting tools, two of which are online, and now users can more easily communicate with each other and with tech support through the forums. ProBoards is easy to use if you like the basic features. It can get complicated if you want it to, but it's not necessary. I've been able to manage both forums with only the basic features. I didn't even have to think about HTML customization, let alone consider the paid-for premium features. It's got a fun avatar tool, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelMarvel Posted February 15, 2015 Report Share Posted February 15, 2015 But if you go Proboards for free... you get all the advertisements all over the place. But, if you don't mind the adverts...then it is a good board to go with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 16, 2015 Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 Dunno what you are really looking for... but you can check out vBulletin.com to make something like lds.net. As far as my friends... we use the iphone group text feature to talk back and forth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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