Thinking out loud - any way to set up private business forum
Discussion
Not enough room in the title box for it not to sound too dodgy or weird.
As a business owner, I often find myself brainstorming ideas with my wife/friends/family or come on here and ask what are often noddy questions. Sometimes, it would be preferable that these questions are not viewable for ever more on the web. They are things that, if found by potential customers or competitors etc, they may well feel that I should already know.
To that end, I was wondering if there is a platform that allows groups of people to get a forum set up whereby membership has to be approved. Something really simple would be ideal. I was thinking of just using Google Drive for it but if lots of people were in the group and lots of topics were underway simultaneously, it might get a bit messy.
So thoughts?
As a business owner, I often find myself brainstorming ideas with my wife/friends/family or come on here and ask what are often noddy questions. Sometimes, it would be preferable that these questions are not viewable for ever more on the web. They are things that, if found by potential customers or competitors etc, they may well feel that I should already know.
To that end, I was wondering if there is a platform that allows groups of people to get a forum set up whereby membership has to be approved. Something really simple would be ideal. I was thinking of just using Google Drive for it but if lots of people were in the group and lots of topics were underway simultaneously, it might get a bit messy.
So thoughts?
I'm a member of something similar for Baptist Pastors. Members are in the UK and US and we talk about pastoral matters and bare our souls so obviously it needs to be completely private.
I have no idea about the technicalities but apparently it is powered by something called phpBB. Look it up on wikipedia.
I have no idea about the technicalities but apparently it is powered by something called phpBB. Look it up on wikipedia.
Facebook Private groups or Google Plus private communities will be good for this.
Nothing to set up really, just invite the members and get involved.
Most people are on Facebook, a lot of technical IT type guys are on Google Plus - pick the one that most of your group are using regularly.
Nothing to set up really, just invite the members and get involved.
Most people are on Facebook, a lot of technical IT type guys are on Google Plus - pick the one that most of your group are using regularly.
A Facebook group would be by far the simplest and most cost effective way to do this.
If you had any aspirations of this in itself turning into a business venture then you don't want to be on Facebooks platform... you want to own it outright. So that involves buying a domain name / web hosting / forum software. This could leave you with something which basically looked like Pistonheads forums but completely locked down to non members.
If you had any aspirations of this in itself turning into a business venture then you don't want to be on Facebooks platform... you want to own it outright. So that involves buying a domain name / web hosting / forum software. This could leave you with something which basically looked like Pistonheads forums but completely locked down to non members.
Worth bearing in mind there are a lot of people who don't want to give our information to Facebook. I'd join a privately-hosted form but I wouldn't sign up to Facebook or Google+ under any circumstances. I'm only on Linkedin because there's nothing really personal on there that isn't available from public records and even then it's locked down hard.
illmonkey said:
Maybe start it up with a free tinfoil hat for members.
They only want to track you to post relevant adverts.
Would you rather have irrelevant adverts? I'd rather see adverts for sports cars and fitness products than porcelain unicorns, nappies and T-shirts with wolves on.
I'd rather see no adverts at all 
Feel free to mock but I'd rather have information out there that I choose to share rather than the reams of it being collected, collated and saved to 'profile' me and over which I have no say. Once the information is out there, there's no getting it back and it worries me how little people seem to value it.
Feel free to mock but I'd rather have information out there that I choose to share rather than the reams of it being collected, collated and saved to 'profile' me and over which I have no say. Once the information is out there, there's no getting it back and it worries me how little people seem to value it.
Funk said:
Worth bearing in mind there are a lot of people who don't want to give our information to Facebook. I'd join a privately-hosted form but I wouldn't sign up to Facebook or Google+ under any circumstances. .
Then don't give them your information. If its for a specific group then why not just create a FB account to access it, nobody is making you upload daily selfies or pics of your cat etc. Its no more or less work than creating a forum account so if I wanted access I wouldn't let it being on FB get in the way...Funk said:
I'd rather see no adverts at all
Feel free to mock but I'd rather have information out there that I choose to share rather than the reams of it being collected, collated and saved to 'profile' me and over which I have no say. Once the information is out there, there's no getting it back and it worries me how little people seem to value it.
Have you ever used Google?Feel free to mock but I'd rather have information out there that I choose to share rather than the reams of it being collected, collated and saved to 'profile' me and over which I have no say. Once the information is out there, there's no getting it back and it worries me how little people seem to value it.
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