Suppose I want it set up a bulletin board to communicate with fellow professionals practising in a relatively narrow field. There likely won’t be a lot o sign-ups, and probably wouldn’t want it open to the general public, just members whom I can verify.
What bulletin board software would you recommend? How much would it cost?
Thanks!
I’m thinking Google+ would probably be much easier.
I’ve used phpBB many times. Free, powerful and easy to customize or extend.
For Google, yes. But it’s not just all your eggs in one basket… It’s everyone’s eggs in that one basket, including some you may not want to be sharing a basket with.
Independent site forums still have a place.
I’m not sure if you’re objecting to Google+ because “Google = teh evil government stooges” or if you incorrectly think there’s no way to have private conversations amongst a group (Circle) of people.
Sure, they do. But with a small group of people focused on a narrow topic, a dedicated, independent forum is overkill and will likely have all the ambiance of a ghost town.
Neither one. I fear Google and its equivalents more than I fear “teh evil gummint.” and I think privacy within its offerings means whatever Google decides it means that week.
But yes, I know, it’s soooooo EEEEE ZZZZZ 2 UZZZZZZE. Right?
A small group of people focused on a topic is going to be just that whether it’s on Google+, an indy hosted board or old-style APA mailings. I don’t think the tradeoffs of Google+ etc. are worth the EZ-ness, but maybe that’s just me.
“Be a happy idiot.”* - C.J. Browne, 1976*
Just make a Google Group. It comes with a web-based, forum-like interface. And it interfaces with email by default, for people who don’t to sign up for your forum. Because most of them won’t. You’d be lucky to get them to participate in the mailing list at all…
Well, this board uses vBulletin, and it seems to work fairly well. Butit’s a commercial product, not a free one. Also, there has been controversy because vBulletin has built-in links to Google AdSense, which does/could allow Google to scan personal info in forums as a way to deliver targeted advertising.
Since we no longer have the appropriate smiley, and this is (temporarily) in GQ, I’ll just respond to this part:
Yes, but most people already have Google accounts and/or already go to and use Google for other things, so they’d be more likely to participate in a low volume group discussion if they don’t have to go out of their way to join or to participate on an ongoing basis.
I don’t use any of the big social-networking sites, not even Google+, but for the particular needs of the OP, I think that’s the option that’s most likely to be successful. Realistically, not idealistically.
A similar suggestion to Google+ would be a Facebook Group. You can make those very exclusive. And if Facebook is something that they all visit every day (or most days) and on their phones, then the group is right there - no need to go elsewhere or to a non-mobile-friendly site.
Yeah, with the even lower barrier to entry when just sticking to email, that might even be more realistic than G+. Maybe more clunky and less-versatile, but more likely to reach the critical mass to get it off the ground. Once off and running, there’s nothing preventing a change of venue down the line.
Uh oh, must… resist… making post that makes my response to **Amateur Barbarian **sound hypocritical. 
It doesn’t sound like the OP (1) wants accessibility by a wide range of users (2) wants participation by very many users (3) hangs with the ooh-Facebook crowd and (4) hangs with folks who live off of their mobile interface.
It does sound like s/he might want easy long-form communication, persistence of conversations, privacy and security.
Other than all that, Google+ and Facebook would be perfect.
(In all seriousness… this week’s social media darling is not necessarily the best tool for every communication job, no matter how little experience recommenders might have with other prior, stable and useful forms.)
Moderator Action
Since this is more opinion than factual, off to IMHO it goes.
Moving thread from General Questions to In My Humble Opinion.
I am not quite sure if this came across above, but in Google+ it is possible to start a ‘Community’ and for that Community to be private, invitation only. I don’t think Google Groups are private, but they could be.
Bob
They can be private. They ask you when you create them. we use them at our organization for just this purpose, keeping a niche group of technophobes connected and talking to each other between monthly meetings.
Right, Google+ is an option.
Moving on: what bulletin board software, other than Google+, do people recommend?
Simple Machines Forum is easy on the server and nicely hackable. Probably not the best program to use out-of-the-box though.
Wow, you got a lot of information from a whole lot of nothing, there.
In my experience, bulletin board software is a vector for hackers and spammers. And you have to pay to have something nice (as in, not full of ads and worthwhile to use), and keep up with updates. For a small group, you’ll probably end up over-paying for its usefulness. You’ll avoid spammers by having it locked down, so that’s nice.
I can recommend URLJet as a host for vBulletin if you go that route. It’s kept my client’s installation of vB safe and un-hacked for a year now. Not too expensive.
I run a couple Facebook groups and it’s nice to have something small, secure and “already there” compared to the absolute nightmares of running bulletin board software. But I’m sorry for assuming the OP might be interested in something like that, considering he used words like “we don’t have smartphones” and “there’s no way any of us would ever have a Facebook account, you idiots.” Or didn’t, I’m all confused.
No, I read exactly what the OP said they wanted and didn’t read “Oooh, you all need iPhone 6’s with the ChattyKathy app!!!” into it.
The only portal for hacking BBS software is through abusive users. Completely locking the user registration portal is no hurdle to a small, invitation-only discussion board and virtually eliminates hacking, spam, abuse etc.
I’ve run BBSes going back to the pre-Fidonet days, on half a dozen different platforms. I don’t recommend them as a first solution for group discussion - things like Google Groups and Google+ circles work fine for most subsets of users. But the OP is looking for what a good, well-configured modern standalone BBS like PHPbb can easily deliver.