Forum options - Will list a few different forum options below

[brendanjkearney]

Some general thoughts:

1. if possible, integrate forum/listserve with walk massachusetts network portion of website so that more people are directed to our other resources.
2. if possible, have it be both a web forum and an email list, where people could interact with it on their own terms, or go back to see previous topics.
3. having it be semi-private/request needed to join would be a good way to ensure there is a layer of civility, and that there aren't people spamming. We could also make sure that people are part of the network that way.
4. would be good to get a monthly reminder, or have it very front and center about what the list/forum is for. (See below with examples from WalkUP Roslindale, Boston Bike and Ped Advocates FB Group).
5. consider whether it can be 'email agnostic', not requiring someone to have a specific email account to participate (i.e. need to use Gmail).

I've included some options below, which include links to the page about it and any examples of list-serves or forums that may use that service.

[brendanjkearney]

Wordpress plugin: https://bbpress.org/about/

"bbPress is forum software, made the WordPress way.

Have you ever been frustrated with forum or bulletin board software that was slow, bloated, and always got your server hacked? bbPress is focused on ease of integration, ease of use, web standards, and speed.

We’re keeping things as small and light as possible while still allowing for great add-on features through WordPress’s extensive plugin system. What does all that mean? bbPress is lean, mean, and ready to take on any job you throw at it."

[brendanjkearney]

Google Groups - requires a Google account (even if not a Gmail address) which is free to set up.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!overview

"People's Pike" uses Google Groups.

[brendanjkearney]

Yahoo Groups - https://groups.yahoo.com/

[brendanjkearney]

WalkUP Roslindale uses this - http://lists.bostoncoop.net/ http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/index.html

should ask Matt Lawlor what his experiences have been with it. Adi said that MassPlanners uses the same mailman setup.

[brendanjkearney]

Boston Bike and Ped Advocates uses a Facebook group. Facebook groups can be set to public or private, where someone needs to request access to join.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/251195935262605/

DESCRIPTION A space for Boston area bike and ped advocates to communicate, and discuss ideas about biking and walking advocacy issues. Please read our Forum Guidelines Document (pinned post) before making any posts. Thank you.

The forum guidelines were created by Jon Ramos (BCU super volunteer), and then offered up for critique/discussion to get feedback to make sure the group was going to be an effective tool. I think this is a good example for outlining behavior: https://www.facebook.com/notes/boston-bike-ped-advocates/forum-guidelines/255122411536624/

[brendanjkearney]

Discourse is used by SomervilleYIMBY - and I like that I can interact w/ it via email or on a web based platform. I had never used it before and it seems pretty intuitive. I could ask Jeff Byrnes if we had any specific questions about setup. It gives people chance to create their own profile/acct without requiring a certain email provider (gmail, yahoo, etc). It gives options to login with Google, Facebook, Twitter, GitHub, or a username and password.

https://www.discourse.org/

What is Discourse? Discourse is the 100% open source discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet. Use it as a mailing list, discussion forum, long-form chat room, and more!

Good insight not only about Discourse but about getting started w/ a community board: https://blog.discourse.org/2014/08/building-a-discourse-community/

There is also a wordpress plugin that is maintained by the discourse company itself: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-discourse/

[brendanjkearney]

re: discourse - highly recommended by Jeff.

[brendanjkearney]

Can pay for monthly access with support ($100/mo, or $50/mo by showing Nonprofit status), install it yourself for free, or have it installed on server for $99/one time setup.

See: https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/master/docs/INSTALL-cloud.md

Set up Discourse in the cloud in under 30 minutes with zero knowledge of Rails or Linux shell. We recommend DigitalOcean, but these steps will work on any Docker-compatible cloud provider or local server.

🔔 Don't have 30 minutes to set this up? For a flat one-time fee of $99, the community can install Discourse in the cloud for you. Click here to purchase a self-supported community install.

leaning toward attempting free/self install or the cloud $99/one time setup.

https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/master/docs/INSTALL-email.md

[brendanjkearney]

Example discourse forums: https://community.cartalk.com/latest https://discuss.howtogeek.com/

[brendanjkearney]

Waiting for DNS / Nameservers to populate - which says can take 24-48 hrs, but it will eventually be at discourse.walkboston.org

Sent an invite to bkearney@walkboston.org and sbeuttell@walkboston.org but I haven't seen anything yet - think that is due to the mailservers being tied to the info above.

May be able to access it now at http://104.131.8.139/

We'll have a charge for Digital Ocean for $5/month, which is likely the only cost.

[brendanjkearney]

Other things to do:

https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/master/docs/INSTALL-cloud.md#add-more-discourse-features

Users to log in via Google, Twitter, or Facebook? https://meta.discourse.org/t/configuring-google-oauth2-login-for-discourse/15858 https://meta.discourse.org/t/configuring-twitter-login-for-discourse/13395 https://meta.discourse.org/t/configuring-facebook-login-for-discourse/13394

Users to post replies via email? Configure reply via email. https://meta.discourse.org/t/set-up-reply-via-email-support/14003

created a separate thread #77 for login process

[brendanjkearney]

starting install for discourse into different thread.