I seem to have become a coordinator for a couple of "meatspace" philosophy groups I joined a while back and I'd like to arrange some forum facilities where we can engage in what philosophers most love to do - talk

 

I've considered mail lists as a mechanism but feel they don't provide the spread of interest that's available when one looks at a forum.

 

My wishlist so far includes:

1) some public and some private areas

2) good security

3) ability to establish a library and manage it somehow

4) PC and mobile access

5) auto-email when new content is added (just like Briskoda)

 

I have access to hosting, am reasonably competent at config / dev matters on the web but am somewhat out of date as regards the last few years' changes.

 

Oh, and free would be nice, too

 

whoohhoo someone stuck there head above a parapet...

 

I can help with this and that as in pointers.

 

The sticky point is free...

 

You can get forum scripts like this one for a price, it varies, from not a lot to quite a bit and renewals.

 

you can also get opensource forum software that varies too, in quality and cost to run. Needless to say the better ones need a bit more money to run, still only talking 10$ a month for a low cost one.

 

All of the ones I can recommend can do all of the above. However I'm not sure about the library bit.  If it's a select few people managing it there are other tools. I'd make a 'minisite' from a static hosting tool, then give the managers access to that. Keeps it out of the forums, unless you need it in the forums and all the forums members to contribute to it.

 

Ok some food for thought:

 

https://www.woltlab.com/ Does it all PHP based with MySQL cica 5-10USD a month from £89.99

https://xenforo.com/ Does the forum bit, PHP based, with MySQL circa 5-10USD a month from 160USD

https://invisioncommunity.com/buy/self-hosted/ what we use here, as above, can run on 5-10 USD or more, from 100USD or they offer cloud for 45 a month ( too expensive if capable )

 

All the above run on php/mysql/linux etc. I'd recommend a script called centminmod it sets up excellent defaults for this sort of stuff, including mail, ftp.  Just rent a virtual box from the likes of digital ocean > my referral link > https://m.do.co/c/8ff05d02841e  < we use these guys, and linode, and ovh, and quite a few others, but I recommend Digital OCean at the moment.

 

 

 

Ok all that said, there is one more which is a bit better than most, but for different reasons. It's called discourse: https://www.discourse.org/

 

It's free, as in opensource, but needs a tad more resource to run. It's very modern, but you might not get the library bit you want. It's written in Ruby and Ember ( javascript ). It's actually very easy to install. It\s closer to the experience of 'socialmedia' it's less traditional forum, but works very well for focused groups. If briskoda was a one marque, one model site, I may of switched to it.

Again rent a digital ocean droplet, ight need a 10 to 20 usd a month one for this to be half way bearable. They also offer hosted, but again too much if you're half way capable.

 

If you do sign up for digital ocean they have the concept of one click installers, i.e. you can visit: https://cloud.digitalocean.com/marketplace/5ba19750fc53b8179c7a0069?i=cf1e99&referrer=droplets%2Fnew click a button, 5 minutes later a discourse install is waiting for you to login. Perfect to kick it's tyres.

 

If you're going with the others, I'd really recommend centminmod, it's a time, life safer and plenty of folk to help you through anything that might be crusty.

 

Ther are plenty of other opensource , free forum boards, your mileage may vary as to quality and security, theseare non-evaluated options I know of:

https://flarum.org/

https://mybb.com/

https://vanillaforums.com/en/software/

https://www.phpbb.com/

 

 

The parapet  Happy to help... might even quiz you back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was a little wary about googling "meatspace" but it's OK...

 

Interesting 2000th post for whatever that's worth.

 

I can help you with none of what you're asking about, glad Colin can.

On 08/10/2019 at 18:59, ColinD said:

The parapet  Happy to help

 

Thanks Colin.  This will be a "bad weather" project as there are a few other things competing for my attention at the moment ...

 

BTW I have a couple of good motorcycle helmets and even have my old climbing helmet somewhere