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Old 01-16-2017, 12:18 PM   #1
Beer-gut Murray
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Hi all,

I'm looking to create a new forum for my company. Wondering if anyone has any information on a user friendly forum.
I have a good computer aptitude but have never done anything of this nature.

It doesn't have to be free (good an willing to pay). Any idea on cost per year?

I did google search it though I'm not sure if the reviews that pop up are biased or financially motivated.
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Old 01-16-2017, 12:24 PM   #2
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Old 01-16-2017, 12:26 PM   #3
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Moved to tech as you might get a better response here.

Who is it for, your internal employees, or for your customers?

What are the goals of the forum; what are you trying to accomplish?
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Old 01-16-2017, 12:28 PM   #4
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If it's for internal work/team communication, I probably wouldn't recommend a forum. Perhaps a Yammer type solution?
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Old 01-16-2017, 12:30 PM   #5
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Yeah if it's for internal communication then Slack or Hipchat are also very effective, have used both in a business type environment and they work well and can be integrated extensively with other business processes or systems.
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Old 01-16-2017, 12:56 PM   #6
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Quote:
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Yeah if it's for internal communication then Slack or Hipchat are also very effective, have used both in a business type environment and they work well and can be integrated extensively with other business processes or systems.
Does the data rest on your or these companies servers? For internal communication this may matter more if your posting files or messages that are confidential.
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Old 01-16-2017, 01:09 PM   #7
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Did you check your c-panel? When I had a domain name and provider, they often had built in forum options available, that they partnered with. I know that SMF seems to be popular, or used to be, with a lot of the domain/providers.
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Old 01-16-2017, 01:14 PM   #8
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Slack the data is on their servers. I'm sure they do some stuff to try and ensure privacy, but afaik they don't have an option for user provided encryption key (for example) to make it so Slack can't even see the data. So they'd potentially be vulnerable to hacking or government eavesdropping.

Hipchat has the option of setting up your own server so you can secure it however one sees fit.
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Old 01-16-2017, 01:31 PM   #9
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We use Slack quite a bit and my company is in to security big time. I will have to check this out a little more.
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Old 01-16-2017, 02:02 PM   #10
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Slack does seem to be coming out with an Enterprise version at some point, but it doesn't say they'll be offering an on-site version for private installs or offering encryption such that the company would be unable to view the messages (the second is understandable, makes searching more difficult).
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Old 01-28-2017, 01:37 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by photon View Post
Moved to tech as you might get a better response here.

Who is it for, your internal employees, or for your customers?

What are the goals of the forum; what are you trying to accomplish?
I should have been more specific. This will be a public forum with a specific target audience (a group of professionals). I am unable to divulge the nature of this forum unfortunately. The idea is to rally support, against an organization that we feel has treated us unethically.

I am trying to create an opinion poll that does not require special invite.

It will likely be in use for less than a year. As such, I'm looking for something that won't be too costly.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kavvy View Post
Does the data rest on your or these companies servers? For internal communication this may matter more if your posting files or messages that are confidential.
The data hopefully will be retained on a public server with some degree of secuirty.


Thank you all for your suggestions.
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Old 01-28-2017, 03:26 PM   #12
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Slack does seem to be coming out with an Enterprise version at some point, but it doesn't say they'll be offering an on-site version for private installs or offering encryption such that the company would be unable to view the messages (the second is understandable, makes searching more difficult).
Another option for on-prem install is Mattermost (https://about.mattermost.com/) which is a Slack alternative, targeting companies that prefer to run the software on-prem.
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Old 01-28-2017, 11:38 PM   #13
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phpBB is widely used and mature. Installing it is simple unless you don't know anything hosting and creating a database. The administration section can be confusing and convoluted but with some reading you'll get the gist of it.

The various forums/sub forums can have different permissions to suit just about any requirements.
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Old 02-02-2017, 03:10 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Beer-gut Murray View Post
I should have been more specific. This will be a public forum with a specific target audience (a group of professionals). I am unable to divulge the nature of this forum unfortunately. The idea is to rally support, against an organization that we feel has treated us unethically.

I am trying to create an opinion poll that does not require special invite.

It will likely be in use for less than a year. As such, I'm looking for something that won't be too costly.

The data hopefully will be retained on a public server with some degree of secuirty.

Thank you all for your suggestions.
Closed facebook group?!
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Old 02-06-2017, 03:20 PM   #15
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Originally Posted by FlamesPuck12 View Post
Another option for on-prem install is Mattermost (https://about.mattermost.com/) which is a Slack alternative, targeting companies that prefer to run the software on-prem.
Thanks for this.

Does this software allow you to run polls and post comments? This is a big need for me.

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Old 02-06-2017, 06:19 PM   #16
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Slack is awesome. I would say it cut down on essential emails by 75% and improved productivity and communication by just as much for our guys who use it a lot.

Obviously more of an internal tool.

It actually find it mind-boggling how we used to communicate.
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Old 02-07-2017, 12:04 AM   #17
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Originally Posted by Beer-gut Murray View Post
Thanks for this.

Does this software allow you to run polls and post comments? This is a big need for me.
Yup, they support comment threads and I believe you can add extensions to run polls.

I should mention that Mattermost and Slack are not like traditional forums. They're more of "chat rooms" for organizations.
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Old 02-12-2017, 07:45 PM   #18
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I am still a fan of phpBB and Simple Machine Forums.

Depending what you want, you can also build a simple forum tool in Drupal and then you get a range of other features as well.
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