Using the web to make HOAs/Condos click?

September 23, 2009 5:21 PM

Looking for suggestions or examples of websites dedicated to folks who live in Condos or HOAs (i.e. a website for a specific building or development), and what makes them work (or not).

I'm in the midst of developing a webapp website for the condo where I live, and taking a look around the landscape of existing sites, things are either basic or barren.

Looking at examples (in Canada), A few sites seem to have gone the phpbb route (such as this site) which is simple and cheap; others are apparently spending money on hosted solutions by a company, but their sites are templated and barren.

If there are other pre-existing solutions out there, I'd love to hear about them. If you live in a community with such a website, I'd be very interested in knowing why it does or doesn't work the people it's meant to serve.

posted by lowlife to computers & internet (3 comments total)

... doesn't work for the people it's meant to serve.
posted by lowlife at 5:30 PM on September 23

My HOA has an Intranet - you can see some of the content as a non-resident, but not all. It's okay for a method of pushing official information out, but the community aspects of it (message boards and groups) are not heavily utilized. At the beginning, the HOA management company was very heavy-handed and censored posts. They've lightened up, but people don't seem to trust it for casual conversation. Also, the HOA committees are uneven with posting their meeting minutes and documents; it can be difficult to find things. The site was created by Resident Interactive. Several years ago, some residents got together and created an unofficial message board which runs on Invision Power Board.

Here's one of our neighboring communities' site as a comparison. Their forums are open to the public but are moderated by the HOA.
posted by candyland at 6:14 PM on September 23

Thanks candyland :)

Wow... that stuff by Resident Interactive is... something. In Safari, I can't see *any* content from your HOA's intranet (in fact it comes up with a page branded "Digital Village" and Resident Interactive). Their own website is similarly hit-or-miss in Safari.

I'd be interested to know how much that intranet costs - if you have the details please MeMail me :)
posted by lowlife at 7:54 AM on September 24