What's the easiest, best forum platform these days?
February 21, 2012 10:25 AM Subscribe
Our roller derby team needs to stop talking derby on Facebook and into its own forum. We'd like it to be a "members only" area of our Wordpress self-hosted website. What's the best, easiest forum platform these days that integrates with Wordpress and doesn't require yet another complicated login (preferably people can sign in with Facebook, Google or YahooID).
Some of the team have been currently using Forumotion, which I'm unfamiliar with. If there's a way to integrate Forumotion to the site, then great! If there's a better platform out there, what is it and why is it better than Forumotion (so I can convince the team to abandon that and go with the easy, full-featured forum)? Thanks!
Some of the team have been currently using Forumotion, which I'm unfamiliar with. If there's a way to integrate Forumotion to the site, then great! If there's a better platform out there, what is it and why is it better than Forumotion (so I can convince the team to abandon that and go with the easy, full-featured forum)? Thanks!
Our roller derby team needs to stop talking derby on Facebook and into its own forum.
This would be an easier question to answer if you could explain what is wrong with Facebook and Forumotion.
posted by grouse at 10:58 AM on February 21, 2012
This would be an easier question to answer if you could explain what is wrong with Facebook and Forumotion.
posted by grouse at 10:58 AM on February 21, 2012
Response by poster: We have a private group on Facebook. Everyone on the team pretty much hates Facebook for one reason or another, the most common one being that people have a hard time staying on top of threads — there's no customizability or RSS feeds or threaded comments or subscription features and on and on. And it's Facebook, which many of us aren't thrilled with supporting/using because of ethical or privacy reasons. We basically want a private forum that isn't Facebook (but for the non-tech-savvy Facebook lovers, it might be helpful if that forum had a Facebook, Google or Hotmail login).
We now have a website and many have said that they would love to participate in a members-only area of the website, if it were forum/bulletin board style. From what I can tell of Forumotion, there's not a whole lot of customizability and no RSS feeds and it can't be integrated with the website. If there is a better forum platform, I will make a case for it. Now is the time to do so, as once people settle into using any forum after they've left FaceBook, there will be no convincing them to migrate again.
I don't even know what my options are, to be honest. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.
posted by iamkimiam at 11:15 AM on February 21, 2012
We now have a website and many have said that they would love to participate in a members-only area of the website, if it were forum/bulletin board style. From what I can tell of Forumotion, there's not a whole lot of customizability and no RSS feeds and it can't be integrated with the website. If there is a better forum platform, I will make a case for it. Now is the time to do so, as once people settle into using any forum after they've left FaceBook, there will be no convincing them to migrate again.
I don't even know what my options are, to be honest. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.
posted by iamkimiam at 11:15 AM on February 21, 2012
Response by poster: and by Hotmail, I meant Yahoo (they're the same evil in my mind, sorry).
posted by iamkimiam at 11:16 AM on February 21, 2012
posted by iamkimiam at 11:16 AM on February 21, 2012
Our roller derby league uses Yahoo Groups. The majority of us hate it, but a small but vocal group like it because they can get the messages e-mailed to them rather than having to go online and look at a message board on a website.
One of our board members set up a site on forumotion but no one really paid attention to it.
Sorry I can't be more help....
posted by Lucinda at 11:19 AM on February 21, 2012
One of our board members set up a site on forumotion but no one really paid attention to it.
Sorry I can't be more help....
posted by Lucinda at 11:19 AM on February 21, 2012
BuddyPress is the social-networking addon for Wordpress, which may not be what you need. bbPress is the forum addon.
posted by Jairus at 11:22 AM on February 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Jairus at 11:22 AM on February 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
I would agree with BBPress. I've played with BuddyPress, and the whole concept is to make it as much like Facebook as possible.
posted by adamrice at 11:24 AM on February 21, 2012
posted by adamrice at 11:24 AM on February 21, 2012
My league's life changed for the better about a hundred fold when we got off Yahoo Groups and got on a forum. I can't even fathom doing this stuff on facebook*.
We use vbulletin, and a lot of other leagues use simple machines forum. That's mostly because we were setting this up about 5 years ago, so I am sure there are way better solutions now.
(Also, most forum systems allow people to subscribe to certain threads, topics, or whole forums, which will negate the "I need it emailed to me" argument.)
*For those of you wondering why either of these wouldn't suffice, please know that derby leagues are often running the business as well as organizing the teams and sports side on these things. Think anywhere from 20-200 messages a day if you're really in the thick of things.
posted by pixiecrinkle at 11:48 AM on February 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
We use vbulletin, and a lot of other leagues use simple machines forum. That's mostly because we were setting this up about 5 years ago, so I am sure there are way better solutions now.
(Also, most forum systems allow people to subscribe to certain threads, topics, or whole forums, which will negate the "I need it emailed to me" argument.)
*For those of you wondering why either of these wouldn't suffice, please know that derby leagues are often running the business as well as organizing the teams and sports side on these things. Think anywhere from 20-200 messages a day if you're really in the thick of things.
posted by pixiecrinkle at 11:48 AM on February 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 10:49 AM on February 21, 2012 [2 favorites]