It's all here in writing

November 28, 2007 1:17 PM

Smallish bunch of creative writer-types (who've met up in person a couple of times) would like somewhere to hang out online: please suggest what kind of website might suit us best.

So we'd like to publicise future meetings, provide links to individual websites, publish our work and receive criticism from other members. Needs to be set up such that any member can contribute, possibly membership by invitation only. Are we talking some sort of blog? Google group? Forums? Suggest away.

posted by freston to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (5 answers total)

I'd imagine you could configure a wordpress-based website to do that. Have different levels for each account that let them publish to various aspects of the site, maybe...? You could even combine a wordpress install with phpbb or something. Actually, phpbb sucks. I'd go with a lighter forum software if you were going to do that.
posted by Autarky at 1:31 PM on November 28, 2007

It sounds like you may want to start your own wiki. The whole point of a wiki is to let everyone contribute, and most of them allow you to set them up as private. Its not as simple as a blog but it would be more organized and allow more freedom in how everything is laid out.

There are plenty of free sites that will setup and host a custom wiki, if you don't want to go through the trouble of setting up your own server.
posted by burnmp3s at 1:55 PM on November 28, 2007

I hadn't thought of a wiki. That's a very good idea, actually.
posted by Autarky at 1:56 PM on November 28, 2007

I can't endorse it because I have not used it myself, but I know people are who using and enjoying Ning for services similar to the ones you described. Might be worth investigating.
posted by pineapple at 2:40 PM on November 28, 2007

1. meetup
2. literature and latte (for the forums)
posted by krautland at 9:07 PM on November 28, 2007