New covid chat room?

[akiddoc]

Anyone interested in setting up a Covid Chat Room. For example on Google Chat. 

I would hope that the Cardboard people would let us refer people there for a bit. 

I don't know how functional Google Chat is. I've never tried it.

[Snorlax94]

If all attempts to extend this board fail, we could try Slack
https://join.slack.com/t/excardboardcovi...tLb1VSixJw

I suggest no one delete or add channels at first to try it out and to attempt a stricter terry rule.

It’s quite non competitive with the cardboard — it’s just a slack, it lacks many features, it is not findable on search engines, there will be no discussion of sports, and the slack free plan permits only 10,000 posts. If we hit that, no one can post any more unless someone wanted to shell out cash. So it’s designed to exist for a limited timespan.

There is very little permissiom control in the free plan so we will be reliant on people stocking to the topics and not behaving in a destructive manner. One of the few takeable actions for abusive conduct is to just delete an account.
If people want to protect their personal email address, just create a new address like cardboardsnorlax@someemailservice.com before signing up

[magnus]

It’s quite non competitive with the cardboard — it’s just a slack, it lacks many features, it is not findable on search engines, there will be no discussion of sports, and the slack free plan permits only 10,000 posts. If we hit that, no one can post any more unless someone wanted to shell out cash. So it’s designed to exist for a limited timespan. 

I thought the 10k post limit was a 10k FIFO.  Post #10k+1 makes post #1 fall off the scroll history.  At least that's how it works in another slack group that I'm in.  The other limit for free plans is the amount of images that the group can upload.  Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any automatic overflow control there other than to block any additional uploads until members start deleting old uploads.

Caveat, I don't admin that group so there may be other options that were not chosen.

[Hurlburt88]

I will participate in a new COVID board.   I don't have any great idea for the best platform.

[OutsiderFan]

ICYMI, I posted this in the other thread as a possible alternative. Looking for feedback on it or other message board ideas folks may have.

https://www.proboards.com/

Personally I don't like Slack option because it is a realtime chat. We've never done realtime chat on this board. We use longer form posts that seem to be best suited for the purpose at hand.

We've only got one day to find something else, so we have to figure out a way to make a decision pronto.

[CompSci87]

Volleytalk uses proboards, and it works okay. The ads are usually unobtrusive. I don't admin there, though,  so I don't know what that side of things is like.

[here4WBB]

Volleytalk uses proboards, and it works okay. The ads are usually unobtrusive. I don't admin there, though,  so I don't know what that side of things is like.

I'd like to participate in a chat room.  I use Slack for a nonprofit group and find it cumbersome.  Unfortunately I don't have alternatives to suggest, but I appreciate you all taking the lead!

[Erika]

The cardboard uses MyBB.com There are many tutorials online about how to create your own forum. https://community.mybb.com/ has a lot of info.

[Snorlax94]

I personally havn’t used the bb software which is why I didn’t look any of those up.

Based on akiddoc’s suggestion I looked at setting a Google Chat but it requires a paid subscription to piggyback on. I wanted something that was incredibly easy set up and I saw Slack has a free tier so I tried that (also, I haven’t used Slack but was curious to check it out).

So if anyone is inclined to set up any bb, I’d join and appreciate it and would be happy to use that instead of Slack.

[here4WBB]

The cardboard uses MyBB.com There are many tutorials online about how to create your own forum. https://community.mybb.com/ has a lot of info.

since the CardBoard is already on myBB.com we might also be able to merge our earlier threads.  I am all for myBB.com, but am hesitant to set this up myself since I am not able to take on a moderator role.

[OutsiderFan]

I wonder if a subdomain could be created that could host an instance of the same message board?

Could be covid.cardboard.com and not have any links to the main cardboard site.

It wouldn't even need to be moderated because only a select few would ever know about the web page.

If the same database was copied to it, we could use our same logins as well.

Does this seem like a workable idea ?

[OutsiderFan]

I wonder if a subdomain could be created that could host an instance of the same message board?

Could be covid.cardboard.com and not have any links to the main cardboard site.

It wouldn't even need to be moderated because only a select few would ever know about the web page.

If the same database was copied to it, we could use our same logins as well.

Does this seem like a workable idea ?

Anybody?

[M T]

OF, there is no particular reason why a subdomain would be preferable to a new domain.  If the powers that be for this domain don't want it for whatever reason, I don't see why a subdomain would resolve those problems.

A new domain is relatively cheap.  Getting a host for it shouldn't be that expensive.  The big initial "expense" would be someone's time to set up the s/w (but I expect the current board's configuration would be available for cribbing).  The big ongoing expense would be the monitoring of new users, establishing policies & enforcing them.  Possibly plus dealing with any legal claims that might come ("You are abridging my right to free speech.")
As always, another expense that wears one down is the issue of updating the s/w to keep up with the source and to stay away from intrusions.  Too often people leave the s/w alone until it is way out of date and it is hard to update.

[M T]

Another option is to create a forum in an existing myBB site such as
  https://www.createmybb.com/
(I have no experience with them.  I am not a member.  I haven't played with their site.  There may be other, similar sites.)

It is myBB (same s/w, perhaps different version) so people here are familiar with it.  It appears to be active (both in use & maintenance).
It DOES include ads. Other than ads, it seems to be free to set up a forum and to be a member.

It would be near instantaneous to set up.  It would require people to create new logins on that site.  It seems they require a birth date, but I would never give my real birthdate to such a site.  I consider what I give  them to be a password and store it with my password.

I don't know if the forum is semi-private (ie, you have to know about it to find it) or whether it is obvious to anyone who is a member of that service.

I'm not recommending, only pointing it out as an option.