Setting up shared discussion Access

[john west]

Would it be possible to set up an *easily shared* email address or forum for all members of an allotment.

Essentially it would have to be very *easy* for people to *set up* and operate, since many of the older members are not very versatile on their PCs.

Members could then chip in and share helpful suggestions about plants and the allotment with others. Especially useful since some of the oldies live fairly isolated lives, living by themselves.

i did think of say a hotmail address we could all share, but the jokers in the group could step in and alter settings; could they not?

Grateful for any suggestios on an 'easy to set up' solution.

[TimW]

the good old List Server. does that even exist any more?

I think a Facebook page is the preferred way these days. I have sometimes put a discuss panel on the bottom of a web page but they don't get used much. I think you can put a FB discussion on a web page to make a sort of mini forum if you want.

Tim W

[Adrian Caspersz]

Start a google group.

[whisky-dave]

I don;t think you should share the same email address, yuo might be able to do something using google, where everyone has their own google email addre ss and you can share documents via google drive I have it set up at work so students can have their own ordersheets (spreadsheet) they add what they w ant and I order it. I can share a document with any or all of them, I can g ive them just read or read and write privileges. They would still have to b e able to use email and click on links and the usual stuff though. More tro uble than sticking a post-it not on the side of a shed, which might eb a ea sier option.

[Bobbie Smith]

What could be more useful than this? uk.rec.gardening. It is so easy to use and is already set up.

me.

[John Williamson]

Start a private or secret Facebook group. Administrators have full control of the page, and users only need a Facebook login and membership of the group, as well as a web browser newer than IE6 on whatever they use, be it a phone or a Cray supercomputer. There is no setting up unless they want to for the users.

If you know of an expert whose expertise you need, you just invite then to join the group.

[Brian Gaff]

groups.io.

Brian

[Clive Page]

Whatever you do, don't use Yahoo groups. Someone I know did that recently and this system makes it very hard to work out how to reply privately, so that nearly messages go to everyone, even if not intended to be group-wide. It's a real nuisance.

[The Natural Philosopher]

piece of cake.

buy a dpmain at e.g. 123 reg, and then set up say ' [e-mail]' to point to all the people (comma separated) that you want.

[The Natural Philosopher]

For small numbers of people an alias 'just works'

free with any domain registration.

W

[newshound]

This is how we communicate at the livery yard which I use. HOWEVER, most of the users are either teenage girls or professional women under 40 or so, so almost all are already FB users. I'd guess your allotment group is much more mature, and also less attuned to and probably more suspicious of FB.

FB also has the huge disadvantage of bombarding everyone with unwanted and often inappropriate adverts and posts. Frequent users know how to manage this.

If you just want to exchange or view text files or images, you could set up a cloud drive such as Google Drive, MS One Drive, or Dropbox. You can structure these in folders. We use this in another voluntary organisation to share committee minutes, posters, and other documentation.

[GB]

You could set up a forum easily enough, and free. For example

[Dave Liquorice]

That sort of indicates that it ought to be "push" rather than "pull". ie messages just arrive on a persons computer rather than requiring them to actively go looking.

If you don't have a handy server to spam check, accept and forward mail then a private google group is probably the next best option. They can be used purely by mail to/from an existing email address or via a web interface.

[Bill Wright]

Yes, I did this and it was very successful. Due to the fecundity of Grandma and Grandad Wright I have many uncles and cousins. We are spread out all over the UK. Following a family crisis we needed a discussion group, so I created a 'secret' group in Facebook. It works very well.

Bill