How to set up a forum like Grease Spot Cafe

[Mark Sanguinetti]

I am taking an online Real Estate class with a local Junior College. We have a text book that we read. And we also have an online lecture which we also read once a week. This seems pretty standard. However, the class participation part is below the standard of Grease Spot Cafe. Instead of a forum where people interact and post their thoughts the class has an e-mail mailing list. When you send an e-mail through the class web site the e-mail gets sent to everyone on the class list. This is O.K. but not nearly as efficient as our forum here. The question is how do you set up a forum such as this? Could someone post detailed instructions of how to do this?

[pawtucket]

email me

[Mark Sanguinetti]

I just e-mailed you Pawtucket. I had your e-mail address from a couple of years ago. If you don't receive it, it means you changed your address from that time. We could also communicate by PM I suppose. Thank you.

[markomalley]

Easiest thing to do on a short-term basis is to set up a Yahoo group for your class. There are severe limitations to it...but it gets the job done (again, on a short-term basis). And it's free.

[Mark Sanguinetti]

Do you have any information on that MarkOMalley? Or a specific link that I can read with instructions? Pawtucket's system is very good, but I am guessing that it might either take time to set up or cost money.

[markomalley]

http://groups.yahoo.com. You will need to sign up with your Yahoo ID (or create a Yahoo ID), then there is a section on "Create your own group" -- it's pretty intuitive from there.

It's a pretty good capability:

- listserv capability with message archive (limited if you're free) moderated or unmoderated

- private group chatroom

- online file storage (again, limited if you are on the free status)

- group calendar with events (and message notification to group members for those events)

- private chat room

etc.

[Raf]

Make sure you include as many privacy settings as you can, or you'll be bombarded with spam.

[markomalley]

Make sure you include as many privacy settings as you can, or you'll be bombarded with spam.

I would do that (keep privacy settings up pretty high) regardless anyway. Particularly for an online class.

But the man does make a decent point, having said that.

[Mark Sanguinetti]

Thanks Mark. I will see if my class instructor goes for it. It is a class in Real Estate Finance.