I’m in a group of friends that are looking for an alternative to basic chat/messager services like Signal (or WhatsApp/discord/etc.) Chats are fine for causal conversation, but when we’re doing something more specific and detailed like a watching a season of films together, it’s really tiresome to have to read through dozens of messages, with multiple conversations happening at the same time.
A more classic message board / forum style would be better, having indvidual posts and comments and keeping discussions organised. For me, the obvious answer is lemmy, and just making our own communities - but that’s got the issue of being public and of hassle of being an extra account and app or whatever for everyone involved (I seem to know too many people who aren’t on lemmy yet).
Is there any other alternatives? Easy ways to setup a Web forum? Or decent apps that allow a more message board style of communication for groups? Is there other ways to approach this problem?
You can just buy a domain and start a forum…
Back in the day that’s what we did, even after Facebook showed up, because it took a couple years to match the functionality.
I could self host a forum, but I l assumed it’d be complicated. Is there an option that’s easy to implement?
PikaPods or YunoHost
Yeah, it’s not like you have to code it yourself, there’s lots of free templates out there. That’s why small random forums always have like 5-6 different templates