I'm looking for a forum package to meet a specific need and have narrowed my search to Discourse and MyBB.
I'm wanting a forum for a cub scout pack. I imagine a category for all the leaders, a category for the 1st graders, a category for the 2nd grade etc. Each category would contain one or more forums.
That said, is there a way to make a category visible only to a specific set of users? Could the Leaders forum be private? Could the 1st graders forum be limited to users associated with the 1st grade?
I've been trying to use mailing lists but too many people complain that they are not receiving the emails.
Absolutely, as long as you put these members in different groups you can control the visibility of the forums based on the group that the user is in.
Group permissions (including read only!) can be set globally, on categories, or on individual forums.
On the subject of cub scouts, you may want the site set up for your entire pack, then have categories for ranks (wolf, bear, webelos), then a category for leaders. You probably would want user groups associated with each of these. I'm curious as to why you would want to group your scouts by grade level.
As an aside, I'm a leader for a patrol in our local BSA troop. I may copy your idea of using a forum for communication.
(2015-10-05, 07:09 PM)laie_techie Wrote: [ -> ]Group permissions (including read only!) can be set globally, on categories, or on individual forums.
On the subject of cub scouts, you may want the site set up for your entire pack, then have categories for ranks (wolf, bear, webelos), then a category for leaders. You probably would want user groups associated with each of these. I'm curious as to why you would want to group your scouts by grade level.
As an aside, I'm a leader for a patrol in our local BSA troop. I may copy your idea of using a forum for communication.
I'm not actually grouping them by grade level. Just used that verbiage for clarity in the question assuming there may not be many people familiar with scouts in this community. I group them by "Class of 2015" "Class of 2016" etc based upon the year they are expected to cross over into Boy Scouts. I include the grade level and rank in the description but will change those minor details in May.
This is what our forum looks like at the moment.
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(2015-10-05, 07:28 PM)djuggler Wrote: [ -> ]I'm not actually grouping them by grade level. Just used that verbiage for clarity in the question assuming there may not be many people familiar with scouts in this community. I group them by "Class of 2015" "Class of 2016" etc based upon the year they are expected to cross over into Boy Scouts. I include the grade level and rank in the description but will change those minor details in May.
This is what our forum looks like at the moment.
Congrats on your site so far! I have a few suggestions:
I believe that the Cub Scouts logo does not include the eagle, and instead surrounds the fleur de lis with a square not. The eagle is added for Boy Scouts (I'm a Boy Scout leader, so refer to your Cub Scout book to confirm this).
Do some mock scenarios for your forums. Should the forum be dedicated to a rank (eg. new Tigers join the existing Tigers forum), or should it "graduate" with the boys (Class of 2019 will always be in the Class of 2019 forum)? Same question for the leaders. In my local pack, the leaders are called to a specific rank and welcome a new group of boys each year instead of graduating with the boys. See what the groups / forums management will be like when it's time for each group to graduate / advance.
(2015-10-05, 09:00 PM)laie_techie Wrote: [ -> ]I believe that the Cub Scouts logo does not include the eagle, and instead surrounds the fleur de lis with a square not. The eagle is added for Boy Scouts (I'm a Boy Scout leader, so refer to your Cub Scout book to confirm this).
Good point about the logo. I'd made that as a placeholder for the troop I support (
http://bsatroop147.org/). I adapted it Saturday in haste. Our LISTSERVs have been sending too much mail to spam folders so during my breaks from weekend client work I slapped this forum together which is quite the compliment to MyBB. So easy! So powerful!
Quote:Do some mock scenarios for your forums. Should the forum be dedicated to a rank (eg. new Tigers join the existing Tigers forum), or should it "graduate" with the boys (Class of 2019 will always be in the Class of 2019 forum)? Same question for the leaders. In my local pack, the leaders are called to a specific rank and welcome a new group of boys each year instead of graduating with the boys. See what the groups / forums management will be like when it's time for each group to graduate / advance.
My original thinking was that graduating the forum with the scouts would keep a conversation history with that particular group as they come up together and keep me from having to regroup the participants. Our leaders tend to graduate with the scouts, keeping parents with their youth. In your pack, you have the same leader for Tigers each year? That's awesome and great commitment from your adults. What a great way to have a consistently improving program.
With the approach I'm using, my thoughts had been that the group name would have a minor change. "Class of 2016 (Webelos 1)" becomes "Class of 2016 (Webelos 2)" and the description has to change from "4th grade" to "5th grade." I'll think about what you said and give it some good thought.
Thanks for your feedback!
(2015-10-05, 09:30 PM)djuggler Wrote: [ -> ] (2015-10-05, 09:00 PM)laie_techie Wrote: [ -> ]I believe that the Cub Scouts logo does not include the eagle, and instead surrounds the fleur de lis with a square not. The eagle is added for Boy Scouts (I'm a Boy Scout leader, so refer to your Cub Scout book to confirm this).
Good point about the logo. I'd made that as a placeholder for the troop I support (http://bsatroop147.org/). I adapted it Saturday in haste. Our LISTSERVs have been sending too much mail to spam folders so during my breaks from weekend client work I slapped this forum together which is quite the compliment to MyBB. So easy! So powerful!
This isn't the right place to discuss this, but there are ways to avoid the dreaded false spam classification. Make sure your DNS has a mail exchanger (MX) record for your domain. Other steps can be found through searching the web.
(2015-10-05, 09:30 PM)djuggler Wrote: [ -> ]Quote:Do some mock scenarios for your forums. Should the forum be dedicated to a rank (eg. new Tigers join the existing Tigers forum), or should it "graduate" with the boys (Class of 2019 will always be in the Class of 2019 forum)? Same question for the leaders. In my local pack, the leaders are called to a specific rank and welcome a new group of boys each year instead of graduating with the boys. See what the groups / forums management will be like when it's time for each group to graduate / advance.
My original thinking was that graduating the forum with the scouts would keep a conversation history with that particular group as they come up together and keep me from having to regroup the participants. Our leaders tend to graduate with the scouts, keeping parents with their youth. In your pack, you have the same leader for Tigers each year? That's awesome and great commitment from your adults. What a great way to have a consistently improving program.
With the approach I'm using, my thoughts had been that the group name would have a minor change. "Class of 2016 (Webelos 1)" becomes "Class of 2016 (Webelos 2)" and the description has to change from "4th grade" to "5th grade." I'll think about what you said and give it some good thought.
Thanks for your feedback!
I guess I was thinking that the messages in the forums would be more geared toward rank instead of that specific group of boys. As an example, someone might ask for clarification on some requirement for the Arrow of Light which would be of interest to future Webelos and not just the boys in his graduating class.
I also admit a little ignorance, does the entire group of boys graduate at the same time (eg. all the boys are born the same year), do they graduate individually on their birthdays, or are their specific requirements (eg. so many red or yellow beads) so each boy graduates at a different time?
Find out how your pack functions, then set up your forum accordingly.
If you want to continue this conversation, maybe we should set up a thread under General Discussion or move to PMs.