[WEB4LIB] how to create a password protected forum/blog

[Breakall, Scott]

Petter,

If you've got some web space you can run this forum on, go to http://opensourcecms.com and click on the "CMS - Forums" link on the menu tree on the left.  This site lists nine different forums that you can download and install, and has a demo site for each.  phpBB may be the most common -- I have seen that one all over the Internet, and it's very easy to install and manage.  A solution to the problem you have posed would be to require a user to login to view or post to threads, and to restrict new user registrations -- that way only approved people could either view or contribute to the discussion.

Poke around the site and try the demos -- you can check out the front end as well as the back end (administration) of each package software.


If you don't have a server to host the forum from, check out http://ezboard.com and http://proboards.com -- each of these sites lets you set up a free forum which can be managed in a similar fashion.

BTW, I don't think Blogger currently lets you password-protect blogs.

~Scott~

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib at webjunction.org [mailto:web4lib at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Petter Naess
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2005 7:42 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] how to create a password protected forum/blog


Can someone recommend a free software or service that would allow one to create a blog-like (or forum) interface (webbased) through which a closed group of people could communicate?  The dialogue, in contrast to a conventional blog, would be accessible only to members of the group. Blogger.com would serve this purpose if it still supported password-protected sites, but I believe that is a thing of the past. My objective is to create a discussion group that will function in much the same way as a listserv, but in which threads will be presented on screen, as in a blog or a forum rather than in emails. I'm grateful for suggestions!

Petter Næss
Information Resource Director
U.S.Embassy, Public Affairs
Drammensveien 18
0244 Oslo
Norway
phone (47) 21308802
fax (47) 22440436
pnaess at usa.no
http://www.usa.no
http://ircworld.blogspot.com






*********************************************************************
Due to deletion of content types excluded from this list by policy, this multipart message was reduced to a single part, and from there to a plain text message.
*********************************************************************