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?

      • bcovertigo@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        Discord can make threads, but they are effectively invisible to people who don’t post in them or get @ in them. They can be set to auto archive and have their own permission structure, so I tend to create them for individual games and sub topics like that.

        The discoverability problem means people have to seek them out, which might suit your purposes, but just expect it to be like a somewhat self archiving channel anyone can start.

      • jinx@lemmy.zip
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        7 days ago

        it does. and with a community server (which can still be made invite-only), you can even make “forum” channels.