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Here's a question for those of you with online experience.

I've been working on a new book for a while. It's going a bit slow and I find I need to stimulating discussion to keep me thinking. Also some feedback on various ideas.

How would I set up a private discussion forum where I could post my material for reviewers to read and comment on? I've got all my data on OneDrive, and could share my WIP folder, but that seems to be short on discussion tools. Any suggestions? It's got to be pretty cheap, or free. My income at this point is very meager.

I don't want a public forum, or people can just go there to read it. Would a google group work? That way I could include people who don't have web access but have email.

Any thoughts?

lesterb wrote:Here's a question for those of you with online experience.

I've been working on a new book for a while. It's going a bit slow and I find I need to stimulating discussion to keep me thinking. Also some feedback on various ideas.

How would I set up a private discussion forum where I could post my material for reviewers to read and comment on? I've got all my data on OneDrive, and could share my WIP folder, but that seems to be short on discussion tools. Any suggestions? It's got to be pretty cheap, or free. My income at this point is very meager.

I don't want a public forum, or people can just go there to read it. Would a google group work? That way I could include people who don't have web access but have email.

Any thoughts?

You could share with Google Docs. It has a comment feature and people can even annotate. It has a lot of sharing controls.

I could set up a sub forum here if that would help also. Depends on how much discussion you are wanting. A little, Google Docs would be great. Heavy discussion, here would be better.

Does phpBB support a document area? Or is it just for posting comments and conversations?

forumotion.com uses the phpBB software for their setup - I was thinking of opening it up for other writers who might want to post their writings as well

It appears that OneDrive and Google Docs have similar features for commenting on a document or editing it online. But the discussion tools are pretty weak in both cases.

I might play around on forumotion for a bit and see how it seems. I had thought of asking for a private forum on MN, but then people would have to sign up to MN to access it. I don't think that would be a problem, in most cases. But it might work better to have the two separated.

I like Slack for this kind of thing.

Bootstrap wrote:I like Slack for this kind of thing.

I'll check into it. That's a new one for me.

lesterb wrote: I had thought of asking for a private forum on MN, but then people would have to sign up to MN to access it. I don't think that would be a problem, in most cases. But it might work better to have the two separated.

I think it would be easy to handle both. The only easy way to post docs here is to cut and paste unless I can find a plug in that would allow for more. I am not opposed to doing that. Would just need to understand what you are wanting to do and I would have to research what is available.

Robert wrote:I think it would be easy to handle both. The only easy way to post docs here is to cut and paste unless I can find a plug in that would allow for more. I am not opposed to doing that. Would just need to understand what you are wanting to do and I would have to research what is available.

You can allow PDF without a plugin - Manage extensions. Best to avoid extensions for files that can spread viruses, PDF is safe.

Bootstrap wrote:
You can allow PDF without a plugin - Manage extensions. Best to avoid extensions for files that can spread viruses, PDF is safe.

Depends on what Lester is wanting to do. I can create some bbcode to handle some things if needed.