Gather now has a built-in online forum
From: Fred-List manager (fholsoncohousing.org)
Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2020 05:33:58 -0700 (PDT)
Tom Smyth <tom [at] tomsmyth.ca>
is the author of the message below.  It was posted by
Fred, the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>
due to a format problem, The image refered to below is not here.

FRed
--------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------

For communities looking for a more engaging and fully featured way to
communicate than email, Gather now has an integrated discussion forum for
your community based on the popular and open-source Discourse
<https://discourse.org> forum software.

Getting users on board is seamless thanks to single sign on—if you're
signed into Gather, you'll automatically get signed into the forum the
first time you click the link. Your name and email address are
automatically imported. No extra passwords to remember, email confirmation,
etc. Zero barriers to entry.

We've just started using it at Touchstone and engagement has been great.
People can pick what they read and you get only a daily summary email, so
it feels a lot more spacious than and email list.

Here is what our forum looks like after just a week of it being active:

[image: image.png]

Let us know if you'd like to try Gather and its new forum capability. If
you're already on Gather and want a forum set up, please also let us know.
It might take a few days to get things set up depending on demand.

Integrated email lists (via Mailman v3) are coming very soon. The virus and
other life events have delayed things somewhat but we are close!

Here are some other things various communities have been doing with
Gather during
the crisis we thought we'd share:

   - Adding laundry room to reservations (with a 3 hour time limit) so
   folks can use it one at a time
   - For folks who've bought a Zoom subscription, adding the Zoom room as a
   reservable resource
   - Using the meal cancellation feature so that messages are automatically
   sent out and meal average diner statistics aren't affected

We hope everyone's doing ok out there! Stay safe!

--
Tom Smyth

Worker-Owner, Sassafras Tech Collective
Specializing in innovative, usable tech for social change
sassafras.coop · @sassafrastech
Pronouns: he/him

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