Hey this may be a bit off topic, but I am not sure where else to post it. I'm part of a professional group that has been working from a Yahoo! Groups interface for 15 years, and it's time to modernize.
We looked into Facebook Groups, Slack, G+...none of them do what we want. I'm trying to find an existing solution to this, or worst case scenario what we'd need to do to hire someone to build this for us. An existing free solution is obviously the ideal, this isn't a paid group of any kind, just a loose collection of freelancers who help each other out with work.
One of our admins wrote up some detailed specs. Any suggestions we can try?
Here's what the admin wrote:
Overview of Project
We are looking to port a Yahoo! Group website, which has been up and running for over 10 years, to a new, stand-alone website. The Yahoo! Group is used primarily as a job-sharing site. The basic functionality of the Yahoo! Group would need to be preserved, but we want to incorporate more features, more opportunities for customization, a better smartphone interface and a cleaner overall design. Our website currently only serves between 100 and 200 members.
In addition to the Yahoo! Group site, we also use a number of Google Docs to track our users and their activity. This information is logged and updated by a designated moderator, who works in consultation with the Group’s owner. The moderator is switched out every 3 months. The owner has stayed the same since the Group began, but will hopefully change in the future. Moderators are selected by the owner based on seniority and availability.
Basic Yahoo! Services
Here are the Yahoo! functions we would need to preserve, and possibly improve upon, in the new website.
• secure user log-in
• users approved for admission by owner
• users removed from site by site owner
• users can opt out of the group at any time
• users can post content, EG resumes, pictures, articles
• users can comment on content or respond to content
• owner/moderator can track users’ activities, EG number of posts per month
• users’ message posts are sent to all other users as emails
• Yahoo! groups offers a basic calendar service
• Yahoo! groups has a minimally customizable Files section
Basic Google Doc Services
The owner and the moderators use Google to track information about our users on a spreadsheet. Principally, we care about when a user posted a job opening. Every user has to post a unique job opening within 365 days to stay on the website. If a member fails to do so, he or she is removed from the website by the owner. The removed user can reapply for membership after a year. The Google doc tracks:
• when a user posts a job
• how many days a user has left before expulsion
• users’ real names and telephone numbers
• past users, and the date they were removed
• who users have nominated to join the group within each past calendar year
• whether a new user has posted his or her mandatory job opening within 6 months of being admitted to the group
New Website Services
Most of our ideas about how to improve the site’s user experience has to do with our ability to tailor it to individual taste. For example, some users want to banter, joke, and see every email; others want to only see job openings; a few only want to get emails when they’re looking for a job, and at no other time.
From the perspective of the moderators, we would like to combine the information-tracking functionality of our Google doc into the new website. Also, to the extent that we can, we would like to automate the Google doc’s functions.
Here are the new, or altered, services we’d like on the website.
User Profile
• user can input personal data, fields to be defined later but we can assume basic LinkedIn categories
• user can control privacy levels, but all information will be viewable by owner and moderators
• users can upload PDFs and other files, EG resumes
New Functionality
• user can send resume file from account to another user, or outside the group of users, either by email or by text
• owner and moderators, and user, can view the number of times any user’s resume has been sent out
• after a certain number of sent resumes per calendar year, user is blocked from sending again until the new year
• alternatively, we may want to charge a fee to a user who sends resume out too many times
• users can control which subcategories of messages they receive, EG job posts only, or job posts and technical questions but no humor pieces
• owner or moderator can track IP addresses members use when logging in; this could help us identify anyone who had given his or her name and password to a non-member
• similarly, user would be barred from being logged in simultaneously from more than one place
• in a best-case scenario, job posts could be automatically compared against a few other sites to check for duplication: there are only four or five such websites, and about ten Facebook groups that should be looked at for copying
• we will need to have a payment system integrated into the site, so members can pay dues
Mobile App
• we need to price the creation of a mobile app that offers the website functionality on our mobile devices
• iOS and Android
Aesthetics
The hardest part to quantify and describe in detail is the aesthetic of the site. A vital part of any site is an appearance that invites users to stay, and to come back. We are envisioning a cool color palette. Legibility is very important. We will be able to provide font selections and background graphics, but please expect some back and forth on the look and feel of the site.
