QuickTopic is a free, easy to use, web-based discussion board.
Features
QuickTopic is quite intuitive to use. You can create your own online group discussions in about 5 minutes as it’s web based (so no downloads). Users can participate by browsing to the web forum or work entirely within email by subscribing to the forum. Postings can be received one by one or digested to arrive once per day. Updates can also be received by RSS feed by simply appending ".rss" to the topic's URL.
All you have to do is email your group members the URL (web address) and you're away. Discussions can be archived and are held 'forever'. Users are encouraged to delete their discussions once they're sure it's complete.
If you decide you want more than one topic forum, you can create as many as you want, and use the Shared Topics page to create a public index of topics that you and your group care about.
QuickTopic automatically generates a long random unique URL for each discussion. This supports privacy and confidentiality of each topic, if that's desirable. Topics can also be linked to web pages to make them public and invite open participation.
A great feature, QuickThread, lets you instantly create an 'ad hoc' mailing list and web forum from any email conversation. Regular email discussions can be instantly 'upgraded' to QuickTopic by simply forwarding a group of email messages to a specific email address using QuickThread. A new discussion forum is created and seeded with these email messages, and all the participants are subscribed and notified by email. The conversation can then continue naturally via email, but is captured in the QuickTopic web forum for central reference and archiving.
Cost
Free
What it's used for
Quicktopic is ideal for quick one-off group discussions
Why it's good
Good help, easy to use, stable. Great QuickThread, RSS feed and Document Review tools.
Problems/downside
Yet to be found
Examples to check out (places to play are marked with an *)
Alternatives
Yahoo! Groups and other community spaces offer similar features but can't be used for commercial purposes.
Criteria/factors re tools and processes - QuickTopic
| Criteria | Comment | |
|---|---|---|
User friendly |
Very | Easy to set up and use. |
Push or pull in kind |
Both | Messages are emailed to you or you can receive them by RSS feed. |
low or high interaction with
participants/facilitators |
High | Good potential for high interaction |
synchronous or asynchronous
activity, |
Asynchronous* | Asynchronous design in that discussion board postings can be sent and read independent of time or location, but emailing and RSS feeds can create immediacy. |
facilitator skills of a low or high level |
Low |
Very easy to set up and use |
Participant skills of a low or high level |
Low |
Friendly intuitive interface. |