Our church is also ready to make the move to a more robust hosted website that our members can use.
The direction we are leaning toward is a php mysql open source platform.
In fact this forum is a good example of that platform.
It was written as a php open source application and is 'Powered by phpBB'.
I became aware of this approach when a group I play Americas Army with rented a server.
For an additional $7.00 a month we had access to a complete PHP based content management system.
All of the software involved is open source PHP. None of it has a monthly cost except for the $7 hosting fee. All software issues are handled in the 'php' community forums which is the downside of this approach.
What you get can be equated to this forum application we are using to share posts. All of what we see came free. power church folks put their logo and name at the top. They chose color schemes.
All of the rest of what we use here came free. This is also not the only 'forum' php application available.
Do a search on PHP, PHPnuke and you will see how robust the applications can be.
HOWEVER.... the users of this approach must pick and choose, install, activate, back it up, ensure security fixes are applied and be ready to hassle the hosting company if response time are a problem.
The end result can be very gratifying. My 80+ Americas Army friends are all over the world. They communicate, schedule tournaments, get reminded of birthdays, exchange emails, share videos and pictures just to name a few functions opps forgot we also use a donation function to accept paypal to pay for our monthly server rental.
If we can somehow have that environment in addition to PC+ features we would be happy.
btw each of us own the Americas Army game. It is written and supported by .........our own department of defense. Its use is free. The army uses it as a recruiting tool. just in case you were interested.
Web enablement
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