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I'm working on a Google site and wondering if there's a way to add a discussion forum to it.
I've seen some hacked up solutions using Google Spreadsheets and such but it's a little too MacGuyver-esque for me.
I'd like to keep things contained in Google, else I'd just use an Embedded PHPBB installation.
One other option with Sites itself: Create a new page of type "Announcements." While a bit "bloggish" I think it could work as forum too. Each of your forum posts would be an announcement post. Clicking through to each post gives the option to add comments.
Not glorious, but it does keep it all in Sites. :-)
Google Groups would be used to host a Web Forum or Q&A and insert them to a webpage also to a Google Sites webpage.
Broad steps.
1. Create a group.
2. Insert the group in a Google Sites web page.
To create a group, from Create a group
- Go to Google Groups.
- Near the top left corner, click Create group.
- Describe the group. Tip: If you're not sure what to include, you can learn more about establishing general information and settings.
- Choose the type of group you want to create. Tip: If you're not sure what to choose, you can learn about selecting group types.
- Choose who can join, post, and see topics in your group. Tip: If you don't know what to pick, you can learn more about setting basic permissions.
- Near the top left corner, Click Create group button.
To insert the group to a Google Sites web page, will will need the group address. It should look like the following https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/foro-de-google-sites.
To insert the group to a Google Sites webpage:
Having a Google Sites web page in edit mode and the insertion cursor in the desired position inside one of the content boxes of the webpage, do the following:
I don't think you can change the "template" of a site once it's been created (yes, I know you can change the base template for individual pages, but I'm talking about the template for the entire site), but if you create a new site, you can create it based on one of the discussion forum templates listed in the template gallery.
Simply choose to make a new site, and in the template section just choose the "browse the gallery for more" link at the end. Do a search for "discussion" or "forum" or whatever. That'll set you on the right path, I think.
