class forums

Whilst being "actively involved" in setting up the RS Q'BA Owner's Group, I'd say that some sort of point of reference is vital.

Y&Y? Probably not what I'd like - The Class Association website is where you want to find information about the boat, rigging/tuning, 2nd hand boats for sale, builder/sailmaker info, etc. The Supernova Class Association is very good for what it is. Their forum is open to all, which importantly provides potential owners with the opportunity to ask questions about the boat! Closed forums are pointless.

RS are aware that an Owner's Group/CA is beneficial to a Class, and they provisionally suggested Yahoo Groups (which I dislike for many reasons), along with Google Groups (which I cancelled due to spam). Both of these tend to have badly-linked discussions, as mentioned previously. There also isn't much scope to prevent, say, the RS Vision Group from looking any different to any other Group on there.

For now, I've gone down the Facebook route, until RS are willing to get something "proper" up and running here.

For my money the Laser forum and the Phantom Class Forum are among the best I have come across.

The Blaze uses a yahoo group, somewhat cumbersome but it is well used by the CA members.

To my mind a lot of classes could learn from the Laser and Phantom. Both boards are friendly and welcoming even to non class sailors (remember a lurker on your forum today is a potential class member tomorrow).

As for Y&Y hosting forums for smaller classes is an idea but there would have to be some kind of incentive for Y&Y to do this because the work involved would need to be paid for (Y&Y is a commercial organisation don't forget).

We have a class forum; it's easy to use free to anyone to join and all content is open to the public.

http://www.mustoskiff.com/phpBB3/index.php

Classes who hide their forums behind closed doors seem quite strange to me ... why would you want to do that?

If any class wanted to host a forum there is plenty of freeware around or you can sign up for an advertising supported free & hosted service ...

Y&Y isn't the place for class forums ... even if it used to be the Cherub forum ...