The Practical Hacks Forum launches!

I’ve been toying with the idea of adding a forum to Practical Hacks for the last few months.  Why a forum? 

One of the things that’s become increasingly clear over the last 12 months is the growing sense of a Practical Hacks community. On numerous occasions we’ve seen readers pitch in and help one another with issues and questions, and have even given one another unneeded products.  A forum will enable regular readers and subscribers to help shape the conversation and exchange of ideas.  Additionally, forum contributors won’t be constrained by the character limit that’s imposed on comments on the blog.  Finally, I frequently come across deals on travel gear and clothing, and have often wished I had a way to share them with readers without devoting full posts to them; the Forum will solve this problem as well (see the reference to “Deals… ” below).

On Saturday, I did a soft launch of the Forum.  If you happened by the site over the weekend, you might have even seen evidence of my tinkering with the settings for the Forum.  For starters, I’ve created 3 broad groups – “Smart Travel,” “Deals & Great Buys,” and “Productivity.” Within these, I’ve set up several Forums.  As we go forward, I need your help in determining how to further add structure (and forum topics).

Using the Forum is easy. (Unregistered) Guests have read-only rights; they can view topics and threads, but they can’t reply or start new threads.  When you register, you become a Member and can then comment on existing threads and start new discussions; you can also PM or email other members; your profile will display In Boxes for both.  Registration is simple: provide an email address and create a password, confirm your email address (an email will be sent to your In Box; you’ll need to simply click on a link in that message), and you’re good to go.  (NOTE:  I will not share your email address with anyone, nor will I spam you in any way!)

I’ve begun populating the Forum with a few topics of interest.  If you can, I’d love it if you could also start a few discussions…   the Forum is your chance to play a more significant role in Practical Hacks.  Please click on the “Forum” page link in the header of this page, and register as a Forum member right now – it will only take a minute or two, and you can get started on helping build the PH community.  Thanks for your help!!