Class alumni and reunion website

[tcsenter]

We have a 20-year reunion coming up and the organizers used Classreport.org to provide the website for registering class members and sharing information. At a cost of up to $900 for only five years of hosting, its a major rip-off to say the least. So I'm entertaining other options to propose.

I can register domain names, find hosting, and handle all the domain administration stuff. I'm just really bad at the creative side of things; web design. However, I have installed and setup a few discussion forums using SMF and phpBB with no problem (they mostly install themselves).

Does anyone know of a similar low-cost or free project that is specifically for alumni and class reunion websites?

I could probably use Joomla but there would be a steep learning curve that I'm trying to avoid. I've never used Joomla though I did [successfully] perform a test installation of it once. TIA.

 

[nickbits]

Make a facebook group?

 

[tcsenter]

Well the class has kind of coalesced around Facebook though we don't have a page specifically for it, that's what they are using the Classreport site for. The reunion planner is just posting updates to their own personal Facebook page and referring people to the Classreport portal. They might be interested in having their own domain, but I'm not sure.

I spent about 30 minutes looking for class website and reunion planning products. There are several available and all are fairly expensive or require that you buy their hosting, but Classreport.org seems to be one of the bigger rip-offs given the lack of sophistication and features. And I found dozens of class websites that are using these solutions, so there has got to be a demand for something that is largely self-installing with different templates or themes to chose from, like discussion boards.

 

[troytime]

facebook group. seriously.

 

[DaveSimmons]

WordPress.com blog? = free.

Or Facebook.

Or a free wiki?