The main downside with Slack is that in the free tier, only the most recent 90 days of messages are visible. Most of the groups I'm in are on Discord, partly for that reason.
I don't really have a preference, though. From my perspective, all the major competitors (Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams) have converged on essentially the same product.
Slack + a linked DropBox folder or Google Drive (so people could comment in line a document rather than in a separate thread) would probably go a long way.
Speaking from personal experience, using a platform that others are already using in other aspects of their life will likely result in more frequent and more helpful engagement. So you might want to narrow it down to a couple options that meet your needs and then poll your army to see who is already using one of them and make a decision accordingly.
Skool is another platform option. It has the interesting addition of gamifying participation - you can set levels, give rewards, etc. for participation. I am in quite a few communities off of Facebook and the 'out of sight, out of mind' factor is real, so that little nudge to participate can help. Also, Skool is a bit like Substack in that it has its own community, so there's the potential, once you're ready, to be able to have another growth channel.
Of the two networks you listed, I much prefer Circle as a participant. It's cleaner and easier to navigate.
Aeetes was evil, Jason a self-aggrandizing ass (ooh, aah, another demigod who takes advantage of a woman then abandons her because she’s bad for his image), and I personally prefer to let the dead rest in peace. Guinea pigs are cute but have a history of being poked with experimental drugs, possibly leading towards death. An army of skeleton Guinea pigs would surely be the worst of both worlds. (This commentary is not intended to aid in decision making purposes.)
You should ask Cait about Circle since I believe that's what she used for her now disbanded community. I have trouble remembering to go to communities more than once a month no matter what platform they are on, but I found it easy to use and navigate.
Also, for the record, I voted skeleton army, but my younger kids saw your graphic with the warrior guinea pigs and were unanimous and unequivocal in their support of the guinea pig army.
+1 for Discord (it's really not that hard in browser or with an app) or Slack (paid not free lest you lose your old chats), plus a google drive. I am future homeschooler, parent of a 1 year old too young to start testing this on, but see you in a few years! Best of the luck to the _____ Army
Discord in a browser window is easier to use than the program you download - but maybe still too complicated?
Slack could be an alternative, we used it for a while during the pandemic. It might require a paid subscription (for the owner only, not the members) to get all the useful features.
We use Mighty Networks for as our community platform at Prenda for our customers. I wouldn't recommend it for this purpose. It's a little unintuitive (it feels like a counterfeit Facebook but it doesn't match 1-to-1) and formatting long posts (e.g. chapter drafts) can be frustrating.
Other people have recommended combo of Slack + Google Docs, this makes sense to me.
I expected to see slack on your list of platform options!
Fyi, here's what _I_ think of when I hear Skeleton Army: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeleton_Army
The main downside with Slack is that in the free tier, only the most recent 90 days of messages are visible. Most of the groups I'm in are on Discord, partly for that reason.
I don't really have a preference, though. From my perspective, all the major competitors (Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams) have converged on essentially the same product.
Same here! We learned about them from the Stuff You Should Know podcast.
Slack + a linked DropBox folder or Google Drive (so people could comment in line a document rather than in a separate thread) would probably go a long way.
Speaking from personal experience, using a platform that others are already using in other aspects of their life will likely result in more frequent and more helpful engagement. So you might want to narrow it down to a couple options that meet your needs and then poll your army to see who is already using one of them and make a decision accordingly.
Skool is another platform option. It has the interesting addition of gamifying participation - you can set levels, give rewards, etc. for participation. I am in quite a few communities off of Facebook and the 'out of sight, out of mind' factor is real, so that little nudge to participate can help. Also, Skool is a bit like Substack in that it has its own community, so there's the potential, once you're ready, to be able to have another growth channel.
Of the two networks you listed, I much prefer Circle as a participant. It's cleaner and easier to navigate.
Aeetes was evil, Jason a self-aggrandizing ass (ooh, aah, another demigod who takes advantage of a woman then abandons her because she’s bad for his image), and I personally prefer to let the dead rest in peace. Guinea pigs are cute but have a history of being poked with experimental drugs, possibly leading towards death. An army of skeleton Guinea pigs would surely be the worst of both worlds. (This commentary is not intended to aid in decision making purposes.)
You should ask Cait about Circle since I believe that's what she used for her now disbanded community. I have trouble remembering to go to communities more than once a month no matter what platform they are on, but I found it easy to use and navigate.
Also, for the record, I voted skeleton army, but my younger kids saw your graphic with the warrior guinea pigs and were unanimous and unequivocal in their support of the guinea pig army.
+1 for Discord (it's really not that hard in browser or with an app) or Slack (paid not free lest you lose your old chats), plus a google drive. I am future homeschooler, parent of a 1 year old too young to start testing this on, but see you in a few years! Best of the luck to the _____ Army
Discord in a browser window is easier to use than the program you download - but maybe still too complicated?
Slack could be an alternative, we used it for a while during the pandemic. It might require a paid subscription (for the owner only, not the members) to get all the useful features.
We use Mighty Networks for as our community platform at Prenda for our customers. I wouldn't recommend it for this purpose. It's a little unintuitive (it feels like a counterfeit Facebook but it doesn't match 1-to-1) and formatting long posts (e.g. chapter drafts) can be frustrating.
Other people have recommended combo of Slack + Google Docs, this makes sense to me.
Super happy to hear you aren't considering Facebook!
I use slack for another group so I can echo some of the other comments here.
Slack might work as a platform for you