web applications

Vanilla forums free bulletin board

Vanilla forums is a free solution for those wishing to create a bulletin board for their community.  Vanilla forum has some attractive positives, the first being that because it is a relatively new and small community it is not so much targeted by spammers as say, PHPBB.  It also has a very active community of users who are eager to help with any questions that you might have.  Other features include dead simple embedding that allows you to drop it onto your website with minimal HTML knowledge.  It also has importing tools and mobile and plugins capability.  We use vanilla as a staff bulletin board for our tutoring staff.  This allows communication among staff who may not necessarily interact on a daily basis.

Setting up vanilla is relatively easy but you must first gain access to your website server or have your IT do so.  Set up a MYSQL database, upload vanilla files to your server and follow the install directions.  Again, the vanilla community is very helpful and the developers are very open to feature requests.

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Clockspot: online timeclock

Clockspot is an online timeclock  that we began using in the center after demo-ing several other applications that we rejected because they were too expensive, offered too many or too few features for our purposes, were too complicated, or had poor user interface (UI) design.  Clockspot won out because it was simple to use, does what we need it to do, and is relatively inexpensive given the amount of time saved doing payroll.  The UI is such that we only needed to provide training-by-walking-around.  We only use it as a straight timeclock and do not use the project or task timing functions.  Clockspot has a pretty robust website that describes its features and also has an online demo so I’m not going to go on too long about it.  We have been using it for about six months now and it does the trick.  Three downsides that I’ve experienced is that the application has had one server outage that took a day to work through, support staff is mostly only available by email, and their billing model is geared towards credit card payments.  They will accept PO’s with some prodding. So far these experiences aren’t numerous or egregious enough to be dealbreakers.  If you’re using another time tracker  that you like please recommend in the comments.

Update:  On a scale of 1-5, my get your act together indicator moved from 2 to 3.2.  Nevertheless, not yet regretting my purchase.

Update: Clockspot now has auto invoicing with email notification.

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Meeting Planner & Timesaver

Just discovered this web application, Diarised, that allows you to arrange a few meeting times, enter an email list of potential attendees, and invite them to indicate their availability.  Log into their website to see who can make it when and to confirm the best times all in one shot.  This saves countless emails and return calls.  Diarised is cost free and requires no registration.  Tried it and it couldn’t have been easier.

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