Build a Private Family Website

[Galant]

I'm toying with the idea of setting up a website for the use of family members to share photos, news, information, but which is, of course, private, and not with all the data being scanned and 'owned' by Facebook et al.

Security is a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string' prospect, since it's always a trade off, and there'll always be risks to mitigate but at a basic level I'm looking for security/privacy conscious hosting rather than the big names that are looking to acquire and sell data.

In addition, I'd like to avoid coding one from the ground up. I've never been involved with web-design much so whenever I've had to turn my hand to that sort of stuff it's a real slog. Ideally there would be some sort of tool or designer to simplify the process.

Can anyone recommend anything at all, any hosts, tools, apps or anything else that might be useful, or any other advice?

Thanks,

G.

[kalniel]

Create a Signal group chat (and each of you need the app) and use that.

[[GSV]Trig]

By a domain, setup a phpBB forum and lock it down.

[Galant]

Create a Signal group chat (and each of you need the app) and use that.

That won't work. Some of the members want to be able to maintain/curate photos and things like that. A website is what is wanted.

[Galant]

By a domain, setup a phpBB forum and lock it down.

Interesting suggestion. I'll have to have a think about how that would work in this setting.

[Jonj1611]

Or maybe get a domain, get some hosting from somewhere like Krystal or freethought (cheapest £3 a month) then install something like wordpress which can be done with software installations built into the hosting website.

Then find yourself a family photo theme if you don't want to build everything yourself and you should be good to go.

Use something like Wordfence for security

[Saracen999]

This may be a daft question, but .... are all family members on-board with having this on a website in the first place? If so, then clearly, fine. But if some aren't, then you either have to do it despite that, which could cause ructions, or omit them which at least partially destroys the point.

I asked because we went through this. I, for one, was and remain not on-board with even basic personal details being on a website, and was very far from happy when I found my wedding photos online, and the rather pointed request to please take them down wasn't entirely popular.

Just be aware, unless everybody is genuinely up for it, in advance, it could prove to be a problem.