Basic, cheap message board

[sam_b]

Hi,

I am working with a group treating very sick cats with (as yet) unlicensed meds for a hitherto fatal illness. The whole movement is currently reliant on Facebook messaging to help out new members with treatment questions and information - there is a Facebook page as well but it is not used as much as the messenger for urgent queries etc.
As the number of people joining grows fast, the fb messenger chat is becoming more chaotic with so many voices and obviously the information is fairly transient (most people don’t scroll or search).
They would REALLY benefit from a message board site allowing discussion threads to organise the help and information and I would really like to help out if I could by helping set that up….. problem is I don’t have a clue where to start.
It wouldn’t need to be anywhere near as sophisticated as TheDibb, but it does need to be private …as the drugs are unlicensed so it is a grey area ….and able to have some static information and an interactive message board functionality …. Oh, and I needs to be cheap, I don’t mind funding it initially but this is a shoestring operation.
Any thoughts on where I start…..?

Any advice or thoughts massively appreciated.