How a community works

A Thiscovery community is a secure, private online platform built on enterprise-grade open-source technology. It provides a dedicated space where researchers, patients, healthcare professionals, and other stakeholders can collaborate on research projects, share insights, participate in discussions, and contribute to studies. Communities are organised into spaces focused on specific projects, topics, or research areas, with customisable access controls to ensure appropriate information sharing.

There are no hard limits on the number of community members or administrators. The platform is designed to scale from small working groups of 10-20 people to large communities with thousands of members. You can designate as many administrators as needed to effectively manage your community, with flexible role-based permissions allowing you to distribute management responsibilities appropriately.

Setup and ongoing costs vary depending on your requirements, including customisation needs, expected community size, storage requirements, and support level. We offer flexible pricing models including project-based setup fees and monthly hosting subscriptions. Please contact us for a tailored quote based on your specific needs. We're committed to making communities accessible for research projects of all sizes.

A basic community can be set up within 3 weeks, including initial configuration, branding, and administrator training. More complex setups requiring custom features, extensive branding, or specific integrations may take longer. Once live, you can immediately begin inviting members and creating spaces. We work with you to establish a timeline that aligns with your project needs.

Community maintenance is a shared responsibility. Thiscovery handles all technical infrastructure, security updates, backups, and platform upgrades. Your designated community administrators manage day-to-day operations including user management, content moderation, and content creation. We provide comprehensive administrator training covering all community management functions, plus ongoing support as part of monthly subscription costs. We provide a suite of guidance documents covering all administration aspects and additional training sessions can be arranged as needed.

Community members, depending on their permissions, can:

• Create and manage their personal profiles
• Join public spaces or request access to private spaces
• Post updates, share files and documents
• Comment on and like posts
• Participate in discussions and polls
• Receive notifications about relevant activity
• Search for content and other members
• Follow spaces and other members for updates
• Contribute to surveys and research activities
• Message other members directly (if enabled)
• Customise their notification preferences

Community administrators have extensive management capabilities including

• Managing community spaces (public and private)
• Inviting and approving members
• Setting up policies and terms and conditions
• Approving new user registration and managing existing users and members
• Setting additional questions for joining spaces (if required)
• Assigning roles and permissions to members
• Moderating content and managing posts
• Customising space settings and features
• Accessing usage analytics and engagement metrics
• Configuring notification settings
• Creating and managing surveys
• Reviewing and responding to reported content

Yes, communities are fully brandable. We can customise:

• Community logo and favicon
• Colour schemes and themes to match your organisation
• Welcome messages and about pages
• Email templates
• Custom CSS for advanced styling
• Navigation menus and layout
• Footer content and links

All branding is configured during setup, with the flexibility to update as needed.

Yes, spaces offer flexible visibility settings:

• Public spaces: Visible to all community members; anyone can join and view content
• Private spaces: Require approval to join; only members can view content
• Invite-only spaces: Only accessible via direct invitation

Space visibility can be changed at any time by space administrators, allowing you to adapt as project needs evolve.

Yes, we can configure sandbox or test spaces where community administrators can experiment with features or practice before implementing in live spaces. These are particularly useful for training new administrators or testing new approaches to community engagement before rolling out to wider groups.

Yes, communities include integrated survey capabilities allowing you to:

• Create custom surveys with multiple question types
• Target specific member groups or spaces
• Set response deadlines
• View real-time results and analytics
• Export responses for detailed analysis
• Send automated reminders

Yes, community members can report inappropriate content, spam, or concerning posts. Reports are sent directly to community administrators who can review flagged content and take appropriate action including removing posts, contacting members, or adjusting permissions. This helps maintain a safe, respectful environment for all participants. Administrators receive notifications of all reports and can track reporting history.

If you have an idea for a community, get in touch with us. We'll arrange an initial meeting to discuss your idea and help you think through the structure and modules (functions) needed to achieve your community goals. We can hold further meetings with you as needed to refine your requirements and finalise the community design. Once we have a clear understanding of your needs, we'll ask you to provide a project brief that outlines:

• Your objectives for the community
• Success measures
• Target audience(s) and expected member profiles
• Modules and features you require
• Topics and themes you want members to engage with
• Data residency requirements
• Branding guidelines and visual identity preferences

Once we receive your project brief, we'll begin building your community, keeping you informed throughout the development process to ensure it meets your vision and requirements.