a friend wants to set up a discussion in a closed online forum. she wants to post a topic and then have participants discuss the topic. she avoids social media.

has there been a next-gen version of discussion boards? I'm guessing she's looking for something along that line, but she and her userbase would be scared off by such a clunky fiddly interface. they want it to be mobile-friendly and not look like web 1.0.

any suggestions?