I have a need and advice on forum space for both public and private forums.

By my terms 'private forum' to mean that no one can see the inner pages / posts / thread / without logging in using their own user name and password.

I found several around - Yahoo still has some and other providers have jumped on the bandwagon as well.

I prefer a format where you can see the messages rather then one message at a time.

So what are your experiences and suggestions.

I'm not sold on yahoo - but I feel safe that they will be around tomorrow - on the other hand I also see more and more former private forums from yahoo relocating elsewhere.

http://www.freeforums.org/

When you agree to use freeforums you agree that they own everything that is written in the posts, and that they can use it and your picture in their ads - I think I'll pass of that one - but thanks

There's quite a few free ones out there, but from my years of hosting sites, you usually get what you pay for.

First off they say what you can and cant host ( not a problem in most cases ), they also totally control your content meaning that should your site become popular and you decide to move to your own hosting, its pretty much impossible to take any of it with you.

Hosting is so cheap nowadays that you could have your own site/forums up and running for about $5 or less a month, giving you full control of it and the ability to take your data with you anywhere you want.
This is what I would recommend over any free stuff, there's no contracts or anything, so worst case scenario is your out 5 or 10 bucks if you decide its not for you.