Frequently Asked Questions

Hoop.la is the most powerful, turnkey social community service you'll find. You can run an entire site using Hoop.la, which includes a feature-rich blog, amazing forums, chat events, private messages, and calendar, as well as support for photo, video, and audio uploads. No software to install. Check out the features.

No, you don't. You can easily disable/hide the features you don't need. If you just want to run a forum, disable all of the other modules. If you just want a blog, disable everything but the blog, etc.

Yes, they can, if you want them to be able to. You choose which of the supported social networks you want to support, including Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube, Yahoo, and Foursquare. If you enable these, members will be able to sign in directly on your site or using their credentials from these other social networks. This option is available for all plans.

For everything but Pro plans, absolutely not. Cancel anytime right from your site's control panel. Pro plans require a one-year commitment.

Of course! You can set your site up to use your own custom domain or subdomain. Your Hoop.la domain will always work as well, even if you set up a custom domain for your site. Here's our handy dandy Custom Domain Guide.

Get help from us and fellow Hooplatists at http://help.socialstrata.com. Most people are amazed by the level of support we provide. If you need more advanced support, consider a Pro plan.

We emphasize "independence" because you can really make this your own. All members belong to you, not some larger network. You can create your own custom profile fields. You can change themes or create your own. You can run the community on your own domain. You can customize your site menu and even add custom pages. You can control what features to use and which members can use them.

Yes, we can! With our "Build It For Me" service, we will actually set up your site for you, based on what you tell us you want. We'll configure your site and even customize your theme, if you want, based on your instructions. This optional service is free for Pro plans and costs $199 (one-time fee) for all others.

Absolutely none. No software to install, no servers to maintain. No coding required to change your themes.

Most likely, yes. Just tell us what platform you are using and we'll give you a quote. Most of the time this will be a very affordable, flat rate. Tell us what you need on our support site.

We love Twitter too. You can set your site up so that tweets from a certain account are automatically integrated in your community blog. We also support integrating content from Facebook, Google, Foursquare, and more on member profile pages.

Making money through premium memberships is simple. Decide what you want to charge for. Some sites focus on premium content- admins can mark any piece of content as premium and reserve it just for premium members. Or you may also reserve certain features for paying customers. You set your own fee and we handle both collection of the money and the instant/automatic activating and disabling of premium accounts as they are paid for or expire. There are no setup fees and no merchant account required. You keep 75% of all premium membership revenue. (Apprentice sites earn 75% for all sales revenue over the first 8 net sales each month, however.)

No, it is not! We are currently testing a Spanish version, so if you are interested in that, please contact us. We are actively looking for Translation Partners for other languages, as well. If you can help us translate into another language, drop us a line on our support site at http://help.socialstrata.com.

Pro customers have the ability to add application-level customizations. All customization requests are subject to approval. A customization quote will be provided.

Yes, you can. We include a built in member export function. If you want to export your content too, it's a manual process right now (you'll need to send us a request at http://help.socialstrata.com)..