This article is a list of community platform RFP questions. Use them in the written packet and on the live demo. Each question tests something NextBee’s branded community platform is built to do. Generic “do you have forums and badges?” lines will not do that work.

Ask these nine. Write down the answer you saw on the screen. If you also need paid creators, put that work on a separate ambassador document. Do not mix the two lists.

1. Can the community run on our domain, with our branding?

You are asking whether members will feel they are inside your company. NextBee supports custom domains and white-label controls. If the demo only works on the vendor’s URL, you are looking at a rented site.

2. Can a member sign in with the account they already have?

You are asking whether people need a second password. NextBee supports single sign-on and connections to systems you already run. If the demo creates a new username for someone who already exists in your directory, members will drop off.

3. Can one group be hidden from another group, including in search?

You are asking whether a dealer, a student, or an employee can see rooms that are not theirs. NextBee supports gated member areas and indexed search. Have the bidder search as the wrong person. If the private thread still appears, the wall is only a label.

4. Can two members talk privately without posting on a public board?

You are asking whether direct messages and private group chats exist in the same product. NextBee includes DMs, private group chats, and file sharing. Public boards alone are not enough for partner or employee communities.

5. After a moderator acts, can we still see what they did?

You are asking for an admin history that cannot be edited. NextBee includes activity flags, account controls, and immutable admin logs. A word filter is not a history. Trust and safety will need the log when something goes wrong.

6. Does a course, event, or certificate sit on the same member as the discussion?

You are asking whether one person is one record. NextBee includes calendars, courses, waitlists, progress tracking, and digital certificates on the community member. If classwork lives in another tool that syncs later, you have two people. Live sessions can also connect to an event engagement workflow, but the attendee still has to be this member.

7. Which screen shows that a room is fading or turning hostile?

You are asking for health, not post counts. NextBee includes custom dashboards, engagement scores, retention charts, real-time activity, and NLP sentiment tracking. Quiet readers also need a small first step. That is the point of our guide on how to bring lurkers into the conversation. Ask the bidder to show the first action the product offers those members.

8. How is the community priced, and do extra moderators cost extra seats?

You are asking whether staffing review makes the bill jump. NextBee prices on monthly active users and does not charge per administrator or moderator seat. Get the unit of price during the demo, not after legal review.

9. Where can member conversation be stored, and which files come with the response?

You are asking about speech, not only passwords. NextBee supports SOC 2 infrastructure, GDPR and CCPA alignment, private cloud, and data residency options. Ask for those files. A sentence about taking privacy seriously is not a file.

What these community platform RFP questions are for

They exist so the demo has to show a branded home, not a forum theme. NextBee should answer all nine on your member type: customers, partners, employees, or students. If one answer is missing, write that down. An invite is not an award.

Do not add ambassador items to this list. Missions, payout files, and paid-post disclosure belong on another packet. If referrals also matter, share a member ID with your referral program. Do not turn this hour into a second referral RFP.

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