How to keep people informed by web/email about my father's illness?
December 21, 2014 8:33 AM Subscribe
We are looking for a good way to keep people informed about my dad's cancer treatment. Specifically: I'd like to be able to write posts that are visible on a blog or site of some sort, but that can also be sent to a couple dozen friends and family members by email. I looked at caringbridge, but it looks like there's no way to automatically sign people up to get email updates: They have to sign in and set their notification options, which seems more complicated that we'd like.
Here's what we want to do, broadly:
1) Have a way to send email updates to around a couple of dozen friends/family members. Ideally, they would get these updates without having to go through any sort of sign-up process.
2) Have an online archive of all the posts. These can be public.
3) I guess have some sort of place where people can post wishes and comments.
(My father is part of a an organization dedicated to how patients receive care in hospitals, so he's interested in there being a public document of his treatment, as well as a tool to reach family and friends)
We don't need anything to do fundraising, or to coordinate care or anything like that.
The tricky feature has been #1 above. The sites I looked at require people to sign up to get email notifications. But that seems too complicated for a number of people we want to reach.
Any suggestions? I've been looking at sites specifically related to patient communities (caringbridge, posthope, caresite) but maybe I could do this with some more general blogging or email-list tool?
Any suggestions much appreciated!!
Here's what we want to do, broadly:
1) Have a way to send email updates to around a couple of dozen friends/family members. Ideally, they would get these updates without having to go through any sort of sign-up process.
2) Have an online archive of all the posts. These can be public.
3) I guess have some sort of place where people can post wishes and comments.
(My father is part of a an organization dedicated to how patients receive care in hospitals, so he's interested in there being a public document of his treatment, as well as a tool to reach family and friends)
We don't need anything to do fundraising, or to coordinate care or anything like that.
The tricky feature has been #1 above. The sites I looked at require people to sign up to get email notifications. But that seems too complicated for a number of people we want to reach.
Any suggestions? I've been looking at sites specifically related to patient communities (caringbridge, posthope, caresite) but maybe I could do this with some more general blogging or email-list tool?
Any suggestions much appreciated!!
I mean, if you didn't need the updates to be anything beyond text, Yahoo Groups ticks off all your checkboxes.
posted by softlord at 8:40 AM on December 21, 2014
posted by softlord at 8:40 AM on December 21, 2014
Seconding softlord. Yahoo Groups is the first thing I thought of when reading OP.
posted by Fukiyama at 8:47 AM on December 21, 2014
posted by Fukiyama at 8:47 AM on December 21, 2014
I'd just set it up so that Caringbridge sent the email to me (or another person who checks their email often and deals with simple stuff quickly), then I'd forward that to the interested parties (using a mailing list/contact lost or just copy pasting a list of addresses).
posted by mskyle at 8:54 AM on December 21, 2014
posted by mskyle at 8:54 AM on December 21, 2014
Or you could set up a gmail address for this purpose. Sign that gmail address up to caringbridge, and then make a filter in gmail so that any emails to that account from caringbridge get forwarded to the rest of your group...
posted by wyzewoman at 9:10 AM on December 21, 2014 [6 favorites]
posted by wyzewoman at 9:10 AM on December 21, 2014 [6 favorites]
I have used Care Pages in the past for just this and they work great. You can send group emails and post to a blog that can have a privacy level you choose. I haven't used them on a while, but when I did I was able to add people to a notification list--they just had to confirm.
posted by Kimberly at 9:42 AM on December 21, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Kimberly at 9:42 AM on December 21, 2014 [1 favorite]
Seconding CarePages (at least as a recipient - I haven't used it to send updates)
posted by kbuxton at 10:27 AM on December 21, 2014
posted by kbuxton at 10:27 AM on December 21, 2014
If you set up a small mailing list using or a similar service, the recipients may get an email where they need to click a link to confirm, but they don't need to sign up. Supplement this with a blog (on, or similar), and for people who want to comment publicly they can comment on the blog. For private comments and wishes, you can set up mailchimp so if someone replies to the email, it goes to your father or whoever you want to receive the reply.
If your father wants his posts to be public, a blog is a much better venue than any of the dedicated caring sites. We tried several for a similar need, and went with the blog
If your father wants his posts to be public, a blog is a much better venue than any of the dedicated caring sites. We tried several for a similar need, and went with the blog for posting updates and a combo of blog comments for public responses and a Facebook group for private responses.
Wordpress offers an email update service http://jetpack.me/support/subscriptions/ for new posts - I don't think it requires an account, just an email address.
Another option is to set up a small mailing list using mailchimp or a similar service, the recipients may get an email where they need to click a link to confirm, but they don't need to sign up. Supplement this with a blog (on Wordpress, or similar), and for people who want to comment publicly they can comment on the blog. For private comments and wishes, you can set up mailchimp so if someone replies to the email, it goes to your father or whoever you want to receive the reply.
posted by dttocs at 2:11 PM on December 21, 2014
If your father wants his posts to be public, a blog is a much better venue than any of the dedicated caring sites. We tried several for a similar need, and went with the blog
If your father wants his posts to be public, a blog is a much better venue than any of the dedicated caring sites. We tried several for a similar need, and went with the blog for posting updates and a combo of blog comments for public responses and a Facebook group for private responses.
Wordpress offers an email update service http://jetpack.me/support/subscriptions/ for new posts - I don't think it requires an account, just an email address.
Another option is to set up a small mailing list using mailchimp or a similar service, the recipients may get an email where they need to click a link to confirm, but they don't need to sign up. Supplement this with a blog (on Wordpress, or similar), and for people who want to comment publicly they can comment on the blog. For private comments and wishes, you can set up mailchimp so if someone replies to the email, it goes to your father or whoever you want to receive the reply.
posted by dttocs at 2:11 PM on December 21, 2014
I would use something like TinyLetter — people can sign up to receive updates via email, and you can also post the archive. TinyLetter is free for up to 3000 (or 5000?) subscribers.
posted by third word on a random page at 2:27 PM on December 21, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by third word on a random page at 2:27 PM on December 21, 2014 [2 favorites]
TinyLetter is very easy to use - mail chimp can be a lot of details. It took me five minutes to set it up. I added some emails and I think they got an email to click yes I'm on the list, but the sign up was very easy. It doesn't have group comments, just direct responses back to you. A Facebook private group will do that if you want something less structured and more conversational, but it sounds like your dad just wants to be able to focus on writing and TL does just that.
posted by viggorlijah at 4:49 PM on December 21, 2014
posted by viggorlijah at 4:49 PM on December 21, 2014
Response by poster: Thanks, everyone! In the end: I set up a wordpress blog and just emailed people, as suggested by HuronBob. That seems to have worked ok.
All the dedicated health-update services had features I didn't like: Caringbridge puts a huge donation request right on the front page, which I didn't love. Carepages, from what I can tell, requires people to sign up in order to see the page, which was more privacy than we wanted/needed.
Blog and good old email seems to be doing the job well so far... People are getting the updates, commenting on the blog, etc...
posted by ManInSuit at 8:35 AM on December 30, 2014
All the dedicated health-update services had features I didn't like: Caringbridge puts a huge donation request right on the front page, which I didn't love. Carepages, from what I can tell, requires people to sign up in order to see the page, which was more privacy than we wanted/needed.
Blog and good old email seems to be doing the job well so far... People are getting the updates, commenting on the blog, etc...
posted by ManInSuit at 8:35 AM on December 30, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by HuronBob at 8:38 AM on December 21, 2014 [5 favorites]