Let us get together, right down here
January 19, 2018 7:33 AM   Subscribe

I'd like to find a way to communicate with groups of friends/workmates/acquaintances about upcoming potential trips/meetings/etc.. Would like to avoid many email forths and backs, and not interested in using facebook or other such. These would be along the lines of "we're thinking about a soup and bread potluck on a Sunday afternoon in Feb. Are you interested? (and maybe "how interested are you?"), and which one would work for you?" Not a Meetup, but similar. Doodle seems most like what we're looking for, but what else have you?
posted by bullatony to Human Relations (9 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I've been surprised by how much I like Slack for organising personal/social stuff. It's all private and in one place, you can have multiple channels for different trips/topics/discussion areas, stuff like gauging interest for an event is very easy if you get people to use emoji responses to posts.

You should be able to get a free plan for what you're trying to do.
posted by terretu at 7:54 AM on January 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


If you want conversation and negotiation, slack is a good choice. But if you're just looking for a "hey, let's get together, here are some dates, pick the one or two that work best" the I vote Doodle; I use it all the time and it's great for cutting through the chatter.
posted by gideonfrog at 7:59 AM on January 19, 2018


WhatsApp? You can create a group and message and send photos, and turn notifications off/on as you need.
posted by Miko at 8:02 AM on January 19, 2018 [2 favorites]


I use Slack for a similar social purpose with non-technical people who do not use Slack for work and wow do they have a hard time. Joining channels, setting notifications seem insurmountable tasks. I don't want to go back to email though for the reasons you mention.
posted by RoadScholar at 8:14 AM on January 19, 2018


I think there are several platforms that will accommodate your needs. I too, attempted to get my social group to use Slack but it was overwhelming for them and nobody was willing to take time to learn how to use it.

My main takeaway from that experience is that it's very hard to get everyone to install and start using a new app / service. If there's a common platform that a majority of your social group is already using, I'd try to make that work for you.

I'd also love to hear other MeFites answers because this has been a frustrating problem for me. I do not want to use Facebook either but texts / emails are a little disjointed and cumbersome.
posted by sewellcm at 8:37 AM on January 19, 2018 [2 favorites]


I just use google forms and send out a link. The fact that it's google means there's little anxiety about responding (most people won't need to launch or learn a new app) and the stultifying font and layout choices are actually very accessible for a large range of people. There's even one out-of-the-box for finding a time and gauging interest

You can customize each one a little (color scheme and a header image) if you want to create a kind of 'brand' or recognition ("Oh right, it's bullatony's monthly potluck invite!") but other than that it's basic enough to actually get used.
posted by cocoagirl at 10:02 AM on January 19, 2018


My friends have a group chat with LINE. Bonus, cute cute stickers that change every week. But you can create a poll within the group chat and send it out.
posted by buttonedup at 2:42 PM on January 19, 2018


Try using Groupme - it's an app and there is an option to reply just using text messages.
posted by yueliang at 5:09 PM on January 19, 2018


Response by poster: Hey, all - thanks so much for the great feedback. Not marking a best answer because there's good info in each reply. Right now I'm auditioning doodle, and it seems like it'll work for my purposes. Many of my responders would be more comfortable with a rotary-dial phone, so slack is probably a stretch. I can see that, for certain sets of my folks, whatsapp, LINE,or groupme would be more immediate and, maybe, more feature-rich. I'm going to look at google forms, too, since I already operate that environment. At any rate, thank you all.
posted by bullatony at 11:33 AM on January 20, 2018


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