hsmomma1 Posted May 28, 2016 Share Posted May 28, 2016 Our homeschool group currently uses Facebook to communicate and sign up for activities using a closed group. Are there any other groups out there that use something different that has worked well? We are a small support group, not an organization and do not have a website. We prefer something free or low cost to use and that users will need to login to access. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted May 28, 2016 Share Posted May 28, 2016 Nope, our group uses a fb group as well. It works really well, so nobody sees any reason to change. We had a yahoogroup before, and that was much less convenient, so we moved to fb. Why do you want to switch? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted May 28, 2016 Share Posted May 28, 2016 Our homeschool co-op uses both yahoogroups and FB. Not everyone is on FB. I agree that yahoogroups is less convenient, but we use it to upload files such as a syllabus or course descriptions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted May 28, 2016 Share Posted May 28, 2016 Our homeschool co-op uses both yahoogroups and FB. Not everyone is on FB. I agree that yahoogroups is less convenient, but we use it to upload files such as a syllabus or course descriptions. just wanted to mention that the bolded is possible with fb as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted May 28, 2016 Share Posted May 28, 2016 just wanted to mention that the bolded is possible with fb as well. If it were up to me, we would all be on FB, but they hold onto the yahoo group for the folks who aren't. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted May 28, 2016 Share Posted May 28, 2016 If it were up to me, we would all be on FB, but they hold onto the yahoo group for the folks who aren't. we were in the same boat at some point in time, and it became a major headache to update all information in two places, so the yahoogroup eventually died a slow death. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa B Posted May 28, 2016 Share Posted May 28, 2016 Meetup.com 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted May 28, 2016 Share Posted May 28, 2016 we were in the same boat at some point in time, and it became a major headache to update all information in two places, so the yahoogroup eventually died a slow death. Maybe this will happen. I can only dream. :D Yahoogroups is everchanging, and I don't appreciate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxbridgeacademy Posted May 28, 2016 Share Posted May 28, 2016 I was in a group that did both fb and yahoo, and yeah the yahoogroup was being phased out but I actually liked getting the updates and such through yahoo better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmomma1 Posted May 28, 2016 Author Share Posted May 28, 2016 regentrude - we have members that do not like facebook and don't have an account. So we are trying to locate something that all members can use. We have looked at yahoo and doodle. We are just trying to look for a better option. It's very time consuming for the admins to handle emails and facebook. We plan to go to one option this fall.Thanks to everyone who has left feedback so far! Very helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Targhee Posted May 28, 2016 Share Posted May 28, 2016 Meetup.com has a small administrative fee (if it's distributed across all the group members). It allows you to set up events and people RSVP if they are going and how many people are coming with them. You can cap the size of an event (say you have a field trip with a max of 20 people and you want a neutral first-come-first-served way of determining who in the group can go, meetup will do that). It also has ways of communicating, uploading pictures and files, and a few other things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted May 28, 2016 Share Posted May 28, 2016 (edited) Our group has both Yahoo and FB groups. I'm one of the hold outs that refuses to get a FB account. About 25% is only on Yahoo and 25% is only on the FB group. I anticipate the Yahoo group dying eventually. When that happens, the holdouts will either rely on word of mouth or stop being part of the group. It will cause a break in the group sometime, but hopefully not soon. I don't see the FB (mostly new, young) moms going to a new platform. They like it and already use it, so it doesn't require an extra login. One of the big city groups I belong to uses homeschool-life. It lets them have a web page and forums. I don't know what fees there are. Edited May 28, 2016 by RootAnn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted May 29, 2016 Share Posted May 29, 2016 Our group has both Yahoo and FB groups. I'm one of the hold outs that refuses to get a FB account. About 25% is only on Yahoo and 25% is only on the FB group. I anticipate the Yahoo group dying eventually. When that happens, the holdouts will either rely on word of mouth or stop being part of the group. It will cause a break in the group sometime, but hopefully not soon. I don't see the FB (mostly new, young) moms going to a new platform. They like it and already use it, so it doesn't require an extra login. One of the big city groups I belong to uses homeschool-life. It lets them have a web page and forums. I don't know what fees there are. Our group in a former city used Homeschool Life. I think it cost around $6 per email address. The downside was that they couldn't add extra emails per family (both spouses, teens) without an extra cost. I don't remember it being very searchable or having an archive, but it's been a couple years, so I could be mistaken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeschoolingHearts&Minds Posted May 29, 2016 Share Posted May 29, 2016 Our group uses Big Tent. It's free and you can set up your own forums, news blasts, etc. We had yahoo once upon a time but nobody liked anything about it except the fact that they got it automatically in their email and could respond to it directly through email. We will probably never use FB because we have several members who aren't on FB and don't want to be. Big Tent has its minuses (there's a little bit of a learning curve), but you can set it up so that people get things automatically in their email like they do with yahoo groups, you can upload files, create different forum groups, subgroups, etc. You can also have a "public" webpage that directs people to how to join your group. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeschoolingHearts&Minds Posted May 29, 2016 Share Posted May 29, 2016 Our group used Homeschool-life before Big Tent. The price is about $8 a family now. The reason we switched is because there were some glitchy bits and things you couldn't do that made the admin (ME) batty. So we switched to Big Tent. Big Tent is easier in some ways, less glitchy, and free. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
domestic_engineer Posted May 29, 2016 Share Posted May 29, 2016 Another free option: wiggio.com We always had trouble with Big Tent not forwarding attachments or certain formats of emails. But perhaps that was user error? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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