Keep In Touch At Dragon*Con
For the last several years, I've maintained a Group Me for conventions. This is a web-based service that allows you to enter your phone number, join a particular Group Me (or be added by the moderator), and then send a regular SMS text message to the Group Me phone number that will then be relayed to everyone else in the group. They have the option to do the same. This has come in handy for sending a single message out to everyone to say "I'm going to eat at the hotel restaurant, anyone else free and want to share a meal?" and "Party tonight is in room 465!" and "Sorry, have to cancel the party - roommate is sick. Please don't show up tonight!" I send one message to one phone number and reach everyone who needs that information. Everyone else can send a message or reply to mine and everyone else gets to see it too.
Some people have suggested that Facebook or Twitter is the same thing, or good enough, for this purpose. But I don't agree. For one thing, it requires that everyone whom you wish to speak to has a FB or Twitter account. Second, it requires that you be friends with those people. Third, it requires that you have the ability to access FB or Twitter whenever you want to send that message. For some people, this is all true.
But not for me.
I don't have a smart phone, so that takes FB and Twitter right out from the start. But, assuming that I had access to either one, there are people that I might not be "friends" with on those services who still need the information, and there may be good reasons why they're not. For instance, many of my friends outright refuse Facebook, Twitter, or G+, so if I want to reach "everyone", I have to send out the social media blast and then go through my phone book and individually message each of those friends that aren't on whatever social media platform I just used to post. I almost always forget someone or message someone who didn't want to be included. For another, what if I'm not the person who set up this service? What if I'm friends with someone who started a group, which is how I got added in the first place. I don't know who all their other friends are or who else is on the list, but the organizer thinks I should be OK hanging out with everyone, otherwise why would they add me to a group that they want to all get together at con'? So, if I'm hosting a party, how do I reach all those other people in the group? I don't even know who is part of the group, let alone their names and contact information.
So, I could just make a public post, right? That way everyone can see it. Which means that everyone on the internet can see my hotel room number or the fact that I'm not *in* my room at the moment. Plus, everyone who isn't at the con' is seeing all my non-relevant-to-them posts about where I'm eating lunch and when I'm taking a nap. Also, even a public post won't get seen by the people who should see it if they don't know who I am or where to look for my public posts, yes, even with hashtags. I may be OK with sending out a message to some people whom I don't know if they are already vetted as part of "my group" but not OK with sending out a message to the larger internet public. There are benefits to having a private group to share relevant and perhaps personal information that doesn't go public.
Others have suggested that just sending a text message to all your friends is good enough or the same thing with the privacy features I want, but I also don't agree with that. In order for that to work, it requires that you have everyone's phone number who you want to send a message and then there's no way for the recipients to Reply All so that everyone else can see the response. So, again with the not having everyone's contact information and there being valid reasons for that, but there's also the Reply All problem. I've done the send out a mass text blast to try to coordinate a group event. My phone ends up "blowing up" with text messages as I try to respond to each individual with roughly the same answer (because many of them are asking the same questions) or try to be the go-between ("Bob just texted and said the Food Court is better, you?" "Bob, Sam says he'll buy you a drink if you go to the Food Court instead." "Sam, Bob says to order him a rum and coke."). This is a very inefficient method of coordinating, especially when there are other options available.
Group Me allows you to join yourself or have the moderator add you to the group. No one else will see your phone number unless they already have your phone number in their phone's address book, so it protects your privacy. It allows you to choose your display name so you can use the name that people can use to find you online or not, as you prefer. It removes me as the central organizing point and gives everyone else on the list some degree of control or participation. It works for all phones that have SMS capabilities (and if my ancient clam-shell dumb phone can do it, then every cell phone can do it). It does not cost anything except whatever your current text messaging plan is. If you have limited text messages, you can turn it on and off, and you can also check messages at the website with a computer or other device with internet access.
If you have no internet access and no or limited texting capabilities, then it's true, this service will not work for you. But I'm also at a loss as to how to include you on con' plan coordination at all in this case if I can't text or send you internet messages. So, sorry.
Group Me is not intended to replace Facebook, Twitter, or G+ - at least I'm not suggesting so. I plan to also continue tweeting and FBing when possible. Some messages are intended for public updates and others are intended for more private event coordination - different mediums for different purposes and all. But if you are planning to be at Dragon*Con and you know me or are a friend of a friend who pointed you here to get the information on how to sign up, you can visit https://groupme.com/join_group/149025/ZbRnVt? and join my Con Polys group. You don't have to be poly, this is just the name of the group I've been using for years and the people on the list (and the events that are coordinated on it) are poly-friendly. This means that people who *are* poly are welcome and are going to be openly polyamorous in appropriate social contexts (no, that doesn't mean group sex at the hotel restaurant, although parties that turn into orgies have been known to be coordinated using GroupMe - this is a con' after all, and that's not a poly-specific thing!). But, as I usually spend most of my time at the Skeptrack, and I am a skeptic myself, the group is also pretty strong on the skeptic values. Which means many of us have strong opinions on skeptic issues like religion, science, medicine, etc. Again, non-skeptics are welcome, but these are my values so these are the people I prefer to spend my time with and the atmospheres of events I coordinate or facilitate or prefer to attend reflect that.
Here are some common SMS commands to use for the Con Polys Group Me. Type in the following codes and send them to the GroupMe phone number:
Also, for those who prefer, there is also an app for GroupMe available for Android & iPhone. You can choose whether you want GroupMe to send you messages via SMS or the app and you can handle all the commands from the app rather than sending the above commands through SMS, including joining, existing, and re-joining.
Some people have suggested that Facebook or Twitter is the same thing, or good enough, for this purpose. But I don't agree. For one thing, it requires that everyone whom you wish to speak to has a FB or Twitter account. Second, it requires that you be friends with those people. Third, it requires that you have the ability to access FB or Twitter whenever you want to send that message. For some people, this is all true.
But not for me.
I don't have a smart phone, so that takes FB and Twitter right out from the start. But, assuming that I had access to either one, there are people that I might not be "friends" with on those services who still need the information, and there may be good reasons why they're not. For instance, many of my friends outright refuse Facebook, Twitter, or G+, so if I want to reach "everyone", I have to send out the social media blast and then go through my phone book and individually message each of those friends that aren't on whatever social media platform I just used to post. I almost always forget someone or message someone who didn't want to be included. For another, what if I'm not the person who set up this service? What if I'm friends with someone who started a group, which is how I got added in the first place. I don't know who all their other friends are or who else is on the list, but the organizer thinks I should be OK hanging out with everyone, otherwise why would they add me to a group that they want to all get together at con'? So, if I'm hosting a party, how do I reach all those other people in the group? I don't even know who is part of the group, let alone their names and contact information.
So, I could just make a public post, right? That way everyone can see it. Which means that everyone on the internet can see my hotel room number or the fact that I'm not *in* my room at the moment. Plus, everyone who isn't at the con' is seeing all my non-relevant-to-them posts about where I'm eating lunch and when I'm taking a nap. Also, even a public post won't get seen by the people who should see it if they don't know who I am or where to look for my public posts, yes, even with hashtags. I may be OK with sending out a message to some people whom I don't know if they are already vetted as part of "my group" but not OK with sending out a message to the larger internet public. There are benefits to having a private group to share relevant and perhaps personal information that doesn't go public.
Others have suggested that just sending a text message to all your friends is good enough or the same thing with the privacy features I want, but I also don't agree with that. In order for that to work, it requires that you have everyone's phone number who you want to send a message and then there's no way for the recipients to Reply All so that everyone else can see the response. So, again with the not having everyone's contact information and there being valid reasons for that, but there's also the Reply All problem. I've done the send out a mass text blast to try to coordinate a group event. My phone ends up "blowing up" with text messages as I try to respond to each individual with roughly the same answer (because many of them are asking the same questions) or try to be the go-between ("Bob just texted and said the Food Court is better, you?" "Bob, Sam says he'll buy you a drink if you go to the Food Court instead." "Sam, Bob says to order him a rum and coke."). This is a very inefficient method of coordinating, especially when there are other options available.
Group Me allows you to join yourself or have the moderator add you to the group. No one else will see your phone number unless they already have your phone number in their phone's address book, so it protects your privacy. It allows you to choose your display name so you can use the name that people can use to find you online or not, as you prefer. It removes me as the central organizing point and gives everyone else on the list some degree of control or participation. It works for all phones that have SMS capabilities (and if my ancient clam-shell dumb phone can do it, then every cell phone can do it). It does not cost anything except whatever your current text messaging plan is. If you have limited text messages, you can turn it on and off, and you can also check messages at the website with a computer or other device with internet access.
If you have no internet access and no or limited texting capabilities, then it's true, this service will not work for you. But I'm also at a loss as to how to include you on con' plan coordination at all in this case if I can't text or send you internet messages. So, sorry.
Group Me is not intended to replace Facebook, Twitter, or G+ - at least I'm not suggesting so. I plan to also continue tweeting and FBing when possible. Some messages are intended for public updates and others are intended for more private event coordination - different mediums for different purposes and all. But if you are planning to be at Dragon*Con and you know me or are a friend of a friend who pointed you here to get the information on how to sign up, you can visit https://groupme.com/join_group/149025/ZbRnVt? and join my Con Polys group. You don't have to be poly, this is just the name of the group I've been using for years and the people on the list (and the events that are coordinated on it) are poly-friendly. This means that people who *are* poly are welcome and are going to be openly polyamorous in appropriate social contexts (no, that doesn't mean group sex at the hotel restaurant, although parties that turn into orgies have been known to be coordinated using GroupMe - this is a con' after all, and that's not a poly-specific thing!). But, as I usually spend most of my time at the Skeptrack, and I am a skeptic myself, the group is also pretty strong on the skeptic values. Which means many of us have strong opinions on skeptic issues like religion, science, medicine, etc. Again, non-skeptics are welcome, but these are my values so these are the people I prefer to spend my time with and the atmospheres of events I coordinate or facilitate or prefer to attend reflect that.
Here are some common SMS commands to use for the Con Polys Group Me. Type in the following codes and send them to the GroupMe phone number:
- To join: try sending any message to the Con Polys GroupMe number 631-406-4104 and see what happens. Since I'm already the owner of the GroupMe, I can't do that. If anyone tries this, let me know if it works so I can update this.
- To leave: #exit This command will automatically remove you from a group.
- To mute: #mute | #unmute Use this command to mute and unmute groups. The first time you send it, you will no longer receive messages from this group. When you’re ready to start receiving messages again, text #unmute to begin receiving messages again!
- To change your display name: #name [name] Changes your nickname in the group
- To get the group list: #list Send this command, and you'll receive a list of the names of everyone in your group.
- To get help: #help This command will send you a text with the basic commands you might have forgotten.
Also, for those who prefer, there is also an app for GroupMe available for Android & iPhone. You can choose whether you want GroupMe to send you messages via SMS or the app and you can handle all the commands from the app rather than sending the above commands through SMS, including joining, existing, and re-joining.