Private Group Platform

ashaislurking

After discussion in the randoms thread, most of us seem pretty comfortable moving this group to a private group in one way or another. What platform would you be most comfortable moving to?

klj0228

I will say I don’t really use Facebook. I have an account, it’s in my maiden name, I only follow a couple parenting groups and dog rescue, have zero friends and zero pictures. My last group moved to private groups on TB for a little bit and then to ProBoards. It is a similar setup, has an app with notifications and allows for different threads. It still feels more private, except we all share photos of our children, spouses and ourselves because ProBoards doesn’t own any photos you post unlike TB. 

I am fine with whatever we choose, but so worry I will not be as sharing of photos and such on Facebook because there are people from my life who I don’t want to know I even have children. I would hate for somehow someway it get out there because I become more active on Facebook. 

DoubleUp8

I like the idea of a halfway step to a private Bump group. If people want to go to a Facebook group, I will join, it just might take me sometime before I am comfortable sharing pictures and accepting friend requests from people. 

mindyb2019

I think a private TB Group would be a good start first for sometime untill people feel more comfortable then maybe switch over to a private FB group. Just an idea. 

_orchid_

@klj0228 totally understand. If it helps, I'm in a few fb groups that are private and I don't think anyone outside of the group can see the things I post in the group. Within the group, I can't see more of people's profiles than what they've posted on our shared group, so there's some privacy that way as well.

legallykate

When we did the switch to FB it took a while before everyone got comfortable enough to also friend each other so at first we could only see what everyone posted in the group, like @_orchid_ said. But I’m also not opposed to going to a private bump group first if that makes everyone more comfortable! 

Maggie1202

I voted for FB, but am totally fine with a private TB group first!

kfc1983

I think whatever we do, my personal preference would be to stick with one (no interim step) rather than having to move from group to group. I think a private fb group is more private (for lack of a better word) than what we’ve been sharing on here anyway, and we can still choose to post or not post what we are comfortable with. Just my two cents 🤷🏼‍♀️😁

marebear15

I'm way more active on Facebook than I am on the Bump, especially during maternity leave when I don't have access to my work computer. It's easier to do FB on my phone. 

Oh, and just an FYI on Private Groups: Admins can still view everything. About 2 years ago, a Bump friend of mine got a warning from something she posted in a group. She debated it and they removed it, but it made me hesitate about how "private" the private groups are. But yes, no one from Google can see those posts.

dogmom5

I voted fb just because with what little time I have in the day, it’s easier for me to check up on fb than the bump. I never get bump notifications and I try to keep up but I sometimes feel like I am missing stuff since my bump app is weird sometimes
ETA if it is a bump private group, I am ok with that also, would just prefer keeping up on fb 

DoubleUp8

You can make a Facebook group private and unsearchable. Then only people with the link could request to join the group. We could have people on the BMB pm designated Admins who conduct a screening to receive the link. I would probably feel more comfortable with FB if we took extra precautions to ensure it was truly private and hidden. 

akoros

I like the idea of a private group as we get further along/post-birth, but don't have a strong opinion on the platform. I know the photo rights issue on Facebook (and sounds like The Bump as well) can make people uncomfortable, though I don't know enough about other good options that wouldn't have the same terms. 

That said, I do have a slight preference towards Facebook. While I don't post much on my public feed, I do look at it frequently and it seems easier to use. I'm part of some private groups on Facebook and haven't had any problems with information getting "leaked" to my public feed. I also find Facebook much easier to use if I'm not sitting at a computer, I still usually can't find the forums on The Bump's app and when I do it often doesn't load, so for longevity FB seems like the easier option. 

wanderlustsoul

In my last BMB, the group was hidden. I don’t even think I friended anyone for several months into it. We had Admins and then everyone had to send a photo with them and their bump with a paper that had their username, due date, and current date. We had criteria for who we admitted into the group. 

MelissaMay82

I voted for FB. I am also in some private groups and no info has shown up on my profile. I definitely agree with having to submit a photo with face, bump, date, screen name.

ramzlau

For my previous BMB we moved to FB, had admins do a screening and private link that was messaged/inboxed to people that met the criteria of being active so we didn’t have lurkers joining us over on FB. I think over the years a few people have been removed from the FB group because of inactivity or safety concerns, but for the most part it has been a super helpful- no drama group of about 40 members. 

Maggie1202

Question for the group - What kind of criteria should there be to join the next group? What counts as active? For example, I don't post daily, but I probably post weekly (or close to). I know some of us really don't like TB app, so it's hard to get on much. So what counts as active?

Omie_Wise

I vote for the private FB. That’s what we have with my A17 group. It’s completely private, we had to give our email addresses to be invited. FB is so much easier to use than the Bump. The bump is so hard to use on my phone. 

For my last group what counted as active was basically do the super active members recognize your name. Have you been on and posting? Not like daily but have you tried to be a member of this community? 

wanderlustsoul

Yeah basically do the admins know your username because you’ve been around? Doesn’t need to be daily but enough to be recognized. In my last BMB, a bunch of lurkers started posting only when FB was mentioned so we (the admins) only looked at time before that to avoid that issue. 

MelissaMay82

Same as @Omie_Wise and @AKuzReve, it was if the admins/active members recognized your name. 

DoubleUp8

I think profile picture is big indicator for me, often times I recognize a profile picture as much or more than a user name

Omie_Wise

I also want to add that I vote for just moving to FB because moving either to the private bump or FB will likely kill this board so I would rather just move once versus twice. 

remi1014

The bump is really hard for me to get into and post in for some reason, so I feel bad because I don’t think I’m an active enough poster to be included. But I totally understand the desire to go more private!

ruemcclanahan

Like I said in ransoms TB is so glitchy for me it's hard for me to use regularly. Versus FB which I'm on all the damn time lol! So FB definitely has my vote. I was an admin for my last BMB when we moved to FB and it went pretty smoothly.

ruemcclanahan

We actually still all talk everyday And it's been 5 years now 

ashaislurking

While I'm not opposed to an interim TB PG step, the concerns about how "private" the PGs here really are and the fact that the app/site are difficult at best to navigate regularly I think FB might be the better option.

ramzlau

So is next steps picking admins? 

MelissaMay82

@ramzlau I think that would be a good next step. 

kristah2

I don’t feel like I know you all well enough for everyone to have access to my fb including location and stuff at this point. 

My first BMB we changed to private group until we got to know each other a little better then recently moved to slack about a year ago. Most of us are Facebook friends now. 

My second BMB moved to fb around 6 months. I didn’t follow and lost contact. 

I’m okay with whatever everyone decides though.

it_is_a_baby

I vote for whatever is easiest for everyone. I probably log into FB twice a year, but would still like to be part of that group if you start one there. I just apologize in advance for not posting often.

DoubleUp8

@kristah2 I believe you can join a group without giving access to your personal profile. If you have your privacy settings in place to not show your location, no one will see. I do here you on privacy concerns with Facebook. 

mc0303

I made a new profile FB specifically for all the new groups I joined like my last BMB. I deactivated my old FB account a few years ago because it was very stressful for me. It’s been way better this way! It’s an option for people that don’t want to use their primary FB profile. 

MelissaMay82

@mc0303 that’s a great idea. 

I am pretty sure that my fb profile is private enough that my location, employee, etc cannot be seen unless I am fb friends with someone (I will have to go onto my laptop and check). I do know that you can set the privacy settings so that people cannot see any information, timeline, tag posts, or pictures (except maybe profile pic).

mamakate2011

I voted for either but would honestly probably prefer FB. I joined a FB group from my bump board in nov 2011 and we are all still together 10 years later! So fun. Also joined one from my October 2015 board but nothing ever happened with my May 2017 board that I know of because TB fell apart around that time! I think just moving once would be easiest/best. I am not very active on TB but would be way more active on FB because it’s just easier to use and be on there!

ramzlau

Any admin volunteers? 

MelissaMay82

I will volunteer to be an admin

dogmom5

@mamakate2011 did you join a fb group from the bump group for October 2015 or May 2017? Not trying to be weird but if you did we might be in the same group 😂

MelissaMay82

Who else wants to be admins? 

We have had 31 votes so far.
Facebook- 16 votes
Either- 8 votes
Private TB Group- 7 votes

 Do we want to keep the voting open through the rest of the weekend just in case anyone hasn’t checked the bump in a few days? 

mamakate2011

@dogmom5 October ‘15! How about you? The May 2017 board was a hot mess because TB fell apart...we went to some other weird website but I don’t recall the name of it and I never really got into it!

ETA: my Oct ‘15 Facebook group is not very active at all, not in comparison to my Nov ‘11 FB group! The Oct group hardly ever posts anything and there’s only 53 people in the group!

DoubleUp8

I run Facebook groups for work, so I'm happy to serve as an admin if we need more volunteers.

MelissaMay82

Yes for sure @DoubleUp8!

laurad75

How many admins to you need? I’m happy to volunteer.