Neighbourhood Whats App groups

[Gemini]

I belong to our local Facebook group for the village. This is a big village more like a small town.
The group can be useful and informative but also has some idiots posting. I think they need better Admin!

I was thinking of starting a more local Whats App group just for our street. With the 2 small cul de sacs which are part of the street it is around a hundred houses in total. Many people won't want or be able to join so it would be a manageable number for a group.

I think Daisy belongs to a similar group?
Does anyone else, how do you find the experience of belonging to one, approximately how many people belong to the group???
So many questions!

[Nanto2girls]

As far as i know,we haven't got a local Whats App group for our area or street.

[Oma]

I’m not sure we have either.

[Daisy]

You're right, Gem. In fact we started with one WA group, but now a couple of new ones have opened on the back of that to make it more manageable.

Our original group comprised our road (over 100 houses) and several smaller roads off it or close by. We made the mistake of using a name which gave our location, and being a holiday area we were inundated with people looking for things like holiday accommodation, the best pub, etc. So we changed it to a non-specific name. Then came the fibre optic saga, which related specifically to our part of the village, so we opened a new one to discuss that. We've just started another temporary one to discuss the current hot topic of a planning application to close a public footpath, also very local to our part of the village.

There is also a little WA group just for our cul de sac - 10 houses. Not used a lot, but can be useful.

If you're going to do it I'm sure it will be a really useful facility, but if your village is quite large you might want to restrict it to a local area. You can always expand the scope if there's a need. Have several admins, otherwise it can become very time consuming and set your boundaries about what can be discussed and a reminder to 'play nicely'.

We've had very few instances of inappropriate behaviour - rudeness, sarcasm, finger pointing, etc.

It's a really useful community, helping with security, lost pets, road works/closures, people offering items of furniture for free or modest prices, tickets for events which the owner can't attend, minor building needs, recommendation for trades people, and much more.

Let me know if I can help in any way.

[Gemini]

Daisy I just want it to be for our road, so approximately 100 houses .

I will look into this after my holiday ( and yours) and thank you I will definitely appreciate your help!

[Daisy]

Gem, yes, about 100 houses is manageable, and our group mostly manages itself. Not everyone has joined, and not everyone uses WA but members often post on behalf of neighbours, especially for lost cats! I'd be pleased to help if I can.

[Gemini]

I talked to DD3 today as she set up a WA group for their street during Lockdown.
They have since moved away so don't use that any more .
The main thing I was puzzled about was how to enable people to join, when I will be inviting them via a note through the door. I have no problem with compiling the notes or posting them through letterboxes, it was how to join them which stumped me as I don't want to put my mobile number on the letters.
DD said she put an email for interested people to mail her their phone numbers to be added to the group that way.

A good idea and one I will use. I have a Gmail address I almost never use, so can give that one out. Or I could make a new email address specifically for this.

[Daisy]

Gem, it would probably be best to have a totally separate email address, for both security and convenience. I can't remember how to add people to our group (although I'm an Admin because I was one of the first to join). I'll check and let you know.