What do you think about having a party at the Zoom mansion?

Maybe you could do two, like a morning/day and an evening one, because of the time differences.

An idea: find out who is interested and where they’re located, and that will be a guide about whether you need one or two.

I would pop in. Either morning or evening would be fine. I’m in Eastern time zone (US).

It’s probably more realistic, than an actual get together.

Yes, please tell us your location or time zone and if you have a preference for time of day.

Sounds good to me.

I’m in Boston, EST. I’m good evenings or weekend mornings.

Sure. I’m in the Mountain time zone and work mainly in the afternoons, if that helps.

I’d be onboard. Now, I need to load that Zoom whatever and learn how to use it. I guess I need to begin by buying a webcam?

Yeah, technology’s my thing.

I think it’s a great idea. although not for me.

@Love_my_doggie, tablets and phones and laptops come with built-in cameras these days, and there’s a way to test your Zoom connection when you start it. You can also do a voice-only call-in to Zoom. I bought a Kindle Fire a few months ago (by mistake), and damned if it doesn’t have a camera and a ready-to-go Zoom connection.

We’re lucky to have Zoom available in these strange isolated days. To me, though, Zoom is like an air raid shelter or pest control spray: you’re really glad it’s there if you need it, but you don’t want to ever have to use it.

Yes great idea . I would like another town hall get together in chat first. I am new to Zoom.

My zoom never seems to work correctly for these type of group things, but I’m open to trying (EST, usually available on weekends.)

@ANef_is_Enuf it maybe your internet speed, which is lower on WiFi. Direct Ethernet cables to your computer may fix the Zoom connect issue.

@Love_my_doggie It’s really easy to use. I will post the link when we figure out for sure the day and time, and you should be able to just click on the link and be taken straight to the meeting. @Jeruba is right, if you use your smart phone, an ipad, or if your laptop has a camera then you already have everything you need.

@Tropical_Willie I don’t have an issue with the connection, I just think the app sucks, I can never figure it out. It’s like I’m looking at random people and I never know who is talking. I just don’t use it enough and I don’t care enough to learn.

Understood. @ANef_is_Enuf

@ANef_is_Enuf I’m not trying to defend Zoom, but if you have multiple people on your screen at once, the box of the person speaking should light up around the frame. If you have it on speakerview the person speaking should become the big picture. Unless, one person is pinned. If a person is pinned they are always the one in the main frame no matter who speaks.

@JLeslie is there a way to get everyone’s little thumbnails together so you can watch or do they always show up on individual pages? That’s what I dislike, actually, I’d like to be able to see everyone at once. I have had other issues with it, not just this, this is just a pet peeve I have about it. lol.

^^Are you on a laptop? In the upper right corner you’ll see an icon that looks like little boxes, which is the way you see everyone at once.

There must be a tutorial. I’ll look for one. I can’t do it now, because I can’t play anything out loud where I am.

@JLeslie @Jeruba I don’t have a laptop or a tablet, and my home lacks cellphone reception (I live in a valley, and the service is spotty on a good day. All the neighbors go outside to make cellphone calls). But, I can go to an electronics store to buy a webcam for my desktop computer. It’s likely a good idea to have one, just for when it’s needed.

@Love_my_doggie I wonder if you can see everyone even if you are not on camera? I think probably you can. I understand you might want a camera anyway, I am just putting it out there, because I hate for you to rush into buying a camera when we don’t really know how the fluther zoom will work out. Although, I have to say I use zoom more and more to “see” friends now that we have this covid situation.

I’m in.

No, i don’t have a laptop or a tablet, just an older smartphone. (Not super old, but I’ve had it for like 3 years and I don’t think it was a new model even then.) Maybe that’s why.

I’ll zoom on my phone sometime this week and see if I can figure it out. Maybe you can see at least 3–4 people.

Is everyone invited?

Yes, of course everyone is invited.

Even us Mean Girls?

Even the mean girls.

@Hawaii_Jake Let’s see you are 6 hours behind me I think. Can you give me an idea what works for you if you want to zoom with us? Are you usually up very early in the morning or late at night? What’s your schedule like?

The difficulty I see lies in how you will disseminate the Zoom invitation. Every time I’ve seen one posted in a public place, there have been Zoom bombers attack the meeting and create chaos. There are ways to avoid this, but they require vigilance by the host.

The other way to send out the Zoom invitation is by email. This helps keep it private, and the possibility of Zoom bombers is much less. I don’t know how others feel, but I’m not sharing my email address with random people on Fluther.

I think I’ll post it in the Tide Pool Facebook group so it’s a “secret” and anyone not in there can PM me on fluther.

Edit: I’m open to suggestions.

That’s an interesting choice. I left that group many years ago, because there were members who’d been banned from here. I am definitely not interested in being part of a Zoom meeting open to people who’ve been banned where they will talk trash about Fluther. Doesn’t sound at all enjoyable.

You have fun.

I’m out.

Wow. Ok.

@JLeslie I am on Teams all day every day so no offense I’ll pass. If anyones exceptional looking let me know. Haha!

Why not just PM the link to anyone from this thread who rsvp’d? I’d be interested in joining, but I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately.

Hmm, do I want to look at a bunch of lonely people who like to gossip and put others down or do I want to play my guitar on my porch? This is a difficult decision.

Well that devolved quickly.

Of course, @Stache just proved @Hawaii_Jake’s point.

I agree with @dxs’ idea. Anyone who responds positively to this thread, gets a PM with the Zoom meeting link and password.

If the idea is to bolster the active community here and do something fun, it should be for the active Jellies who want to participate in something positive and community building.

If you’ve been banned or are spouting negativity, why would you want to participate anyway?

perhaps it is hopeless

If I get a PM for one, I’ll try to get it to work on my phone. I’ve used Duo…

Maybe just PM the info. That might be best. We’ll let this thread keep going for a few more days and then I’ll work on a date and time.

I’m not into the zoom thing yet, so I won’t be participating. But, @JLeslie I think it’s a great idea! I hope it works well, and maybe if I get over my zoom shyness, I can participate in another one.
Edit to add: as @cookieman says, if it bolsters the community and is fun, it’s a very good thing.

Zoom Fun Facts

You can download the app for your PC, smart phone, or tablet.

You can also access it from the Zoom website.

You can create a free account with an email (could be anonymous) or a Google account.

You don’t have to use your real name for your Zoom account.

When joining a Zoom meeting, you can mute your microphone and shut off your camera. As such, you could just participate with audio if you want.

You can also call in via phone, no smart phone needed.

There’s a built in chat room, so we can type while talking.

The host, if they have a Pro Account, can mute or bounce any participant getting rowdy or causing trouble.

If the invitation is limited to active jellies, I’m interested.

Edit to add I’m still not sure I want to participate, but I’m interested.

@Hawaii_Jake It won’t be limited to active jellies. There are some jellies very dear to the community who haven’t been active in a while who will be notified. I don’t know if they are coming or not. If I was going to limit it only to certain jelly friends I would not have done a Q. To announce it on a Q and then be selective wouldn’t be very nice.

People here on the Q are free to get in touch with former jellies, I trust the collective to not broadcast the zoom info to the public. We just lost some jellies and some come here for a while and leave and come back. They are still part of the collective.

Some didn’t see this Q, but might be interested. I myself almost never look at meta.

I don’t feel the need to control it, except to say I do care about the security of zoom and hope we don’t get someone who crashes the party. All I can do is ask jellies to only share with other jellies they trust.

It would not even occur to me that a jelly, whether active, banned, or on hiatus, would start a fight or be obnoxious on a zoom call. I’m expecting pancakes and smiles.

As a jelly said above people can change their name for the call and use their jelly name if they want.

A few mid-Atlantic and Northeast jellies might be without power from the storm, I know of one already, so another reason to give it a few more days.

I got a friend in NE Connecticut, Sunday maybe for power being restored.

It’s an interesting idea to think about getting to see other jellies, but I really do appreciate the modicum of anonymity I have here.

I use Zoom for work every day. Those meetings are with people well versed in how the app works, and still, the meetings can sometimes get quite chaotic with several people talking at the same time while a third person has left their mic on. It gets to be tiring.

As for allowing past and banned jellies to participate, I think that’s asking for a forum of bashing Fluther. There’s enough negativity in the world that I don’t need to invite more into my life.

I wish you all the best. I’ll sit this out.

@JLeslie,
> I’m expecting pancakes and smiles.

I hope you get your wish. Like @Hawaii_Jake, I’m less optimistic. I’d like to hear afterward how it went.

I can think of at least one former Jelly who would not bash Fluther or anyone in it. I don’t think anybody would waste their time coming to a party to be negative and nasty.

There are people who left voluntarily but don’t dislike Fluther, they just felt it was time to move on.

My thought: People who are interested can send you their email address for the invite. People who are not interested or who don’t trust you enough to send you their email address won’t have to worry about their email address getting into the wrong hands.

@jca2 I’m fine just PMing the info I think. I can use the thread to just click on their name and PM them. A couple of people have messaged me who did not write here.

I will write on this thread the day and time, and that way, if I miss someone, they can PM me.

@JLeslie Just a thought, you could record the call, if everyone was agreeable and post the link here, or send to anyone who may have missed it. We do that all the time at work.

@KNOWITALL My gut reaction is not to record it. I guess it is impossible to prevent someone from recording it though. I feel like I would not want it to live on forever. We could take a screen shot maybe. Fluther is so public, I am not inclined to share faces here. You make me realize that I probably will not use my jelly name with my real face. Keeping anonymity might be more difficult than I first thought. Hmmm. Maybe when I PM the info I give those jellies my real name.

@JLeslie I probably wouldn’t either, but it may be nice for posterity for one person to have a copy, like you as admin. :) Just a thought! I mean I’d love to see it even though participating doesn’t really interest me…haha!

So much for the Fluther pool party I was planning at my place…

So shall we relegate the “dream” to the realm of nuclear disarmament, conquest of global warming or attainment of world peace?

^^^^^ Whirled Peas ^^^^^^^

Sounds like fun!

Hey everybody, I have not forgotten about this, but I have put it on hold for a bit. I’ll be back.

Where are the smokers? In the cellar or outside on the patio?