Village Farm Communications

Where to Start

Once you’re a resident, request to join the Facebook Private Group for Village Farm Residents:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/284983168806010

Q&A about Village Farm’s group chat

Here are quick answers to concerns about our chat:

• Don’t we use a Facebook Group? Yes! It’s our primary way to broadcast events and information to our community. Most of us that use Facebook are in this group, but many don’t or won’t use Facebook Messenger.
• So what is Messenger? It’s a private chat app that you can use inside of Facebook or completely on its own. You can sign up for Messenger using just your phone number, even if you don't have a Facebook account.
• Ugh! Why do both? It’s apples and oranges: the group page is like a bulletin board you check weekly or so, and the chat is a live conversation stream. It gets “noisy” when there’s a lot of personal sharing or real-time coordinating, such as to live-update a hunt for a lost dog — which would overwhelm our group page.
• Can’t we just add everyone? If only! But the page and chat aren’t linked. This means, unfortunately, a chat admin must have your phone number or be personally friended with you, to add you. If we could have a chat that’s just another tab of the group, we’d do it!!
• Okay, how do I get on chat? Find @lisa.apfelberg, friend her, and ask to be added, telling her where you live.

Truly, we’re all frustrated with aspects of this; please keep in mind that we’re all volunteers, doing our best to build a community that’s the envy of Austin. We’re lucky to have these free connection tools, frustrations and all!

How to rock group chat

Chat can become a torrent that is painful to navigate. Here’s how we can get the most out of Messenger:

• Start with the FB Group! — If it’s an event, announcement, offer, or a community-level sharing, always post on the Facebook page, for the maximum audience. You can then cross-post into the chat, for more visibility.
• Mute notifications! — If you’ve refused Messenger because you don’t want to be buzzed with every post, just disable its notifications on your phone and/or laptop. Check in with the chat only when you want to.
• Use REPLY! — This creates “threading”, the best way to keep chat readable: using Reply keeps the context clear and lets people follow the whole conversation. Don’t see it? Hold or right-click the message to see the Reply icon.
• Use emojis! 👍, ❤️, 😂 — Use emoji 🙂 reactions to chime in without littering chat with separate replies.
• Use polls! Use polls to gather opinions or make decisions efficiently. Click ⊕ > Create a poll.