Neighbour alerts, WhatsApp or other systems?

Caranica

I live in, and am a director of, a development of just over 80 homes and we've been trying to work out the best way to alert people of utility issues eg water shut offs, security issues etc without having a free for all area WhatsApp which can go totally off the rails and everyone has everyone's number.

Unfortunately, even of the neighbours I know, only half have Facebook accounts so a group won't work. Are there any other systems people use? Ideally we'd like an app that does push notifications but then that requires someone to take ownership and is really not practical.

What do other developments use? For example, sharing the news of an attempted break or dodgy characters in the area?

xabi

Telegram

Caranica

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117827311#Comment_117827311

Doesn't that have the same issues where everyone can see everyone's number?

ted1

just use Whatsapp, they have a feature where only admins can post.

Bigmac1euro

There’s an app called BAND.

look into it. It’s handy for setting up groups and stuff I find it fairly user friendly as well.

alternative would be discord but maybe BAND is more user friendly.

xabi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117827342#Comment_117827342

No, can be setup to hide the group members

Cheshire Cat

We have a text alert system. This makes sure that even the people without smart phones get the notifications. There is also no option to reply and no recipient can see who else gets the alert. Only downside is that you have to buy text bundles in advance.

The company we use is called Send Mode. I'm sure there are others too.

KaneToad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117827369#Comment_117827369

We use this for local sports club. The messages are broadcast and can't be responded to. Works well.

Caranica

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I hadn't thought of discord though I'm in a group from an online forum on there.

We don't want an admin only broadcast system, a break in could happen to any resident so we want people to be able to share to the group, just not able to see numbers

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117827519#Comment_117827519

So the person messages the admin and they post it.

the other stuff is just messing because 80 people aren’t going to a want to die LUAS telegram, discord etc

awec

If you want the neighbours to actually engage then WhatsApp (for more immediate alerts) and Facebook groups (for general info / notices) are the best options. If you go with some obscure other system or app then you will find a lot of people won't bother.

Not being able to see the phone numbers of neighbours seems like an odd restriction to impose.

irelandrover

We just use whatsapp. We have 2 seperate groups, one for all the random neighbourhood chat, and one for emergencies.

It works well as I just mute the chat group but its there if i need it, and the emergency one is on but is really only used for emergencies.

Since its voluntary to join i really dont see the issue with my neighbours seeing my number. They already know where i live.