Anyone using ZOOM as a means of staying in touch?

[doneat54]

We have been doing it a lot lately. 2-3 friends/couples we do cocktail hours with aver 3 days or so, family and others, we are usually "Zooming" almost every day now.

Had fun with it yesterday. Our son is moving to FL, leaving Thurs. DW set up a "surprise going away party" for a whole bunch of his friends. Then I told him that my mother wanted to do a video chat with him 10 minutes before the surprise party started. They chatted for a bit, then said bye, and right then all of his friends, 9 of them, started popping up in the zoom screen. He was really surprised.

 

[Souschef]

My temple has been using Zoom for services. It is great to connect with the other members.
I just updated Zoom, and hopefully, the security will be better. There should be a special place in Hades for the Zoom bombers, especially the ones with racist overtones.

 

[AltaRed]

Our family has been using Zoom every 2-3 weeks. Five or 6 families. Works well and we are all pleased with it. Never have any to discuss that is personal and confidential so any 'snoops' would get really bored at us all talking mostly about nothing.

 

[mh]

We’ve been using a paid subscription to Zoom for our HOA meetings. It was the easiest to use over multiple platforms for a reasonable subscription rate. Zoom has made some changes to the settings to improve security as far as uninvited guests. We do not use the record function, but if there is still a security risk of someone seeing the content of our meeting, I’m not worried. It’s boring, even to those of us who have a connection to the community.

I’ve used the free access to Zoom to see friends for happy hour, family game night, and book club. We joked at book club that if someone busted in to show naked photos, we might not be as offended as they hoped!

Any time you are online there is a security risk.

Yes but , zoom has a notoriously bad attitude about security. It’s clear that security is nowhere near a priority with them despite the fixes they’ve been forced to make. It’s easy to use , just don’t talk about sensitive info on it. And don’t be surprised if some one figures out how to get access to your computing appliance someday via zoom.

 

[frank]

we have been using google duo. it is face to face and don't know if you can conference with it. mostly just use it for seeing the kids and the families individually. it works pretty well though and is free.

 

[Dash man]

We’ve used Zoom for parish council meeting and KoC meetings. DW has used it for family/friends get togethers that includes people without iOS. We use FaceTime for iOS users. I’ve had three medical appointments, one with FaceTime and two with a medical specific program that worked quite well and was secure. I don’t recall the name.

 

[street]

We use FaceTime. We have a small family so it is very easy to just do a connection when we feel like we need to see them.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

We've been using Zoom to have virtual HS alumni get-togethers...not our whole class, but we had about 2 dozen people throughout the evening, with up to 15 at one time. Everyone was pretty good about taking turns and asking questions to draw out those who hadn't spoken. We use a password, so no worries about uninvited guests.

I've also used Facebook Messenger, which I trust less, but it's no additional trouble for the less technical people (mostly family members), and I can see when people are online. I have only used it for one-on-one chats, though.

I've also been using Jitsi Meet, which is a free, open-source video conferencing platform. They're working on end-to-end encryption, but I'm not discussing PINs or account numbers, so I'm not overly concerned. It is more collaborative and less regimented than the solutions for offices like WebEx, in that anyone can mute or kick out anyone else.

Speaking of which, I literally just signed up for a WebEx account while composing this; I've used it as a participant, and it's pretty good, so I'll give that a try, too.

And I've been using Microsoft Teams to have my "water cooler" chats with my coworkers, to check in on how they're doing and to discuss the stuff I'd rather not put down in email or IM.

 

[tulak]

I subscribed to Zoom a month ago. I find that it’s a great way to keep in touch and works amazingly well. If you’re concerned about security, use a password. And watch who joins your session.

So far I have two reoccurring weekly Zoom sessions. One is a happy hour with friends and the other is a concert my friends put on every week. For the latter, I’m amazed at how well their performance works over Zoom. I also have a foreign language meetup that meets every other week.

I also work full time and we are heavily dependent on Zoom. We used Zoom BC (before covid) and I’ve always been impressed with it compared to the alternatives.

 

[Scrapr]

We also have a family Sunday night Zoom get together. I set up a meeting for my late wife's birthday with about 8-10 friends. And i toured the Roman Colosseum virtually with a tour guide

Comes in very handy and easy enough for all to set up & get in

 

[misanman]

Seems like everyone around here is using Zoom. We use it to stay in touch with friends and family and to coordinate volunteer activities with 2-3 organizations. I've read about some of the security concerns but they all had been fixed.

 

[6miths]

My volunteer teaching went to Zoom in early March. Subscription through the university Not the same as in person but was much better than Skype that's for sure.

 

[harllee]

I wanted to see if anyone has suggestions to make my Zoom experiences better. I am having several Zoom business type meetings per week (usually non profit Boards), Church services, family get togethers and social virtual cocktail hours (last night one one with 20 friends) etc. It seems as if I am spending several hours per week on Zoom and it appears that it may continue indefinitely.

I want these Zoom meetings to be better. I am using my Mac Book Pro with its camera and sound. So far I have not bought anything extra like a separate microphone, headset or camera. I try to set up my computer on level with my face in a quiet well lighted area. However it seems like other people are not making any effort. Many people are in a dark room and I can barely see their faces in the dark. Sometimes the camera is looking up or down at their faces. Some people do not speak loudly enough or their words are garbled. At the virtual cocktail party last night one couple was eating peanuts or something and I heard alot of crunching.

Is there any thing I can do on my end so that I can hear people better who are not speaking or for some reason their voices are garbled? Anything I can do from my end to help me see people who are sitting in the dark? Or are these just problems on the other end?

I am a secretary of a nonprofit board meeting on Zoom and I am finding it especially hard to take minutes. What can I tell the other Board members to do on their end so I can hear/see them better?

 

[street]

Yes. In the last few weeks we been having board meeting using zoom. I like them and seems to work very well.

 

[Souschef]

I have a desktop PC. I bought an inexpensive camera from eBay, which works great. It has a built in microphone which did not have the sensitivity. I bought a condenser mike from eBay also, which works great
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Profession...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649


https://www.ebay.com/itm/1080P-HD-U...epid=0&hash=item48e519f3fe:g:7DQAAOSwhe1evPOY


Total expenditure about $55.


For the other people, here is a URL start at 5:54 where she talks about lighting and setup, DW found it for us to use

 

[harllee]

Yes. In the last few weeks we been having board meeting using zoom. I like them and seems to work very well.

Can you hear and see everyone? As the Board secretary I wonder what what can I do about people sitting in the dark and not talking loudly enough for me to hear? I have politely asked people to speak up but that does not seem to be correcting the problems.

 

[harllee]

I have a desktop PC. I bought an inexpensive camera from eBay, which works great. It has a built in microphone which did not have the sensitivity. I bought a condenser mike from eBay also, which works great
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Profession...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649


https://www.ebay.com/itm/1080P-HD-U...epid=0&hash=item48e519f3fe:g:7DQAAOSwhe1evPOY


Total expenditure about $55.

I wonder if the add on camera and mic would work better than what is built into my MacBook Pro?

 

[cathy63]

... However it seems like other people are not making any effort. Many people are in a dark room and I can barely see their faces in the dark. Sometimes the camera is looking up or down at their faces. Some people do not speak loudly enough or their words are garbled. At the virtual cocktail party last night one couple was eating peanuts or something and I heard alot of crunching.

Is there any thing I can do on my end so that I can hear people better who are not speaking or for some reason their voices are garbled? Anything I can do from my end to help me see people who are sitting in the dark? Or are these just problems on the other end?...

Unfortunately, the only thing you can really do is educate the people who are having issues and hope they do better in the future. For the business-y meetings where you're the one "in charge", you can send out a link to one of the many online lists of suggestions for how to set up your space video conferences with a message like "a few people have pointed out that it's hard to hear or see some of the others on our calls, so I thought this might be helpful". That's about all you can do if you're not their actual employer though.

For the audio issues, there was a bad update that came out in early April for Chromebooks that caused a lot of audio problems. If you have anybody using those, encourage them to make sure their systems are updated to the latest versions, so they have the fix for that. (Long technical thread here: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1062884)

If there's anybody who's constantly got audio problems due to weak Internet service, there are some phone numbers floating around online that you can use with Zoom. Once the person connects to the conference, they can click the ^ next to the microphone in the lower left corner of the zoom window and choose Switch to Phone Audio, then dial in from their regular phone. They'll stay on the video portion, but they'll hear and speak through their telephone. Message me if you can't find the phone numbers and I'll dig them up from my notes for you.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Can you hear and see everyone? As the Board secretary I wonder what what can I do about people sitting in the dark and not talking loudly enough for me to hear? I have politely asked people to speak up but that does not seem to be correcting the problems.

No, there's not much you can do about those other than specify that you would like people to make sure their faces are visible and that they test their audio in the Zoom apps Preferences>Audio. This will allow them to speak for a few seconds, and then it will play it back for them.

But I would not expect too much of people, because many are being very reluctantly dragged into videoconferencing, so seeing faces probably isn't something you need, even though it is part of the point. Unfortunately, that's also the easier one to fix. Audio quality mostly depends on their hardware, so unless the nonprofit is willing to purchase and ship them headsets, you will probably not be able to do much about that one either.

But you can certainly say something like you miss seeing everyone's face, so could everyone please try to find a seat in a well-lit room and check the preview of their own video at least once per session. It's possible that some people just aren't aware of how they are presenting on Zoom.

And I'm not trying to discourage you from talking to them about any of this, I just want to try to set realistic expectations. I did have one coworker who used her cell on speakerphone, which caused our own voices to echo back in the call, so once I figured that out we asked her to stop, and she did.

Good luck!

 

[rodi]

I wanted to see if anyone has suggestions to make my Zoom experiences better.

Not much you can do if the person on the other side has bad lighting.
Or a bad mic, or a bad webcam.

However - I've found audio/mic works better for me with my bluetooth headset than with the built in mic/speaker. I was part of the problem - and it was at least partially resolved with this change. For my image - I found that if I face an open window so my face is fully lit - it's much better... Only works in the day and if I can find a spot that is not occupied by other household members. Even fairly bright lamp lighting leaves me in a shadow. So I'm shadowed when my meetings are in the evening. I use the integrated webcam in my cheapo laptop.

For the meetings I'm attending (various community planning groups) I tend to mute my audio/video unless I'm talking. That lets me look at my phone, or talk to the teenagers without anyone know I'm tuning out the boring/rambling rants some fellow board members go on.

 

[Souschef]

Here is a video that talks about lighting and setup. Start a 5:54. DW found it for us to use.

 

[harllee]

So many good ideas! Thank you so much. I probably cannot do much about the virtual cocktail hour (we did not set this up-- we were just invited) but I think I will take the bull by the horns on the nonprofit board where I am the secretary and tell folks that if I cannot hear them I will not be able to take the minutes. That will get their attention--nobody wants to have to take notes!

 

[martyp]

I had my first Zoom get together with 5 college buddies last month. It went well but ewe only did it one time. Coordinating times zones made scheduling difficult. We typically communicate by email.

I have a weekly Thai language class on Zoom. It works very well for that. We have 15-20 students but everyone is pretty quiet about asking questions- except me. I think people are concerned about talking over other people.

For those concerned about technology, Zoom is as easy as it gets.

 

[Dreamer]

I first heard of Zoom when my 3 yr old grandson had a Zoom meeting with his preschool. My 11 year old granddaughter has her church youth group meetings on them. We had our first Zoom meeting when our DIL had a surprise meeting for her son for his college graduation.

A club that I belong to are having monthly lessons and book club meetings on zoom, but I have not participated.

 

[lucky penny]

I wanted to see if anyone has suggestions to make my Zoom experiences better. I am having several Zoom business type meetings per week (usually non profit Boards), Church services, family get togethers and social virtual cocktail hours (last night one one with 20 friends) etc. It seems as if I am spending several hours per week on Zoom and it appears that it may continue indefinitely. I want these Zoom meetings to be better.

You might already know this, but one useful thing I discovered is that you can choose between Speaker View and Gallery View by clicking on the icons in the upper right corner of the screen. With Speaker View (which might be the default), the speaker occupies a large portion of the screen & the other participants are shown in small thumbnails; with Gallery View, everyone is the same size no matter who is speaking. It can be exhausting to be looking at a giant face on the screen most of the time & I find I really prefer Gallery View, especially if there are fewer participants. When everyone is the same size, it's more like real life, when you're looking at everyone across the table; you don't have to stare at someone every second if they're doing a lot of talking, & you get to see everyone equally, even people who aren't talking a lot.

I also discovered it can be fun sometimes to use a virtual background for yourself when you're attending. You can choose one by clicking on the tiny arrow next to "Show Video" at the bottom; Zoom has a few to choose from (like a beach scene), or you can click on the + sign next to the default photos & upload your own. (I'm currently using a photo I took at a flower show, & I have a photo of Citifield waiting in the wings.) Warning: once you use a virtual background at a meeting, it'll be there the next time you log into Zoom unless you change back to your real-life background before leaving that meeting.

As other have mentioned, for business meetings or any meeting with many participants it's usually necessary to remind everyone frequently to mute their microphone & unmute it only when they speak. People don't realize how much background noise the mikes pick up, which can make any speaking difficult to hear even when there are only a few participants.