Just wondering what other teams use for communication? My team uses GroupMe and Discord.
We use Mattermost. Itâs a pretty good open-source alternative to Slack. They actually provide the ability to host your own server, which our schools sysadmin/mentor has taken advantage of. For other general stuff, we sometimes use discord, although it has really just been populated by memes at this point. For competition communications, a lot of us just text each other as well.
My team personally uses slack since it reliable, and we can have access to it at school over other platforms such as discord. It is simply a slightly worst version of discord but perfect for a team so we donât get off-topic. Though the issue is that the Free Version has some limits (Messages/Files) that do cause some issues.
Discord is one I see used a lot as well since it really good, and it can store practically numerous files and messages without problems. The addition of bots and small other features are also nice.
Email. The schoolâs version of YPP is pretty strict around mentor/student communication. It all goes through email (school provided email addresses on both sides), with parents copied on every message. The students have a groupme they use for communication at events, but mentors are not involved with it at all.
We use Remind. That way, students can access announcements via the platform they individually prefer, and if needed, we can directly communicate with individuals or groups in a controlled fashion and without sharing personal contact info.
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Iâl give another vote for slack. Itâs basically a better version of discord, especially with the paid version that nonprofits can get for free.
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We use Facebook Messenger - different groups for the general team chat, captains, and announcements.
We use slack. Its a better version of discord (sorry Sparky). Since we are a nonprofit we got a standard version for free. This update gives you 10 gigs of storage for files and unlimited messages. It also has a very decent video/voice conferencing feature. The fact that itâs not blocked by our schoolâs firewall makes it all the better.
Slack and email. Some texting, but I try to avoid texting students. Slack isnât blocked by our school system firewall so it works pretty well.
We currently use Slack. We also have an unofficial Discord server that many of the veterans on my team are apart of, along with neighboring teams. When we were discussing what our second event was (extended outside the meeting) we setup the server and currently use it to have other teams sit in and see the process of how we do things.
We use Discord. Itâs very helpful for general communication between students and mentors, especially to have conversations during build season.
We use Band.
Its free (Up to 10,000 members) and has both a mobile and web interface. It looks similar to Facebook so people have been able to pick it up and use it pretty reliably.
Iâm the âownerâ of the Band so I can control all the settings so we have it pretty locked down. I have access to all the features, student leadership can make codes to give others to join, make posts, add things to the calendar. Students/parents can only comment on existing posts and message me. Only I can create chat rooms and add people to them (I create them for sub teams or groups to plan events, etc).
It has a calendar, photo hosting/albums, polls, attendance, etc. I can post documents (like for permission slips, merch orders, etc), and maps with locations tagged.
It also has the ability for us to post events and the students to post if they are attending, maybe attending (we use for âI want to but I havenât cleared it with my parentsâ), and not attending.
It does all the things we need it to and some of our team is pretty good about using it. The thing is though, for it to be effective, team members actually have to use it.
Slack. We love it.
We have been using https://www.samepage.io/ for the past couple seasons. They offer a free version and a pro version. The free version limits certain things like number of files stored and number of subteams. Samepage has given us a better way to communicate deadlines, meetings and important files across subteams. They are willing to work with not for profit organizations and recently became one of our platinum level sponsors.
Our team has changed our communication platform a few times. We first made a school email account, then made a Onedrive account to store files (including code, big mistake). Next, we tried Google Drive but that was a huge failure. Then we needed a communication platform so we tried out a platform called Wiggio⌠also a big mistake. The next year we switched to Bitrix24⌠and that failed as well. Now we are using Slack and we plan on using it for a long time to come. It is a reliable platform which we all enjoy. I would recommend slack or discord because both of those seem very reliable and good platforms to use.
Slack
We use Team App.
We use Facebook messenger and emails.
We use a self hosted phpBB forum.
We switched to Slack several years ago and havenât looked back. Itâs got the perfect amount of freedom, moderation, and fun for our team. Custom emojis are probably the best and most overused feature.