Anyone interested in an ABQ Group? (Albuquerque, Santa Fe: transplants, work, health)

[yukon]

Hi gang!

While emailing back & forth about a transplant group, we discussed setting up a formal on-line group, to use for announcements, chats, business referrals, etc. I looked into the groups feature here on City-Data, but it's pretty limited. You can post messages, but it's one loooooong thread. You can't set up different discussions within the group (like you can here on the various forums).

Personally, I think a group that has a forum-type structure would be better. That would allow discussions to act as announcements, and allow postings on specific topics. Examples might be: "Birdwatching Sat July 12". "Happy Hour Friday 6/27", "Anyone know a good mechanic?", etc.

The closest I've found so far, in a group setting that allows discussions, is at Google Groups. It requires a google account, which is free and easy to setup. We have the option of making the group public or private, which affects who sees the info AND who can post. What's also cool is the group will have it's own url, so you could email it to visitors, friends, etc.

Before I set it up, is anyone even interested? Say yay or nay here, and send me your email addy for an invite. Need a name for it, too. Suggestions so far:

Albuquerque Transplants
ABQ n' You
ABQ Newcomers
ABQ Newbies
ABQ - New and Old

[yukon]

Here's an example:

Taos Ski Valley Housing Forum | Google Groups

[Towanda]

I'm in Santa Fe, so this is a little off topic for me .... but I am wondering what this will mean to the participation here at City-Data Forum. We already have an active ABQ forum, with a nice mixture of people who already are living in ABQ and those hoping to move there. It seems to me like it WORKS.

I would really hate to see the dynamics of the ABQ forum on City-Data change.

Just my opinion.....

[_yb]

Originally Posted by yukon

Hi gang!

Personally, I think a group that has a forum-type structure would be better. That would allow discussions to act as announcements, and allow postings on specific topics. Examples might be: "Birdwatching Sat July 12". "Happy Hour Friday 6/27", "Anyone know a good mechanic?", etc.

Why not just start a thread in the current Abq subforum with info, questions etc? Pretty good resource here already.

[yukon]

This wasn't mean to replace city-data at all. The big advantage to a group is it lets you email your members about events, announcements, etc. If City-Data would expand their group format so that it was more like the forum postings, it would be great. We can post here, but are the mods and regular posters going to get annoyed every time we post an announcement about an upcoming event, referrals to specific businesses, etc.? I think references to specific businesses (phone numbers, etc) and links to same are often cut out by the mods, which is another advantage a group has over a public forum like this. It doesn't matter one way or the other to me.

[macsret]

Towanda,

I like yukon's suggestion, however, IMHO would want to keep it on CD - ABQ sub forum.

Towanda, is it possible to have a sticky with this on there and to be able to post specifics about businesses. Things like their addresses, websites and the like.

What about another sub forum, CD - ABQ - Transplants Info. I personally would also like to see things one about health, cost of living and things like that which are very important in one's decision to either move to ABQ or another town/state.

[abqsunport]

Well the solution I see is just make a sticky thread like we did with the photos and food. That way people can see all the former posts (honestly how many times do we get asked for neighborhood help, school help, etc.). This would keep everybody on the same forum and also give references easily accesible so people didn't have to repost the same question over and over.

[jrod2828]

I think both the google group or wherever we put the group and city-data can coexist. People come to city-data for general or fairly specific information. The purpose of our group, at least how I envisioned it, was to meet-up. I've moved quite a bit since I was little and meeting people and getting that social network started is probably the most difficult part.

I just wanted to start a group so people who are new to ABQ and/or people who are natives of ABQ who want to share experiences about ABQ, can get together on a monthly basis or so and chat, hang out, grab some grub, get some drinks.. whatever.

People will still come back to CD to ask questions and chat. But the group gives newcomers like myself a chance to do a little more. Some people like CD to chat and get some info.. me included.. and some people want a little more.. me included. I've had about 15 or so people DM me that are interested in meeting up.

So Yukon, I agree with the group structure but let's keep the communication just basically announcements about where the group will meet and what the activity is. If we get into posting info about ABQ, I agree with everyone else, it will take away from CD. And I've cruised Indy's forum on CD and it's got nothing on ABQ. ABQ's forum here on CD is really unique with great posters... we don't want to take away from that. So imo, I say let's start the group with the sole purpose to meet up and chat about ABQ with a primary goal of helping newcomers feel welcome by meeting other newcomers and oldcomers in ABQ.

Let's leave the discussion about ABQ.. questions about neighborhoods.. good companies.. crime.. schools.. etc. at CD.

I've only been on CD for a short time and there have been tons of people who have posted on here that they are new to ABQ and looking to meet people. Wouldn't it be cool to point them to our ABQ Newbies (my vote for the name) group?

Thoughts?

[jrod2828]

Ok.. I'm a little slow.. it's early. So my thought is just post an announcement about the meet-up place, activity, time and date. Therefore, why would we need to move the group somewhere else? We could just have it on CD. I don't know what a sticky thread is though. But yeah, we just need a thread that never goes away that someone can post the time, place and venue of the activity and then interested people can respond on the thread with whether they will go or not, questions about the activity, etc. Perhaps that is what a sticky thread is.. I don't know. I need some more coffee

[norm]

Yukon,

I think you can accomplish what you want right here and you would also reach people that just don't want to belong to one more web site.