Ask HN: Any ideas for fun / bonding things to do via Zoom? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Any ideas for fun / bonding things to do via Zoom?

20 points35mm11 comments

As many of us are working remotely now, perhaps it would be good to organise something fun to do via Zoom group chat.

Any ideas?

- Invite team members to show off their house/workplace or pets

- Order coffee/breakfast/donuts for each other, or have a secret-santa-like event

- Try taking coffee/lunch breaks together. It will help the team to vent and keep in rhythm. Banning all COVID-related topics is recommended!

- Try playing a game! There's a lot of options for playing board games and card games remotely; I recommend something like drawsaurus [1] it's a lot of fun.

Finally, have some empathy and patience with each other. For many people it's not just WFH, but a hard situation, having to worry about elderly relatives, take care of small children, and deal with stressing news all around them; let's foster a relaxed environment of positivity where everyone can perform their best [2]

[1] https://www.drawasaurus.org/ [2] https://twitter.com/chrisalbon/status/1239927980450697218/ph...

We have started a virtual friday bar through a slack group call. Drink beers and chat about whatever. Nobody is going anywhere anyway, so why not?

Watch funny YouTube videos is my most obvious suggestion.

I ve also done a 'show me around your house' one. But it only works if your team is somewhat extroverted!

I've also seen my S.O. team doing "bring a pet/favorite non human thing to zoom day" lots of people have favorite plants surprisingly!

This week I replaced our weekly gathering with a great discussion on Hangouts Meet. Next week I will bring in my friend in Shanghai via Wechat, (it will be Saturday morning for her) and see if I can allow her to speak with everybody. The mood is improving there (while it is darkening elsewhere), so maybe it will cheer us up. Not quite sure how the audio/video will work, any suggestions to optimize this are welcome.

We just celebrated one of my wife's friend's birthdays over groupchat.

Details? Tips? How did it go?

We telecasted a company wide talent show via zoom.

If you are curious, the top video entry is here: https://youtu.be/8UFPR-O7B9I

Disco. One person djs, everyone chooses the music and dances, or just chills.

Been working 10-ish years from home. When the job is finished, last thing I wanna do is stare at the screen even more..."to have fun".

So do it during work hours. Many companies have team events like this.

I think the intention is to lighten the mood a little, so to speak, for those who are being forced to work from home due the current pandemic.

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