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Comment by hardwaregeek | Hacker News Reader

I run a small mentorship program for students. We use Facebook Messenger for all of our communication. This is despite quite a few valid complaints (privacy, not everybody has Facebook, lack of custom rooms, etc). Why? Well currently the onboarding process is this: person expresses interest, person gets added to Messenger group. With another platform, it becomes person expresses interest, we give person a form to create an account. The difference is push versus pull.

Facebook is nobody's favorite platform and yet it's the one most people have.

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It's great that you're offering a mentorship program, but I would have been one of those students complaining. In a business setting I understand the need to optimize onboarding, but in an educational setting I think inclusiveness should rank higher.

In our student organizations (at university) we've settled on Teams, which is what's available through our university accounts. I'd guess most universities have an equivalent, but let me know if I'm wrong. This has the benefit of requiring no sign-up, and separating work and personal life.

If you're talking about HS students, then I'd be surprised to hear that they're unwilling to install your preferred chat app to join the program.

You bring up some good points. I could use something like GChat, although idk if that works with my school's GSuite setup. That being said, I've tried spinning up chat apps like Slack/Rocket/etc. and faced serious issues.

A. Nobody checks Slack. In the beginning everything's great and people are engaging on slack, but after a few weeks engagement drops off.

B. The number of people without Facebook has been precisely 1. If there were more people without FB accounts, I'd 100% consider another option.

C. Begrudging use is better than no use. It's not that students are boycotting my program because they have some hatred of Slack. It's more that they're confronted with a form, which they put off and then forget to do.

You've clearly thought about this, and certainly begrudging use is better than none. My first thought would have been to go with Signal, if GChat through your school doesn't work. I've had no issues with group chats on there.

"Perfect is the enemy of good" -- you're making the right decision by focusing on good mentorship offering instead of blocking on the perfect chat solution. Good luck!

I would be hesitant to join a facebook group as a student and young people increasingly don't have an account. The only reason to make one these days is for HR checks, millennial rituals, government etc.

Maybe Facebook is nobody's favorite platform because it's the one most people have.

> With another platform, it becomes person expresses interest, we give person a form to create an account.

Couldn't you create the account for them ?

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