Family discussions online

[shivvy]

I am from a family of 6 children and we are often in contact about many different things including organising care of our parents.
At the moment we use email a lot to do this although at times it isn't always easy to follow all the various responses when people reply to different emails (if you know what I mean?!). Also, all the emails can clutter up our inboxes.

What I am wondering is whether there is a better way to share this info online? Someone suggested facebook but not all of us are confident that they would post in the right place to keep the info private.

They also suggested a blog but I wouldn't know how to organise that.

Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks

[boxtops]

I'm not a great advocate of FB but you can set it up to be as private as possible, and then everyone can see everyone else's replies - and you get instant messaging. The only thing you can do is give it a try by talking about less private matters to start off with, and see how you feel about it. I've set up as many privacy settings as I can on my account - which I hardly ever use and then only for specific purposes, keeping in touch with family only.

[hc4361]

Have a look at Big Tent - it's free.
http://www.bigtent.com/why_bigtent

[hc4361]

Or Google Docs

http://www.google.com/google-d-s/documents/

[shivvy]

Thanks for the suggestion boxtops.

hc4361 - I'll have a look at those links - thanks.

[ummmm]

You can set up a private secret group on FaceBook. Answerbank has one....No one who isn't a member can see what is in the group and it can't be found by searching.

[milly143]

I've got a big family too and if there is something going on we all need to discuss we always use private inbox message on facebook. It's much easier to keep up with the flow of conversation as everyones replies appear in the same place rather than having to check in and out of various e-mails.

[shivvy]

Answerbank has one ummmm?

Milly - would I set up the private inbox on my current facebook account or would I need to set up a new account?

[ummmm]

Yes it does....anyone can join.

Just open a group...make it private...then add your family members.

[milly143]

You can do it with the account you already have. To send a private message to someone you just click on 'Messages' on the left side of your page and then create a new message. You can send it to more than one recipient and only the peole you send it to will see it and any replies it gets.

[shivvy]

Thanks milly, that's a good idea but I don't think a couple of my sisters would be too confident about it.

Ummm - how do you open a group?