Run a chat for your block, bus, or carpool
A chat opens when one person says yes
A moderator is someone in the chat — not staff — who volunteers to look after it: they approve requests, invite people and keep posts on topic.
Streets, school buses and carpools all work the same way. Somebody has to start the chat, confirm the people who belong in it, and keep an eye on it. That person is you.
What a moderator does
- Invites new people and approves who joins
- Can hide a message or remove someone
- Pins important announcements to the top of the conversation
And what you never see: Moderators can never see anyone's phone number.
A few minutes a week
Most weeks it is approving one or two people. Busy weeks are a block party, a snow day, or a change of plans. There is no queue waiting for you and nothing breaks if you step away for a day.
Nothing to install
You can run a chat entirely from text messages, the same way everyone else in it does. The web app is there if you prefer a screen.
You are not on call
Hey Neighbor is not an emergency service, and it never asks you to be one.
Share it from the start
A chat with one moderator stops working the moment that person is away — nobody can approve or invite anyone until they are back. A second moderator is the cheapest insurance there is.
Starting one
Here is what actually happens, start to finish.
- Apply for it. The sign-up page takes your name, your number, and the name of the chat — a block, a bus, a carpool. It then asks who will run it: you, or someone you know who has agreed to. That is the application; it does not create anything yet, and nobody in the chat hears from us.
- We open it by hand. Chats open one at a time, and a person at Hey Neighbor confirms each application. Then one of two things reaches whoever will run it:
- A text offering you the chat. Reply JOIN to run it and it is yours. The offer lasts seven days.
- Or we authorize you to set it up yourself. Sign in, and Set up your chat appears in your menu. Name the chat and, if you like, a second moderator.
- You invite everyone. Nothing is sent to anyone until you do. People ask to join by texting HEY to your chat's number, and you approve them; anyone you invite replies JOIN. From then on you can rename the chat, add a second moderator, or hand it on, all from the moderator page.
A minute. Step one, above.
Already authorized to set one up? Set up your chat.