Resident: Use Community Groups

Resident: use community groups

Groups split society conversation by topic, so you can get the water shutdown notice without also getting forty replies about badminton timings.

Joining is voluntary. Nobody is added to a social group without choosing to join, and leaving one needs no explanation.

Before you start

• Signed in with a claimed flat in your society

Joining a group

1. Open /groups.
2. Browse the groups your society has created — typically wing or tower groups, buy-and-sell, sports, parents, pets, and seniors.
3. Tap Join on the ones you want.

Join only what interests you. There is no benefit to being in all of them, and a group you do not care about is just noise you will end up muting.

Posting in the right place

This is what makes groups work. Four things do not belong in a group:

A complaint in a chat group has no ticket, no owner and no resolution. Posting it there feels faster and reliably takes longer.

Group rules

Most societies adopt a short charter. The common rules:

• Post under your real name and flat. Anonymous participation in a residential community causes more problems than it solves.
• No commercial soliciting outside the buy-and-sell group, and no MLM.
• Committee business is not decided in groups. A chat thread is not a vote, and decisions taken there are not valid.
• Politics and religion — most societies keep both out of society channels entirely. Check your society's line.

Muting and leaving

• Mute a group if you want to stay in it but stop the notifications.
• Leave any group at any time. You do not have to explain why, and nobody is notified in a way that makes it awkward.

If you are getting too many notifications, muting the busiest group usually fixes it without leaving anything.

Proposing a new group

Suggest it to your committee. Most societies require a minimum number of interested residents before creating one — a graveyard of three-member groups helps nobody.

Reporting a problem post

Contact a group moderator or your committee. Each group should have two moderators, at least one of whom is not a committee member.

What usually happens: the moderator raises it privately with the poster first, which resolves most things. Content may be removed with a private note explaining why. Removing a person from a group is a real social sanction in a building where you all still live together — it should be rare, documented, and appealable to the committee.

If you think a moderation decision was unfair, raise it with the committee. Moderation actions are recorded, so there is something to review.

What groups will not fix

Be realistic. Groups will not resolve a genuine grievance — that needs a ticket with an owner. They will not substitute for a vote. And they will not stop the parking argument; they will just contain it so it is not in everyone's face.

Privacy

Groups are scoped to your society. Membership and moderation actions are recorded in the society's audit log, so a removal is a documented decision rather than a disputed one.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to join any groups? No. Joining is entirely voluntary, and you can leave any group at any time.

Can I be added to a group without agreeing? You should not be. Auto-adding residents to social groups is the original sin of society WhatsApp and this is deliberately not how groups work here.

Where do I report a broken lift? The helpdesk, not a group. A ticket gets an owner and a resolution; a group post gets sympathy.

Can tenants join groups? Yes. Restricting tenants from community life is a common and needless grievance.

Who moderates the groups? Two volunteers per group, ideally including at least one non-committee resident.

Can I post about my business? Only where your society permits home businesses, and only in the buy-and-sell group, with disclosure. MLM and financial products are generally prohibited outright.

Related: How society interest groups work · Resident: use the photo gallery · Society classifieds and marketplace