How it Started
“Teachers Using Google Workspace for Education – GEG Virtual” was a Facebook group I administered for the last five/six years. There has been great collaboration and support within the community to build each other up using Google tools in education.
In May, a scammer decided to pose as an admin and gained admin status in the group of 130,000 members. He removed the admins and mods we had in place but left us in the group for some reason. My mods, who were still in the group, reinvited me. Then, my account was reinstated as a moderator. We attempted to communicate with the hostile takeover, but there was little positive response.
Things continued “as normal” for a while, but then they took a turn for the worse. The new admin started posting memes that had nothing to do with education or Google tools. Members noticed and called out the poster.
How it’s Going
So, I decided to start again. I created a new group called “GEG Virtual – Educators Using Google Workspace.” I made an announcement in the group, linking to the new group and explaining what had happened. About six hours later, I was removed and blocked from the original group. It might seem like nothing, but I had put lots of time and energy into making sure that people got the help they asked for–all on a volunteer basis.
I feel awful that the people remaining in the group will get swarmed with the inappropriate posts and junk that we’ve tried so hard to eliminate from our group. I can’t even let them know that they are being used to promote all the spammy posts you see shared on Facebook.
So, the goal is to keep moving forward! I will focus on the new group, keeping it a positive and focused place for anyone working in education to come and learn together. If this sounds like a community you’d like to join, please follow this link and join the conversation.