Zoom Meetings

I hate talking on the phone - vastly prefer Zoom for business meetings.

ummm...cut the camera off?

What’s Zoom? We use Skype.

People have tried that R2

Someone notices and assumes they are having tech issues, stops the meeting and waits for them to get back on.

Plus if it's a client it's rude.

I'm thankful for the aps even though they have their limitations and annoyances. Lots of people get to keep their jobs. Bits and pieces of work move forward. News and entertainment via these aps has been a godsend.

The colleagues who can't adjust to the aps are the same ones who are very rigid in their jobs in the office, anyway.

What happens on your Zoom calls that would not happen on a phone call R5?

They make sense if you are presenting a deck or similar so that everyone is seeing the same thing at the same time.

But most of my clients are in different cities anyway, so much more common to do phone calls and use Google Docs for decks.

I don’t mind them for the most part, however, I do get sick of when people deliberately bring their kids on camera during a meeting so that everyone can “Awww!” and so that the parent can get attention. It’s like do they not understand anyone can have a kid and it’s been done billions of times? It’s so attention seeking.

[quote] They make sense if you are presenting a deck

What if you're presenting dick?

what is a "deck"

I find zoom meetings exhausting.

I thank god I don't have to do these or see anyone's damn kids. Hell no.

A zoom of all wangs.

R10 So exhausting! Plus with the tech difficulties! So annoying. Last week strange echo on the chat and everyone was on a delay, so I could barely understand what was being said

R10 So exhausting! Plus with the tech difficulties! So annoying. Last week strange echo on the chat and everyone was on a delay, so I could barely understand what was being said

Half start in Cisco WebEx and half in Teams. That’s my new favorite.

Teams is solid.

Horrifying, you're staring directly at the other people in the meeting's face and they're staring right back at you which is something you dont do in live meetings.

But none of us are really staring at each other. We are all staring at the picture on the screen while an actual Eye 2 Eye view would be us looking at our cameras

I got a Charley Horse in the middle of my Zoom aerobics class the other day. That was embarassing.

the group video chats on tv with Skype or zoom are dizzying. I just imagine squinting at the small boxes on screen and saying "wha" all the time. no I am not that old lol.

Zoom is yet another company swooping in - with alllll sorts of privacy holes, etc.

We had a mandatory training session via Zoom this afternoon and wouldn't you know, I lost my audio just as the session started. I ran through all the troubleshooting steps, still no sound, so I had to reboot my laptop. By the time I got back into the meeting (with audio, thankfully), they were done with the instructional part and had moved on to the individual practice sessions. I floundered along.

Ironically, the training session was for the new IT desk software we'll be transitioning to in a couple of weeks.

Sammy smith

Any of you been Zoom Bombed yet?

I don’t mind them. I’ve set my Zoom client to display my smiling head shot and only unmute my microphone when I have something to say. I get as much work done during Zooms as I would in any other teleconference.

Mute 👏🏼 your 👏🏼 fuck 👏🏼 ing 👏🏼 mic 👏🏼

I turn the camera off and smoke a bowl.

[quote]what is a "deck"?

PowerPoint Deck is a term used by people to call a presentation or collection of PowerPoint slides. Even more, it is often used to call a collection of PowerPoint presentations. ... Sometimes a deck is an unbound printout of the presentation given to the participants.

Thank you for this thread. I hate talking on the phone, and equally hate talking on the phone with pictures! The lag, the distraction of seeing one's own face, the inability to do something else while being bored by someone droning on.....blech!

One thing I've noticed - boomer ladies LOOOOOOVE the zoom. Seriously, with my mother and other ladies I know in their 60s, 70s and beyond, it seems all the rage. The same type that can barely figure out how to text, and doesn't want to.

Amuse yourself with the knowledge that no one is wearing pants.

I've attended a monthly videoconference for over a year in which the leader of the group has technical issues, the screen freezes, his words are garbled, we lose his audio, sometimes he's disconnected. We indicate we can't hear him speaking, but he just keeps talking. We've gently suggested he have someone look at his computer at home to pinpoint how he can correct this. He doesn't do it. So meetings take twice as long because we are all on board and fully connected except for him. It drives me crazy!!!

I hate seeing my ugly face in Zoom. In an in-person meeting, I can stare at everyone else's ugly faces, but I'm not constantly reminded of how ugly my own face is.

Here's a Zoom trick: Record a video of yourself sitting in front of the computer and nodding your head. Then use it as your "virtual background" video in Zoom. When it's time for the meeting, loop the video and leave the room. If the other people in the meeting say, "We asked you a question during the meeting and you didn't respond," just say, "Sorry, I was having sound problems with my computer."

I'm still not sure what exactly zoom is or how it works. Everyone's talking about it all of a sudden, but I'm too lazy to find out. At almost 33 I'm not that old, but I'm already sick of adjusting to a new software or social network every couple of years that's not that much different from something that's already well-established and working just fine.

R33 thinks she’s 32 but she’s really 79. Very CZJ.

No R34, as I said upthread, the older ladies adore Zoom. I'm telling you, it's true.

The bank my SO works for won't allow them to use Zoom on any computer used to work.

I think it would be funny to get Zoom-bombed. So far, nothing. Just the usual assholes.

They pushed it on us at my university and enough engineering profs told them to piss off so we have Teams.

I was on a Skype chat and bored to bits so I did my shopping on another site. When I paid, I thought, maybe that was stupid to complete a purchase while on such an ap.

When zooming with one of my hot coworkers, Im thinking about putting up a pic of me presenting hole. If he complains, I'll say it was a technical glitch.

LOTS of IKEA furniture.

r33 I hear you. I'm also still fairly young and I'm fairly tech-savvy, but I'm already done with software. I'm sick of having to learn some new thing every time I turn around. Most of it is bullshit that's nothing new or different from the old bullshit.

I don't want to see in my students' rooms and apartments. It feels invasive. I am impressed with the tidiness and plainness. Gen Z seem like a ordered, tidy generation. When I was in college we lived in colorful rooms and apartments filled thrift junk and "art".

I don’t mind it so much for work since generally the meetings are short. But I have unleashed a monster by introducing my quarantined parents to it. In pre-Zoom days, I could call them once a week and just let them chat about whatever they wanted: gardening, car repairs, minor health issues, other relatives’ minor health issues, conversations they had with the neighbors, etc. I could listen and make appropriate responses, while happily multitasking or reading a magazine/surfing the internet. Now I’m stuck sitting in from of my computer with an expression of polite interest the whole time. It’s exhausting!

I am surprised most of your students don't use backgrounds R42

Yes I am surprised. I use a background.

And they tell me personal things that I haven't heard from students in years. I think the generation is more shook up by quarantine and corona then we appreciate. It's not all party hardy spring breakers.

R43 There you go! Boomers= Zoomers

I feel my students have adapted to Zoom much more easily than I have.

It’s not that the technology presents a big obstacle for me, despite my advanced age (63!). It’s merely that the students had already been accustomed to spending hours at a time online. As for me, not so much.

I’m glad I have a job, but after these past weeks on Zoom, my eyes are about to fall out of their sockets. I live on Zoom - my classes, faculty meetings, office hours, plus my volunteer job. I’m turning into a cadaver.

Are you at a school where most of your students are home in their parents spacious suburban houses R48 or more of a middle class school where many of them are in their own apartments and need to work part time?

I just had a Zoom double funeral. Bummer.

One thing I keep hearing, though it does seem pretty obvious, is that the next generation of Macbooks are going to have much better cameras built in.

Few people actually ever used them so Apple has not updated the 720p camera since 2011. The cameras on all its phones are much, much higher quality and resolution.

I retired before Zoom became a "thing" so I don't have that much experience with it. But some of my other activities (volunteer work, board and trivia games) have switched over to Zoom during this crisis so I'm learning. At first I didn't realize you could change your background and I was embarrassed by my messy room ... but no longer! And I'm using it with a webcam plugged into my desktop, but there doesn't seem to be any way to (ironically) zoom the camera in or out, which is annoying. Anyway, I guess it's a useful tool, but in the game groups there's way too much talking over each other and it's hard to understand everything.

The other thing I've been using is Discord. Has anyone tried that?

R45, what do you use as a background?

TEAMS offers tacky generic backgrounds or upload photos. I find it's best not to attract any attention to myself, show any individuality, and just take the generic of everything and do the minimum that is professional. I am not in favor of "heroics" at this time and it seems about 25% of staff are doing "heroic" work and its bugs the shit out of me.

Hi, R49. It’s CUNY - i.e., public community college in NYC. Definitely not suburban and mostly not middle class. Recent and some not so recent immigrants, poor-ish to working class and just above.

We’re doing a zoom happy hour tomorrow with some friends both local and around the world.

It’s fine for work. We don’t use video, mostly screen shares, so no one really knows how much everyone is fucking off. I

In my experience, it was the middle class kids who stayed in student housing and the upper middle class/rich kids who lived in off-campus apartments paid for by their parents.

I hate when you have the one PM who insists on participants turning on video so he can "see your face"! I am eating breakfast, not dressed, shaved or combed my hair yet. Also, my background isn't set-up yet. Just Ugh! Let me give my sprint status (over audio) and be done with it! Otherwise, I am fine with it👍

I'm an adjunct college professor. The classes I teach are all on Zoom. It's super difficult to read the room.

r53 I just use pictures I've taken of scenery around the world.

Why would you need to read the room? You’re not going to let those whiny little brats tell you how to teach, are you? Don’t be a pussy.

My company banned using video during Webex meetings because it was consuming excessive bandwidth. We do "screen share" of documents a lot. Someone upthread mentioned "decks"....yeah those. Powerpoint decks are the scourge of corporate America and about 90% bullshit /10% useful info worth looking at.

I always preempt every Hangouts meeting with saying my wifi is too weak to carry both audio and video, so can we do only audio instead?

Total bullshit, of course — but other attendees usually seem relieved to turn their video off as well.

And then, we simply have a lovely, efficient little chat. Okay bye, talk soon. Ciao.

We use it for stupid "catch up" morning teas. Sometimes we just sit there staring at each other and no one saying anything

I'm doing AA and NA meetings on Zoom. They're funny and as different as night and day.

What’s AA and NA?

To me, the problem is not Zoom or Google Hangouts. It's the fact that we're having a meeting. I hate the corporate world and my job. I can't stand most of my coworkers.

I'm not usually too bothered about having the odd video call but my job requires a lot of meetings and face-to-face interactions which of course are now all done online, so there is a lot more screentime which I'm not enjoying.

I also find the technical issues (audio cutting out, freezing video) that other people constantly get super annoying as you constantly have to ask them to repeat themselves, plus there is also constant interruptions as it's much less easy to read cues on when to speak than when you're in the same room.

Glad to have it though, as things would be even more difficult without it at the moment.

[quote]I am surprised most of your students don't use backgrounds [R42]

Don't you have to use a green screen? Where is everyone getting green screens?

R69 no green screen required.

we use skype instead but voice only and no video. so i taped over my company’s laptop camera as it’s not needed. i get paranoid that somebody might me see slacking away instead of actually wfh. lol

On the plus side I find people are (generally) straight to the point and economical than in physical meetings. And without video you can do something else , which is also not possible in normal meetings.

The technical side can be a bummer and cause lots of repetitions though.

The other funny thing is because of the way Zoom is designed and the placement of the laptop camera, people are always looking down as they are talking to the other people on the screen or looking at their own image.

Very funny

And it’s happening again. This whole meeting has been people “showing off” their kids again. What a waste of time.

People do aa meetings and sexaholics meetings on zoom.

Do the sexaholics jerk off on camera?

R70, depending on your device and graphics card, you may or may not need a green screen for backgrounds. My laptop's graphic card isn't powerful enough to do backgrounds cleanly.

I agree with R26. I'm self-employed, so no need for business meetings thankfully. But I am part of a focus group of other self-employed people who conduct the same kind of business that I do. We've been having Zoom chats weekly for over a year now where we strategize, discuss issues, etc. Even after a year of meetings, some of these people have yet to discover the mute button.

Like R56, I have a weekly Zoom happy hour with some college friends. That's been fun.

Can anyone explain this? When I look at myself in the bathroom mirror, my neck looks normal. But when I look at myself on the screen in Zoom, my neck has terrible jowls, bumps, and wrinkles.

Try raising your laptop on some books R79 so that the camera is at eye level or higher

Tom Ford “How to Look Good on Camera”

Thanks, R80 and R81! I looked at the advice from Tom Ford. The first three steps are simple. The fourth and final step? Lots of powder? I have zero experience putting powder on my face. What kind? How much? How to apply it?

Another graduate of the Tom Ford school of Zoom meetings here. 🖐🏻 Raising the laptop helps a lot. As does good lighting. Powder helps if you’re trying to tone down pink tones.

What about if your skin has an orange glow (except around the eyes) and your hair looks like cotton candy made wirh piss?

Such a rude question R84!

Remember that Tom Ford is an almost 60 year old man who was so worried about how he looks that he had the hotel bar he spends most of his time at adjust the lighting so as not to highlight his wrinkles.

Unless you are actually going to be on TV, you can skip the powder. Most people have you in that Brady Bunch layout and can't see the details of your face. And they likely know what you look like IRL anyway.

As I noted at R80, raising the laptop up helps (though remember to look at the camera, otherwise it looks like you are looking down) and don't sit in front of a bright window or lamp--you want any source of lighting behind the camera, not behind you.

R82 if you want to try powder, a basic drugstore compact will work fine. Look for “mat” in the description, avoid anything with “dewy, glow, radiant” which will only add more shine.

What about BB cream - will that show?

Put up a fake background

What's the best way to present hole on Zoom?