12 Beijing-Centric WeChat Groups You Can't Live Without

原创 Michael Wester theBeijinger

收录于合集

advertisement

Raise your hand if you need more WeChat Groups in your life!

OK so maybe you don’t really need that many more groups, given the general level of chatter that keeps you glued to your phone all day already.

But as group functionality in WeChat gets stronger, so does the necessity of picking and choosing groups based on narrow fields of interest. By joining niche groups and dumping the broadly defined ones, you’re then freed from the drudgery of wading through hundreds of messages you don’t care about every day.

We here at The Beijinger can vouch for the 12 groups below – they’re all moderated and we personally do our best to keep them spam- and clutter-free. Best of all, we’re not some crackpot “TubeMedia” a-holes asking you to pay to join. We’re here for the community, not for the commodification.

advertisement

WeChat Group Etiquette

Read the Group Rules First. Before you start posting what you *think* is relevant to the group, read the rules. It’s basic courtesy.

Mute the Group: We recommend you mute notifications for any group larger than a dozen or so, otherwise you are going to be inundated with message notifications.

Participate, Don’t Carpet Bomb. Lurkers who don’t have anything to say but still find the group worthwhile are welcome, but don’t be one of those people who never bothers to read the group but drops posts in there well after the group has already gone over the topic 10x.

Consider the Group Size. Remember that in a group of hundreds of people, the vast majority are silent but appreciate the group and don’t wait to wade through idle chatter to find the meat. Thus extended back and forth between two users (A: “Really?” B: “Yes” A: “No, you mean it?” B. “Yes I do.” A: “Is that so?”) is not useful. Every post should add value somewhere.

Don’t Be a Gracie. There’s a WeChat user out there who has joined every group I’ve ever been in and she lurks in there for a while before dumping her completely unrelated spam in the group, and when she’s called out on it, replies with a coy “Oh sorry, I won’t do that again!” before continuing the cycle again. No, just no.

Don’t Be The Pasta Guy. One guy I used to host in one of my groups posted a “fresh pasta today!” advertisement every single f—ing day and when I called him on it, he said each day he makes a different shape, so thus the posts were different. Come on, people. No one wants to see the same thing over and over again.

So without further pontification, here are the 12 groups. Join up, read the group rules, and start contributing!