One of the truly wonderful elements of the technology we are using during this time is its instantaneous transmission and ease of use (at least we hope for that). Those things have also created an opening for those lovely denizens of the internet known as trolls. While sometimes these bad actors are trying to create misinformation, most of the time they are just trying to create chaos for others. One of the newer creatures of this phenomenon is the Zoom bomber. These trolls scan the internet for open meeting links and then join those meetings and interrupt with verbal abuse, foul language, pornographic self-videos, and other nasty things. We are trying to mitigate these interruptions as much as possible by using all the tools that Zoom provides for making meetings and chats secure. We are using disguised links, the Waiting Room, meeting locks, and register for meetings but one thing we are not doing at this time is using password protection as it seems extremely cumbersome to try to get those sent out to everyone. So, if in spite of our best efforts, one of these trolls gets in somehow, be patient because the host can lock whomever it is out. Your online safety is our biggest concern and we are doing all we can and we are also learning more as we go. If you have attempted to join a meeting several minutes after it started it is possible it is because it is now locked. Please understand that it is out of concern for everyone that this happens. But please, if you have issues not related to the above, send an email to stmaalive@gmail.com and we will respond as quickly as we can.

The staff at St. Michael’s