AA / 12 Step Meetings: Make your voices heard! We need Zoom to allow us to disable RAISING HANDS!! | Community
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Newcomer
May 5, 2025
Question

AA / 12 Step Meetings: Make your voices heard! We need Zoom to allow us to disable RAISING HANDS!!

  • May 5, 2025
  • 9 replies
  • 18 views

How many AA meeting Zoom accounts have been affected by bombers, making removing them difficult by toggling the RAISE HAND feature?  

 

Yes, we have a great security team, and we know how to use the participants list to type in the name and then eject the bomber, but some meetings don't have that because they are newer or smaller.  People are dying out there, trying to stop drinking, and the bombers are so prolific and scaring people off.  

 

I've seen other meetings using screening questions to keep bombers out, but keep these desperate newcomers out, too.  

 

Zoom is adding so many complex features, yet we cannot get them to listen to us to add something that to me, is quite simple.  

 

How do we get this to somebody who will listen?  

9 replies

Newcomer
May 5, 2025

I agree. Bombers repeatedly raising/unraising their hands in rapid succession makes it really tough to kick them out. If we could eliminate this option to raise hands the meetings would become a whole lot more welcoming. 

Newcomer
May 10, 2025

I agree with the above posts. To make it worse, bombers play whack-a-mole and it’s that much harder to isolate and remove them. It would really be helpful to be able to turn off the Raise Hand option. Our meetings are a matter of life and death for some struggling alcoholics. Please help us keep these little jerks out. As it stands now, 14-year-olds are beating Zoom. 

Newcomer
May 11, 2025

Yes, please, we need this.  Ordinarily, raising hands helps us queue up people who wish to speak and keep the meeting organized, BUT when disruptors ("bombers") rapidly raise and lower hands using the convenient key combination, they become VERY hard to remove.   They enter the meeting using a plausible name, so they are admitted from the waiting room because we want to help anyone who wants help even if we have not met them before.  Then at some point they begin displaying a obscene video with loud sound and jumping around using the raise hand feature.  When that persists for more than a few seconds, it is extremely disturbing to some of our more emotionally vulnerable attendees.  I agree with the above comments: "Please help us keep these little jerks out. As it stands now, 14-year-olds are beating Zoom. "

TubeGuyAuthor
Newcomer
October 8, 2025

Folks....we need to spread our need for this by YOU asking the question too, and making it spread.  It's the only way to get Zoom to pay attention.

Newcomer
May 12, 2025

I host meetings for an organization and we are constantly bombarded by people trying to disrupt the meetings. The biggest issue now is they use the Ctrl command to keep raising and lowering hand repeatedly so they move around and we cannot click on them to remove them from the meetings. Even if we suspend participant activities they can still do this and it creates a visual movement that makes it next to impossible to continue with our meetings. Please consider giving us an option to stop participants from raising hands.

Newcomer
June 17, 2025

Here  is the issue: It needs to get around.  Take the link to this thread to other meetings and ask them to demand change.  

Newcomer
June 17, 2025

There is a simple solution to this problem that we found. Use the search bar in the participants window to search for the name of the intruder raising and lowering hand. Then they are the only one who shows up and you can easily remove them. 

TubeGuyAuthor
Newcomer
October 8, 2025

They toggle it on and off quickly, and now they have created a way to change names so we turn that feature off.  Why can't we address a problem so widespread with a simple fix?

Newcomer
June 17, 2025

If you search the participants window with the search bar there for your intruder they will be the only one showing and will be still so you can remove them.

Newcomer
June 18, 2025

I don’t even know who is responsible in the Zoom organization. Whoever it is should do an AMA. 

Newcomer
October 9, 2025

There is an app available in Zoom apps that is a simple fix. If you search for “hand” in the Zoom Apps search bar it will bring the app up. You can set it for three hand raises so the app is triggered when someone raises a hand three times. You can choose whether you want the offender to be sent to the waiting room or removed from the meeting when they do it. It’s great. I prefer they raise and lower now because then I am asked for each one in turn what to do and one click each they are gone.