I appreciate the concerns. I actually made the facebook group private to safeguard peoples privacy, not damage it. I can make it open but I assumed people wouldnt like that.
You do not really have to give any personal info on facebook, I know several cruisers that have a separate account with facebook for their cruise meets, that way you can join the discussion without me being able to see your main facebook page with your photos and stuff. Tapatalk also is not a free app, facebook is.
I appreciate that some people dont like facebook, that is fine. I think we can all make sure to post important stuff here too.
I have tried to search meetup threads for information, but usually there is so much chatter it is impossible to find. Either way, I will make sure to keep this thread going too!
Hmm, I don't recall paying for tapatalk for my android phone, iPhone may charge for it though, but I don't know, don't have one of those.
I am participating in our FB group but I have (or at least I hope I have) locked down my security properly so I don't have an issue. It's just that this morning, I went to a few "meet up" threads to maybe gain some information, but they were all taking the discussions to a FB group and there wasn't any useful current information
I saw some threads where there were no "conclusions" to a trip report or posting or FE information because the discussion had been taken off the board into a FB group. So it's just sad that this board is used to start a discussion, but it doesn't "finish" here. I was just making a comment/observation, not saying that it can't or shouldn't be done but it would be nice for those that come after us, can see what planning and anticipation occurred leading up to our sail date. After all isn't that what is what brought us to the thread to begin with?
In fact, last year, you, yourself, start a thread about surprising your wife on the cruise you took in April of this year. There is no conclusion to that thread, nor is there one in the meet up thread, because from what I could see, it was all taken to FB.
I was trying to find some current information on FE's etc., and tried a link to a FB Group, but because it's private, and I really don't want to join, I can't read it to glean any information from it. In addition, it's very difficult to search for specific information on FB.
Just making people aware to give them information from which to make decisions
Therefore, I may reduce my participation in the FB page, as I want people to be able to have information here.
. My DD caught our cruise fever and now we are adding one more VGT and waiting to find out where they will land. 
