[rant] Evite

[wispfox]

In an entirely different train of thought, excuse me for a moment while I rant.

I _hate_ evites. I will follow them, and use them, since I mostly only get them from people I have some desire to actually stay in contact with and attend the parties of.

However, evites don't contain date, time, general idea of party in the email subject line or body. This makes them immensely annoying if I am not yet sure if I want to attend a party and want to decide later, because it's harder for me to use the email as a reminder to myself to make a decision, as there is no timing information in the email. I am _far_ less likely to have time/initiative to follow a link in my email than to just re-read my email.

I hate having to go to a website just to tell someone if I want to attend a party. The high annoyance factor has meant that it's entirely possible for a party I'm not sure about to be something I don't attend, either because I forget to decide, or because I just don't want to handle the annoyance.

Additionally, evite party invites tend to have huge, highly-visible-in-the-invite guest lists, so I can never quite shake the feeling of my presence not really being particularly important to the invitee, which also tends to make me less interested in attending. I seem to get a stronger sense of actively being wanted at a party if the invite and party information is sent via email, _even if I know the party, guest list, and distribution list are huge_. Considering that I rarely actively want to attend large group parties due to energy levels, this makes a significant difference in my interest.

Yeesh. I can tell it's no longer winter because people are sending out evites again.

Comments

[kyrene.livejournal.com]

Hey, look at it this way... someone bothered to send you an invitation to a birthday party because they wanted to see you there. They didn't have to. They could've chosen to leave your email off and make like they didn't remember your email address. If you like, they can leave you off next time to avoid the hassle of receiving such an invite, if the chosen media is that offensive. Really. No sweat.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

*chuckle*

a) there's multiples of the things, not just one (in other words, this isn't directed at anyone)

b) I said that I _do_ still follow them, regardless of my dislike for them, _because I mostly only get them from people I have some desire to actually stay in contact with and attend the parties of_.

[cutieperson]

that's like saying "don't bother spell checking invites you send out, and send them in crimson text on a black background that many people would find hard to parse". because hey, you're sending them at all, which shows you care.

[kyrene.livejournal.com]

That's assuming that it's obvious that what you're sending out is difficult to deal with and obnoxious. Last time I checked, evites were neither (by my perspective) and I prefer them over mass emails any day, which get lost in my inbox, are hard to keep track of, and are often deleted.

If someone simply took the time to let me know that it was a problem, I'd send them emails instead of an evite. Period, the end. We're adults here, after all. Communication is a happy thing.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

We're adults here, after all

[monty python] I'm not! [/monty python]

Ehem.

That said...

If someone simply took the time to let me know that it was a problem

Problem with this is that there are simply too many people sending out evites for it to generally be worth it to say something every time, and it's often difficult for me to remember who I have said something to.

Because evites _are_ so much easier for the inviter, and because I would prefer to receive an evite than nothing at all (which is the likely result in most cases, since I know that _I_ would certainly have trouble remembering who requested what), I'm also hesitant to request being removed from the evite lists of people whose parties I would like to attend. If I never made it to any evite parties, ever, I'd not worry about being removed. But I do make it to some; just fewer than I would if they were not evite-based.

[kyrene.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they are much easier, which is why I use them. They're also easier for me when I get them. I'm a lot more likely to remember events that way, because my memory for social events is NOT what it used to be.

In any event, you're the only one so far who's had a prob with them (at least as far as I know), and I don't mind collecting a small list of people who'd rather receive invitations via email versus evites, and just keep track that way. Less drama, aggravation, and fuss for people in the long run. ^_^

[cutieperson]

That's assuming that it's obvious that what you're sending out is difficult to deal with and obnoxious. Last time I checked, evites were neither (by my perspective)

it being how you perceive it does not necessarily translate to others viewing it the same. unfortunately, people don't tend to look at things from all angles, and even if they did it would be hard to think of every possible reaction.

my point was though, saying "whatever, you don't need to receive it at all" places everything on the person who doesn't like the method of inviting, and nothing on the host to make receiving invites easy/pleasant for their guests.

[kyrene.livejournal.com]

Hence why I said if you let the person know to send an email instead, all of this stupid drama could be avoided.

Communication. It's what's for dinner.

[cutieperson]

yes, you did say that. but certainly not in the original comment i replied to.

as your icon says, whatever. i'm not the one looking at getting invites or not from you. i just thought what you wrote was a little one-sided & written as if you took the rant as a personal attack, and i knew at least part of what likely sparked wispfox's rant was a poll that someone on our respective friends lists posted about whether or not people hate evite.

[kyrene.livejournal.com]

This LJDrama brought to you by Mercury in retrograde, destroyers of fine communication everywhere. ^_^