[rant] Evite
Mar. 21st, 2005 03:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wispfoxIn 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.
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.
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My 2cents
Date: 2005-03-21 09:04 pm (UTC)I like receiving them because it gives me a better idea of who else might be there, how big the party will be, etc. This can help me make a more informed decision as to whether or not I'll be compatable with the party, either personality wise or mood wise. (Is it a huge party where there isn't anyone I know attending -- I've got to be feeling pretty social to go to one of those; Are there lots of people there I'll know -- even if it's a big party, I'll probably feel pretty comfortable there; etc.)
I like sending them 'cause, well, it fits in well with my tendancies towards obsessive checking. You can see if someone has actually looked at the evite (an assurance you don't get with email -- relevant when you're inviting people that you don't keep in touch with often enough to know the address is current). And you can even see each time they look at it, until they actually reply. It's almost like getting email -- ooh, look, X looked at my evite again!
Just a bit of the other side of the story. :)
Re: My 2cents
Date: 2005-03-21 09:10 pm (UTC)If I'm concerned, I will ask. In fact, I think I generally tend to ask, for any party whose size/invitees I don't know.
And you can even see each time they look at it, until they actually reply. It's almost like getting email -- ooh, look, X looked at my evite again!
Didn't know it told you when people looked. That's kinda neat. :)
I think my main problem with them, from the invitee perspective, is simply that they work _very_ poorly with how I work, and generally tend to result in me not attending evite-based parties.
Re: My 2cents
Date: 2005-03-21 09:22 pm (UTC):)
Re: My 2cents
Date: 2005-03-21 09:27 pm (UTC)YES!
And really, that's all that's needed to defuse my initial reaction to evites. Don't make them just evite. Just like I dislike it when people make party invites solely through LiveJournal (which might be worse, since one doesn't even get email about it).
obsessive-checking thrill out of them that I do. ('Cause, really, I think that's what my enjoyment of them comes down to.)
*laugh* That's a really amusing reason for evites. :)