Pony Request: IRL notifications

March 4, 2012 1:51 PM

Hey, look, another pony request!

Would it be possible to have the title of the propsed meetup in the notifications we get? Right now, every single one of them says "IRL: New Events Near You" so you have to click on every one of them to see what it is. Yes, I know, it's one click, but when I get busy, I just let them pile up in my inbox without clicking and probably miss some cool stuff, whereas if the title of the meetup was in the title of the notification, they'd be more likely to catch my interest.

posted by rabbitrabbit to Feature Requests at 1:51 PM (37 comments total)

So two rabbits and a pony enter a bar...
posted by heyho at 2:00 PM on March 4, 2012 [2 favorites]

Yeah, not a bad idea. I think we got hung up on when two events would happen in the same 24hr period, what would go up in the subject line, etc.

I think it might work best like this:
n = 1 (full title of meetup in subject) example:

New IRL event: TEDxConcordiaUPortland Theme: Becoming Extraordinary

n >1 (venue name, venue name, venue name, etc)

New IRL events: Blue Dragon, Old Mill

posted by mathowie (staff) at 2:08 PM on March 4, 2012 [6 favorites]

I would like this! (Not that I've been to a meetup yet. Still skared. Working up to it.)
posted by Glinn at 2:19 PM on March 4, 2012

I like this idea.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:36 PM on March 4, 2012 [3 favorites]

If you're taking votes, mine is "yes."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:49 PM on March 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

I would feed this pony a carrot or something.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:49 PM on March 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

I want to go to a meetup where we all get pony rides on this pony.
posted by decathecting at 2:54 PM on March 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

Glinn: "I would like this! (Not that I've been to a meetup yet. Still skared. Working up to it.)"

I have social anxiety. I have never felt more welcomed or unjudged than when I went to a Mefi meetup. Seriously go, it's great.
posted by IndigoRain at 3:07 PM on March 4, 2012 [2 favorites]

Glinn: (Not that I've been to a meetup yet. Still skared. Working up to it.)

Indigo Rain: I have social anxiety. I have never felt more welcomed or unjudged than when I went to a Mefi meetup. Seriously go, it's great.

Also, you're going to die one day, and so is everyone else, so why worry about the little things? Go to meetups! Propose them! Host them!
posted by curious nu at 3:12 PM on March 4, 2012

Meetups are super great and chill and friendly.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:17 PM on March 4, 2012 [2 favorites]

Well before the sex magick anyway.
posted by The Whelk at 3:27 PM on March 4, 2012 [2 favorites]

Favorited, and voted for.

New IRL event: trip and half, happy
posted by trip and a half at 3:38 PM on March 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

One time at a meetup The Whelk turned me into a newt.
posted by mintcake! at 3:50 PM on March 4, 2012

(No one's called an album Low Blood Sugar Sex Majik yet?)
posted by mintcake! at 3:52 PM on March 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

(I thought about it but decided to go with Diabetic For The People instead.)
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:55 PM on March 4, 2012 [5 favorites]

To add to this pony, it would be nice if the email didn't have mathowie as the sender since he is not the one organizing every event. I would find it more helpful and informative if it came from the user organizing that particular event.
posted by special-k at 4:13 PM on March 4, 2012 [2 favorites]

I think it would be nice if the emails arrived with the sender showing as THE MEFI FUN CABAL.
posted by Lexica at 4:25 PM on March 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

Can you also make it so a limo comes to pick me up and takes me to the meetup and then drives me home again after?
posted by rtha at 4:30 PM on March 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

(No one's called an album Low Blood Sugar Sex Majik yet?)

It's considerably less amusing when you're living the life.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:50 PM on March 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

Nothing but love.
posted by mintcake! at 4:53 PM on March 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

*Checks profile*
*Find's he's now the only user within 50 miles*
*sobs*

special-k writes "it would be nice if the email didn't have mathowie as the sender since he is not the one organizing every event. I would find it more helpful and informative if it came from the user organizing that particular event."

Not all organizers are going to have an associated email address.
posted by Mitheral at 4:54 PM on March 4, 2012

One time at a meetup The Whelk turned me into a newt.

a SEXY newt
posted by the young rope-rider at 4:54 PM on March 4, 2012

I would find it more helpful and informative if it came from the user organizing that particular event.

Nah, we don't want to put form-letter words in people's mouths, even for something as benign and positive as a meetup. If we were ever to have these come from someone other than mathowie, it'd need to be from some special, unambiguously-nobody Hello I Am The Automatic Sender Bot account.
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:57 PM on March 4, 2012

Go to meetups! Propose them! Host them!

I've been meaning to propose a meetup in Central CT for a while now but I've never been to one so I'm not sure how to do it right.

This is as good an opportunity as any to ask: what are the features of a successful meetup / good things to do / important things to avoid? I'm thinking pub quiz or some similar activity would be good but not sure beyond that.
posted by gauche at 7:44 PM on March 4, 2012

Usually something low key like "Hey let's all get together for a meal/beer" is a great way to start. Usually people like either food or beer or socializing, so it's a pretty easy type of thing to get people to come to. Maybe worth sending out some feelers to other MeFites in your area to see if people would be in to that sort of thing and then a few people can think of a place/time/date that would work and either put it up as a proposed meetup or just decide that a few of you are going to meet and if other people want to come, great.

I think the only thing that is a good idea is

- Have a way for people to know who in the location are the meetup people. Either a table tag or something, t-shirt, obvious indicator. Not all MeFites are shy in public or around strangers, but some are and things go easier if people can find each other.
- Having an extra event is fine if there's something you're stoked about. Movie events can be great if there are people into the same sorts of movies and then you can go for a drink/meal afterwards.

It all sort of depends if you want to be social or if you just want to hang with some MeFites and do a thing. I've been to an awful lot of meetups and most of them are the "hey let's meet someplace for a meal/drink" and fewer are organized around an event though if there's a thing coming up that would probably be fine. There are a few groups of regulars in various places who do stuff like hiking, trivia nights, scotch tasting, gamer nights, but really any excuse to say "Hey I'd like to meet you folks" is often just fine.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:58 PM on March 4, 2012

Yeah, my recipe for a good meetup is (a) it should be somewhere where people can drink if they want to and (b) at least two people show up and (c) let the idle bullshitting commence. Everything else is gravy; I've been to meetups that were sort of event type things with some activity they were planned around, and that can be totally fine and fun, but most of the time in Portland we're just meeting at a bar/tavern/restaurant and sitting and drinking beers and chattering for a few hours.

I have a hard time having a proper meetup meetup if there's an event that seriously distracts from the idle bullshitting, but that's just my disposition; it can be fun to go to a thing with other mefites, too, and there's always the possibility of getting a drink or whatever afterward.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:52 PM on March 4, 2012

smores and flattering lighting are musts!

I think choosing a venue and narrowing it down to a choice of a few days is good for a proposed meetup. Any more general than that and people think "oh, that would be cool I guess" and then drift off.
posted by the young rope-rider at 9:22 PM on March 4, 2012

I would braid this pony's mane.
posted by smirkette at 9:28 PM on March 4, 2012 [2 favorites]

This pony was way too easy
posted by infini at 1:14 AM on March 5, 2012 [1 favorite]

Thanks jessamyn and cortex. Planning commencing.
posted by gauche at 8:19 AM on March 5, 2012

Um, and thanks tyr-r. I'll think about s'mores.
posted by gauche at 8:30 AM on March 5, 2012

Yes! My pony request success rate is 100%!
posted by rabbitrabbit at 8:58 AM on March 5, 2012

I don't want to be the bad news guy, but we haven't implemented this yet. There are a couple snags we need to work out. When the alert has one event, it's easy to use the post subject. That's no problem.

But when there's more than one event to alert someone about things get tricker. We could use venue names in the subject line like mathowie mentioned for Confirmed events. But Proposed events only have a city. And it might be a bit strange to show:

New IRL events: Blue Dragon and Portland, OR

It's strange because they're both in Portland, OR. Instead we could just show a list of cities. If it's all the same city, no problem:

New IRL events around Portland, OR

If it's more than one city, we could list them:

New IRL events around Portland, OR and Eugene, OR

So we just need to make some decisions about how to handle multiple events in a single alert that include a mix of Confirmed and Proposed Events.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:09 AM on March 5, 2012

You could do "New IRL events: Blue Dragon and proposed event in City"

Or send out separate alerts, one for confirmed events and one for proposed events.
posted by the young rope-rider at 10:04 AM on March 5, 2012

it'd need to be from some special, unambiguously-nobody Hello I Am The Automatic Sender Bot account.

IMO, this would be a little better. I always wonder why mathowie is sending me messages (not that there's anything wrong with that) in the moment before my brain parses the subject line.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 11:53 AM on March 5, 2012

Upon further reflection, I think it would be best if mathowie dressed up as a Western Union messenger and personally delivered telegram-style invitations to each of us individually at our homes, and then returned on the day of the event dressed as a theater usher to personally escort us to the venue. But that idea will probably require some additional brainstorming to make it actually implementable.

Also, I can't believe I mistyped my own user name above.
posted by trip and a half at 12:04 PM on March 5, 2012 [1 favorite]

It's no Li'l Sebastian, but this is a pretty good pony, nonetheless.
posted by maryr at 2:12 PM on March 5, 2012 [1 favorite]