(re)request: delete IRL August 10, 2015 9:48 AM Subscribe
I have a proposed IRL event that never happened & I'd like an easier way to delete it than contacting the mods. This has been discussed before & I like the suggestion from that thread to add a "never happened" category, which was never implemented. Is this possible/desirable?
The events I was in Vegas for have ended. Nobody ever replied so it didn't happen.
posted by scalefree at 9:52 AM on August 10, 2015
posted by scalefree at 9:52 AM on August 10, 2015
Mainly I didn't want to bother the mods with it if there was an automated solution. But if you're OK with it I am too.
posted by scalefree at 9:53 AM on August 10, 2015
posted by scalefree at 9:53 AM on August 10, 2015
Are you worried something bad will happen now? Or that people will be mislead somehow? I'm not sure I see the problem yet.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:53 AM on August 10, 2015
posted by pb (staff) at 9:53 AM on August 10, 2015
I'm done with my trip & back home in Texas so there's no point to it from my perspective.
posted by scalefree at 9:56 AM on August 10, 2015
posted by scalefree at 9:56 AM on August 10, 2015
Typically at IRL Proposed events that don't turn into full Confirmed events are just the natural way of things. It can be helpful to leave those around for future folks. Someone might come along and say, "I wonder if anyone has tried to have a meetup around such-and-such an event." As they search, they'll find the attempt and then weigh whether or not they should take a crack at it. So even though there isn't an immediate need for the post, I don't think that's a reason to completely delete it.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:59 AM on August 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by pb (staff) at 9:59 AM on August 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Oh man, I can't believe IRL has been around for 5 years. Time flies.
posted by phunniemee at 10:02 AM on August 10, 2015
posted by phunniemee at 10:02 AM on August 10, 2015
In my case if it can be of use to anybody down the road I'm fine with keeping it around. In general it sounds like it's not a burden to the mods so there's no need for the feature. I have my answer, thanks.
posted by scalefree at 10:11 AM on August 10, 2015
posted by scalefree at 10:11 AM on August 10, 2015
None interested in me at least. I'm not bitter.
posted by scalefree at 10:42 AM on August 10, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by scalefree at 10:42 AM on August 10, 2015 [4 favorites]
The downside of retaining proposed meetups even after it's clear they're not gonna happen is there's a list of locations with proposed meetups, and it's not great to have to click through and scroll down to the bottom of the comments or whatever.
Without an open meetup, I don't really what's possible with the UI, but maybe a viable workaround would be to for the OP to change the location to a fake place like "Cancelvania" or something.
I don't accept pb's suggestion that other people might repurpose the event; I believe only the OP can convert a proposed meetup into a scheduled meetup, and if they can't make it, it's better for the other folks to just start a new event. However, I do agree with "I don't think there's a reason to completely delete it".
I think a good solution would be a way to mark an event (either a proposed or scheduled event) as "Canceled". That would remove it from the "Events Near You" and "Proposed Meetups" lists, but keep the comments and recent activity open.
posted by aubilenon at 10:46 AM on August 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Without an open meetup, I don't really what's possible with the UI, but maybe a viable workaround would be to for the OP to change the location to a fake place like "Cancelvania" or something.
I don't accept pb's suggestion that other people might repurpose the event; I believe only the OP can convert a proposed meetup into a scheduled meetup, and if they can't make it, it's better for the other folks to just start a new event. However, I do agree with "I don't think there's a reason to completely delete it".
I think a good solution would be a way to mark an event (either a proposed or scheduled event) as "Canceled". That would remove it from the "Events Near You" and "Proposed Meetups" lists, but keep the comments and recent activity open.
posted by aubilenon at 10:46 AM on August 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
For me it's no loner "proposed", I'm gone & won't be back till next year. I'd kind of like a record of that somewhere. I guess I can just add a comment to that effect, it's still available for others to see but I don't feel on the hook for it anymore.
posted by scalefree at 10:56 AM on August 10, 2015
posted by scalefree at 10:56 AM on August 10, 2015
I believe only the OP can convert a proposed meetup into a scheduled meetup...
That's correct, sorry I wasn't clearer in my description. I was just trying to say that if five people have proposed meeting up for ice cream somewhere and none of them worked out, that's good information to know.
We'll think about a canceled status. One thing we have to weigh is how much power the OP should have over an event once it's in the system. They have quite a bit of power now—they can move it to confirmed and change the details at any point. Should they be able to say, "This event is now canceled!" and stop all discussion around it? Maybe that's fine, but I can think of some ways that could be abused too. So it's something we have to weigh.
posted by pb (staff) at 11:01 AM on August 10, 2015
That's correct, sorry I wasn't clearer in my description. I was just trying to say that if five people have proposed meeting up for ice cream somewhere and none of them worked out, that's good information to know.
We'll think about a canceled status. One thing we have to weigh is how much power the OP should have over an event once it's in the system. They have quite a bit of power now—they can move it to confirmed and change the details at any point. Should they be able to say, "This event is now canceled!" and stop all discussion around it? Maybe that's fine, but I can think of some ways that could be abused too. So it's something we have to weigh.
posted by pb (staff) at 11:01 AM on August 10, 2015
What about giving them the ability to change category to cancelled, but leave discussion open? That prevents shenanigans, while still getting the message across.
As a benefit, this will allow there to still be discussion space for regrouping before launching a new thread, if needed.
posted by ocherdraco at 11:25 AM on August 10, 2015 [3 favorites]
As a benefit, this will allow there to still be discussion space for regrouping before launching a new thread, if needed.
posted by ocherdraco at 11:25 AM on August 10, 2015 [3 favorites]
I also find it untidy to have proposed events hanging around forever because they are often tied to something like travel or a specific event and can now never be converted to a confirmed event.
I had never considered the utility in leaving them around as intelligence about how to effectively propose IRL events.
posted by crush-onastick at 12:08 PM on August 10, 2015
I had never considered the utility in leaving them around as intelligence about how to effectively propose IRL events.
posted by crush-onastick at 12:08 PM on August 10, 2015
Oh man, I can't believe IRL has been around for 5 years. Time flies.
I miss meetup posts in MeTa, especially those focused around pizza.
posted by shakespeherian at 12:14 PM on August 10, 2015
I miss meetup posts in MeTa, especially those focused around pizza.
posted by shakespeherian at 12:14 PM on August 10, 2015
There are a couple of proposed events for DC from years ago that didn't happen and now are never going away and it does kind of drive me nuts, especially because I get really excited about proposed meetups and then I see that it's just the same couple of events from 2010/2011 and one that did happen and is over now. I know it's completely not a big deal at all in the grand scheme of things but it would be really nice to get rid of those; I think it would make the "proposed" section more useful.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 12:14 PM on August 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 12:14 PM on August 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
Melismata: No mefites in Vegas? :(
scalefree: None interested in me at least. I'm not bitter.
crush-onastick: I had never considered the utility in leaving them around as intelligence about how to effectively propose IRL events.
I think proposing isn't necessarily the problem, but the outreach. Unless there are a group of folks in an area who regularly use IRL, I've found the most reliable way to get people to respond to meetup proposals is to MeMail everyone in the area individually. It takes some time, but if you copy the general text, you can crank out a ton of MeMails in short order (doubly so if you use some clipboard manager/expander like TenClips so you can paste the subject line and body repeatedly without having to re-copy each).
At first, I felt like I was spamming folks, but this is the only way I've gotten much response in two different places that I've tried to set up meetups.
This is all to say - if a meetup doesn't happen in a place, it doesn't mean that the place is doomed forever. It just means you need to do some extra work to get things to happen. And if you gather email addresses from area MeFites to set up future meetups, don't forget to check back to see if anyone has moved into the area and have geo-tagged themselves.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:16 PM on August 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
scalefree: None interested in me at least. I'm not bitter.
crush-onastick: I had never considered the utility in leaving them around as intelligence about how to effectively propose IRL events.
I think proposing isn't necessarily the problem, but the outreach. Unless there are a group of folks in an area who regularly use IRL, I've found the most reliable way to get people to respond to meetup proposals is to MeMail everyone in the area individually. It takes some time, but if you copy the general text, you can crank out a ton of MeMails in short order (doubly so if you use some clipboard manager/expander like TenClips so you can paste the subject line and body repeatedly without having to re-copy each).
At first, I felt like I was spamming folks, but this is the only way I've gotten much response in two different places that I've tried to set up meetups.
This is all to say - if a meetup doesn't happen in a place, it doesn't mean that the place is doomed forever. It just means you need to do some extra work to get things to happen. And if you gather email addresses from area MeFites to set up future meetups, don't forget to check back to see if anyone has moved into the area and have geo-tagged themselves.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:16 PM on August 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
I miss meetup posts in MeTa, especially those focused around pizza.
Speaking of, it seems like it's been an awfully long time since we had an auxiliary pequod's meetup.
posted by phunniemee at 12:21 PM on August 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
Speaking of, it seems like it's been an awfully long time since we had an auxiliary pequod's meetup.
posted by phunniemee at 12:21 PM on August 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
It's been a long time since SpiffyRob directed any Bee Gees song parodies at me, too.
posted by shakespeherian at 12:33 PM on August 10, 2015
posted by shakespeherian at 12:33 PM on August 10, 2015
There's a site
A certain kind of site
Been around five years yeah
Wait a sec that can't be right
Has it been so long?
Has it been so long...
There's a pie
Eggless quichey pie
Chicagoans call it pizza
But what good does it do
If I ain't got shakes (I ain't got shakes!)
If I ain't got shakes (I ain't got shakes!)
You don't know what it's like
Baby you don't know what it's like
To live in Philly
To live in Philly
The way I live here
posted by SpiffyRob at 12:48 PM on August 10, 2015 [9 favorites]
A certain kind of site
Been around five years yeah
Wait a sec that can't be right
Has it been so long?
Has it been so long...
There's a pie
Eggless quichey pie
Chicagoans call it pizza
But what good does it do
If I ain't got shakes (I ain't got shakes!)
If I ain't got shakes (I ain't got shakes!)
You don't know what it's like
Baby you don't know what it's like
To live in Philly
To live in Philly
The way I live here
posted by SpiffyRob at 12:48 PM on August 10, 2015 [9 favorites]
And if there's another aux meetup at Pequod's someone win me a Fat Tire bike plz.
posted by SpiffyRob at 12:48 PM on August 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by SpiffyRob at 12:48 PM on August 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
title reads like a request for assassination.
posted by andrewcooke at 4:09 PM on August 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by andrewcooke at 4:09 PM on August 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
I had to cancel a meetup I had offered to host last year. I appended [CANCELED] to the title, changed the description to say it wouldn't be happening, and checked the "update attendees" option, which seemed like the best way to let everyone know what was up. I thought deleting it outright would just be more confusing.
posted by Sibrax at 4:13 PM on August 10, 2015
posted by Sibrax at 4:13 PM on August 10, 2015
It's like they say, man: What never happened in IRL Vegas stays in IRL Vegas.
posted by Atom Eyes at 8:05 PM on August 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Atom Eyes at 8:05 PM on August 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
I admittedly do not use IRL, but reading this thread, I think there is a difference between "cancelled" and "never happened". If it never gets moved to the scheduled meetup category by the time the proposed date passes, maybe it should automatically be labeled as something like "expired"
posted by AugustWest at 11:15 PM on August 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by AugustWest at 11:15 PM on August 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
I admittedly do not use IRL
Proposed events don't have a proposed date, just a description, location and tags.
posted by zamboni at 6:03 AM on August 11, 2015
Proposed events don't have a proposed date, just a description, location and tags.
posted by zamboni at 6:03 AM on August 11, 2015
I admittedly do not use IRL
this a topic better handled by your therapist or clergy
posted by mullacc at 6:44 AM on August 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
this a topic better handled by your therapist or clergy
posted by mullacc at 6:44 AM on August 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
SpiffyRob, our annual bash in on 22 August if you are around.
posted by terrapin at 7:38 AM on August 11, 2015
posted by terrapin at 7:38 AM on August 11, 2015
Hmm, this thread raises a point in my head: Is there a way to temporarily set future locations to be notified of meetings in those locations at those dates?
For example, I was in Vegas for Defcon and would've done this meetup had I known about it but it didn't pop up in my metafilter mail because I don't live in Las Vegas. Maybe there should be a way to let the irl system know that I'll be at a specific city on so and so dates and so I'll get irl mail for events held in those cities at the times when I'll be there.
posted by I-baLL at 12:16 PM on August 11, 2015
For example, I was in Vegas for Defcon and would've done this meetup had I known about it but it didn't pop up in my metafilter mail because I don't live in Las Vegas. Maybe there should be a way to let the irl system know that I'll be at a specific city on so and so dates and so I'll get irl mail for events held in those cities at the times when I'll be there.
posted by I-baLL at 12:16 PM on August 11, 2015
Is there a way to temporarily set future locations to be notified of meetings in those locations at those dates?
No, we don't have a way to do that. It seems like a complex feature to build that probably wouldn't be used very often (in the grand scheme of features). I think traveling is one of those situations where you might need to drop by IRL once in a while and throw your destination cities into the search box and see if there's anything scheduled while you'll be there.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:09 PM on August 11, 2015
No, we don't have a way to do that. It seems like a complex feature to build that probably wouldn't be used very often (in the grand scheme of features). I think traveling is one of those situations where you might need to drop by IRL once in a while and throw your destination cities into the search box and see if there's anything scheduled while you'll be there.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:09 PM on August 11, 2015
I live in the NYC area and I fairly frequently travel to the Boston area. I've found myself wanting to have IRL notifications in both areas but have been making do with having NYC as my primary location and checking on the Boston area things when I think of it.
It would be nice to have a secondary location for IRL.
posted by sciencegeek at 1:32 PM on August 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
It would be nice to have a secondary location for IRL.
posted by sciencegeek at 1:32 PM on August 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
(re)request: delete IRL
Oh great - you're actually getting pb to delete real life now. I mean, I know the guy has amazing powers to manipulate all of space and time, but don't get him to delete real life. I need to go down the store for some milk, and I just had my hedges trimmed. Delete something on the internet instead. Just leave real life alone - it's not like it's actually bothering any of us.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 1:39 PM on August 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
Oh great - you're actually getting pb to delete real life now. I mean, I know the guy has amazing powers to manipulate all of space and time, but don't get him to delete real life. I need to go down the store for some milk, and I just had my hedges trimmed. Delete something on the internet instead. Just leave real life alone - it's not like it's actually bothering any of us.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 1:39 PM on August 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
One idea for tracking multiple locations is to grab a city's RSS feed and use a service like IFTTT to email you when there's a new entry. You could also grab a city's iCal file and throw it into Google Calendar (or similar service) if you use that. We make the data pretty accessible so you can mix it up in various ways.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:50 PM on August 11, 2015
posted by pb (staff) at 1:50 PM on August 11, 2015
I figured that my situation is somewhat unusual. Maybe this will make me figure out IFTTT!
posted by sciencegeek at 3:56 AM on August 12, 2015
posted by sciencegeek at 3:56 AM on August 12, 2015
Oh shoot, I live in Vegas and would love to attend a meet-up but I never think to check the IRL thing. Sorry I missed you.
posted by yodelingisfun at 5:40 PM on August 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by yodelingisfun at 5:40 PM on August 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm sorry you feel that way, stoneweaver, that's definitely not what we're aiming for. There might be more expectation of participation at IRL than there really is. If a city doesn't already have a very active group who attends meetups regularly, it can be hard (and intimidating) to get the ball rolling. IRL just doesn't have the drive-by traffic that the other subsites do. It's not a personal slight if a proposal doesn't work out—it could just be that there aren't enough people watching a particular space. As filthy light thief mentioned, some targeted personal contact with mefites you know in the area could help a lot.
We don't tend to delete things here at any subsite unless something has gone wrong. If you mark an Ask question as resolved it isn't removed from any locations around the site. It's still visible for everyone to read and get value from. We'll think about deleting Proposed meetups, but it would be a significant break from how things normally work.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:24 AM on August 13, 2015
We don't tend to delete things here at any subsite unless something has gone wrong. If you mark an Ask question as resolved it isn't removed from any locations around the site. It's still visible for everyone to read and get value from. We'll think about deleting Proposed meetups, but it would be a significant break from how things normally work.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:24 AM on August 13, 2015
We're talking this over on the back end a bit. People are making some good points, and it's understandable why this bugs folks.
One thing that hasn't been underlined here is that Proposed events already do close to new comments after 2 months. So, the threads are already closing. Then they continue to be displayed in the normal chronological listing of posts -- in this way, it works exactly like closed threads on the rest of the site, the closed ones are displayed in chronological order and without any outward distinguishing marks to indicate they're closed.
So the issue seems to be that chronological listing in the Proposed tab, and we're talking about some ways to rethink what's displayed there while still making it possible for people to find the history of any older proposed-but-didn't-work-out meetups in an area.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 11:25 AM on August 13, 2015
One thing that hasn't been underlined here is that Proposed events already do close to new comments after 2 months. So, the threads are already closing. Then they continue to be displayed in the normal chronological listing of posts -- in this way, it works exactly like closed threads on the rest of the site, the closed ones are displayed in chronological order and without any outward distinguishing marks to indicate they're closed.
So the issue seems to be that chronological listing in the Proposed tab, and we're talking about some ways to rethink what's displayed there while still making it possible for people to find the history of any older proposed-but-didn't-work-out meetups in an area.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 11:25 AM on August 13, 2015
(Also please don't feel bad if you propose a meetup that doesn't work out! Tons of people propose stuff that doesn't work out, and there are lots of reasons why an event might not come together, and it's absolutely not a bad thing. You're good, you're fine, we're all fine. Sangria and lemonade are over on the picnic table.)
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 11:31 AM on August 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 11:31 AM on August 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
We made some changes to the Proposed tab today. From now on, only open proposed threads will show up there. For example, if you go to the list of proposed events for Phoenix, AZ you'll see one post. It's a post that is still active and can be commented on.
Before today you would have seen a handful of posts there including one from 2011. The idea is that the Proposed Events tab will list actively proposed events. If a proposed post doesn't move to confirmed, the longest it will show up in the Proposed tab is two months from when it was posted.
We're now listing those closed proposed posts in the Past Events tab. So you'll find that proposed post from 2011 in the list of past events for Phoenix, AZ. The posts are still around so people can see them, they're just not as front and center as they used to be.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:38 PM on August 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
Before today you would have seen a handful of posts there including one from 2011. The idea is that the Proposed Events tab will list actively proposed events. If a proposed post doesn't move to confirmed, the longest it will show up in the Proposed tab is two months from when it was posted.
We're now listing those closed proposed posts in the Past Events tab. So you'll find that proposed post from 2011 in the list of past events for Phoenix, AZ. The posts are still around so people can see them, they're just not as front and center as they used to be.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:38 PM on August 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
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Just curious, why do you feel like you should remove your post? The event didn't happen—its status is still Proposed. It just didn't ever move to a Confirmed event and that's ok. I think that's the system working as it should.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:50 AM on August 10, 2015