Gay Geek Dinners website

[Ian Johnson]

When I was trying to organise the gay geek dinners last I realised
that it could be a lot slicker if there was only one place where I had
to go to do all of the management, to post information, get feedback
about where to go and even to find out how many people have booked for
the event (without having to pester Seb every day to ensure that I
have the right numbers for the restaurant)

I think a few other people at the dinners last week were interested in
the idea of getting the website up and running, even if it is a mashup
of google groups, eventbrite and perhaps even some kind of voting for
where to go, somewhere to suggest new venues and even rate them. We
have a gaygeekdinners domain that is not doing anything at the moment
and between us we should be able to get something together if we put
our minds to it.

Any thoughts?

Cheers

Ian

[Daniel McMorrow]

On 9 Nov 2010, at 23:34, Ian Johnson <ij2...@gmail.com> wrote:
> We have a gaygeekdinners domain that is not doing anything at the moment
> and between us we should be able to get something together if we put
> our minds to it.

I would be happy help host the website/email.

Danny

[Scott Allison]

Take a look at meetup.com which would take care of all of that on one
site.

Scott

[Owen Blacker]

One bloody awful site...

[Ollie Cornes]

Meetup has the added advantage it doesn't just allow communication and arranging meets, but will also advertise the events, so more will come along

--
Home: 020 8829 0821
Work: 020 8889 5582
Mobile: 07973294477

Twitter: www.twitter.com/ollie72

Skype: olliec

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ollie.cornes

Fax: 020 8889 6202
99 Northcott Avenue, Bounds Green, London N22 7AP

[Sebastien Lambla]

I'm putting a veto on meetup, it's not working in a few banks where i work.

 

---

From: gaygeekdin...@googlegroups.com [gaygeekdin...@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Ollie Cornes [ol...@cornes.org]
Sent: 10 November 2010 12:11
To: gaygeekdin...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [gaygd-london] Re: Gay Geek Dinners website

[Sebastien Lambla]

Define big?

---

From: gaygeekdin...@googlegroups.com [gaygeekdin...@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Moshe Franco [mo...@franco.me.uk]
Sent: 10 November 2010 15:33
To: gaygeekdin...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: RE: [gaygd-london] Re: Gay Geek Dinners website

Sounds like the UN Security Council. Are you only allowed to veto if you have a big missile? LOL
-----------------------------
Sent from my mobile.

On 10 Nov 2010 15:28, "Sebastien Lambla" <s...@serialseb.com> wrote:
> I'm putting a veto on meetup, it's not working in a few banks where i work.
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: gaygeekdin...@googlegroups.com [gaygeekdin...@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Ollie Cornes [ol...@cornes.org]
> Sent: 10 November 2010 12:11
> To: gaygeekdin...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: [gaygd-london] Re: Gay Geek Dinners website
>
> Meetup has the added advantage it doesn't just allow communication and arranging meets, but will also advertise the events, so more will come along
>

> On 10 November 2010 11:47, Owen Blacker <ow...@blacker.me.uk<mailto:ow...@blacker.me.uk>> wrote:
>
> One bloody awful site...
>

> On 10 Nov 2010 11:38, "Scott Allison" <sc...@theallisons.net<mailto:sc...@theallisons.net>> wrote:
>> Take a look at meetup.com<http://meetup.com> which would take care of all of that on one
>> site.
>>
>> Scott

>>
>> On Nov 9, 11:34 pm, Ian Johnson <ij2...@gmail.com<mailto:ij2...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>>> When I was trying to organise the gay geek dinners last I realised
>>> that it could be a lot slicker if there was only one place where I had
>>> to go to do all of the management, to post information, get feedback
>>> about where to go and even to find out how many people have booked for
>>> the event (without having to pester Seb every day to ensure that I
>>> have the right numbers for the restaurant)
>>>
>>> I think a few other people at the dinners last week were interested in
>>> the idea of getting the website up and running, even if it is a mashup
>>> of google groups, eventbrite and perhaps even some kind of voting for
>>> where to go, somewhere to suggest new venues and even rate them. We
>>> have a gaygeekdinners domain that is not doing anything at the moment
>>> and between us we should be able to get something together if we put
>>> our minds to it.
>>>
>>> Any thoughts?
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>>
>>> Ian
>
>
>
> --
> Home: 020 8829 0821
> Work: 020 8889 5582
> Mobile: 07973294477

> Twitter: www.twitter.com/ollie72<http://www.twitter.com/ollie72>
> Skype: olliec
> Facebook: www.facebook.com/ollie.cornes<http://www.facebook.com/ollie.cornes>

[Sebastien Lambla]

Then the answer is yes, you do.

---

From: gaygeekdin...@googlegroups.com [gaygeekdin...@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Moshe Franco [mo...@franco.me.uk]

Sent: 10 November 2010 15:41
To: gaygeekdin...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: RE: RE: [gaygd-london] Re: Gay Geek Dinners website

One that can cause a shockwave you never forget. :p

[Oliver Cornes]

Do you not have a smartphone Seb? :-)

Meetup does sound great as it will allow the group to grow organically, as geeks/gays looking for events will find it without any marketing effort

--
Tel: 020 8889 5582

Skype: olliec

Fax: 020 8889 6202
99 Northcott Avenue, London N22 7AP

[Ian Johnson]

It's probably worth letting the community decide - vote on your
favourite solution (if anyone says "other" then please make sure
people are aware and I'll try to add it in to the poll):

http://doodle.com/7kwwxw6k3y4kz6bk

Cheers

[Sebastien Lambla]

I'm more than happy for the community to self-determine, but as I end up organizing the vast majority of events, I don't think meetup is going to work for me, as I've already explained.

And I'm certainly not gonna go and play around with a smartphone to access that web site.

As Sam has highlighted, meetup also makes for a lot of spam.

Before choosing a new option, can you highlight for us what the objectives of a new tool should attain? I'd think that having some requirements first would be where to start, tooling can be sorted afterwards.

[Sebastien Lambla]

In terms of requirements I'll start:
1. Manage the list of existing and previous attendants
2. Allow for multiple users being able to admin an event
3. Send emails to all attendants from the website
4. Show a map of the location of the event
5. Show the list of guests with twitter name being collected

[Sebastien Lambla]

Interesting question, is everybody on facebook / willing to be seen with their facebook profile?

 

From: gaygeekdin...@googlegroups.com [mailto:gaygeekdin...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Moshe Franco
Sent: 11 November 2010 09:39
To: gaygeekdin...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [gaygd-london] Re: Gay Geek Dinners website

 

Can you use a closed Facebook group for that? 

[Sebastien Lambla]

2437? You’ll have to give me the address of your plastic surgeon! :)

 

From: gaygeekdin...@googlegroups.com [mailto:gaygeekdin...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Moshe Franco
Sent: 11 November 2010 09:45
To: gaygeekdin...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [gaygd-london] Re: Gay Geek Dinners website

 

I don't mind. It goes towards my target of 27bn Facebook friends (Earth and non-Earth) by 2437.

[Scott Allison]

On Nov 10, 7:28 pm, Sebastien Lambla <s...@serialseb.com> wrote:
> In terms of requirements I'll start:
> 1. Manage the list of existing and previous attendants
> 2. Allow for multiple users being able to admin an event
> 3. Send emails to all attendants from the website
> 4. Show a map of the location of the event
> 5. Show the list of guests with twitter name being collected

Sounds about right; meetup does all of those.

Meetup is *designed* to facilitate exactly what we're doing with GGD -
a meetup of people in real life!

OK, I admit it, I'm a big fan.

Some of the objections were:

Accessibility:

They have a smartphone friendly version of the site, as well as an
iPhone app.

You can also use it with your own URL via a CNAME, e.g.
http://events.productcamplondon.com/ I don't know if this helps get
round the firewall issue?

I'm only guessing, but Facebook must be blocked at even more places
than meetup.

SPAM (or not, YMMV):

I think this is one of the big strengths of meetup, they will keep
emailing all members periodically until you've RSVP'd. (Each Meetup
event can optionally have up to 3 automated email reminders.) Then
once you have RSVP'd yes it will remind you a day or two before the
event. It definitely ensures that people know about the events, decide
whether or not to go, and then hopefully come along on the evening. It
should make organising and managing the numbers attending a whole lot
easier. There is also message boards / mailing list functionality, to
enable discussions.

But if you think that's SPAM, as a member you can adjust your settings
to choose what you want to receive and how often. It's really
configurable.

Multiple Admins:

Meetup does this. Again, this should make managing the group a lot
easier. Also, if a group loses all its organisers, all members are
emailed and given the opportunity to take ownership of the group, to
ensure the group doesn't die.

Cost:

Someone has to pay the monthly fee for the group; it's not free. But
we can make sure the organiser isn't out of pocket, right? Whether
that means we all pay a pound on attendance, or the organiser gets
their meal for free (food only!), I'm not sure.

Other stuff:

You can collect ideas and do polls as well, to decide future meetup
days/locations, etc.

Privacy:

I guess one downside of any public site like meetup is that anyone in
the closet might not be keen to use it, but it's probably easier for
someone to set up a minimal profile with meetup, than set up another
identity on facebook.

[Sebastien Lambla]

You are correct, facebook is blocked there too.

I won't favour any solution that require people that organize the events to fiddle with their mobile phones to do anything. I'm willing to give the meetup iphone app a go, see how it works, but I'm really not keen on it, and if it makes things too complicated, we'll just have to find another solution.

-----Original Message-----
From: gaygeekdin...@googlegroups.com [mailto:gaygeekdin...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Scott Allison
Sent: 11 November 2010 10:11
To: gaygeekdinners-london
Subject: [gaygd-london] Re: Gay Geek Dinners website

[Owen Blacker]

Facebook would be a whole world better than Meetup. I have never found Meetup useful and it generates a whole world of spam.

Sorry guys, I hate the site with a passion.

On 11 November 2010 09:40, Sebastien Lambla <s...@serialseb.com> wrote: