Give organisers an option to stop people RSVPing "No" to events straight away
It has become a bit of a trend in certain groups I am in where attention whores and really pretentious people will RSVP "No" as soon as the event is posted, even with the nerve to say things like "I'm doing XYZ instead". Not only are some people serial offenders who have never attended a meetup ever, but it is a bad example to newbies as well. They could just honestly be silly and nice people at heart, so it seems pretty harsh to ban them outright.
Could organisers - or even better - event hosts, please have an option that prevents people from making their first RSVP for an event a "No"? Making it optional is good because then organisers who use that function can still do so.
tim
shared this idea
Not something planned to get worked on.
54 comments
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john
commented
I dont want "No" RSVPs displayed to my group. I want option to remove display of "No" RSVPs. Give me this option.
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Anonymous
commented
I concur with this concern. It is quite redundant and unnecessary for members to post "Not Attending" if they do not plan to attend. What a ridiculous and counter productive psychological option. It serves no purpose whatsoever. It is also a major deterrent and discouragement for those contemplating on attending an event. If a meetup group does not gain attendees for their events, they will erode and when they do, they dissolve and when they dissolve, Meetup.com loses money. Hey Meetup.com...are you getting the picture here? If an individual does not want attend then they don't have to announce it to the entire group, or the whole world does not have to know. There are some malicious people out there who simply like to dampen the interests and aspirations of others and they will repeatedly and intentionally use this feature religiously. No wonder so many Meetup groups go under and dissolve eventually. The "Not Attending" options makes absolutely no sense, but to destroy the spirit of a thriving meetup group. What nut came up with this very stupid option in the first place?
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Atul
commented
Get rid of the relatively useless "no" rsvp and replace with a much more useful "maybe" rsvp.
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Dan Langille
commented
Kit: What you are asking for is not what this proposal is about.
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Kit
commented
Come on! You have known about this for years and still don't do anything about it! When an organizer creates an event, please add the option of disabling the No-RSVP response. This is a huge problem for meetup groups that have upwards of a thousand members. The RSVP-No sucks. It spams the organizer with hundreds of useless emails. Here is one organizer's posting:
I don't have a need to know if you are not planning to attend one of my events. No-RSVP's has no purpose other than to flood my in box.
Only RSVP if yes. -
Sanford Adelman
commented
When event is Scheduled offer Option to Organizer under RSVP Settings to auto post message on event page "If not attending no response necessary".
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Andrew Jackson
commented
If you really think they're RSVPing no just to bring your group down, kick them out and be done with it.
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R.G.
commented
Very good suggestion! They did away with the 'maybe' and maybe they should do way with the 'no'.... you know?! I don't know, maybe there is no way to stop ugly people from saying to no to things when they know it will bring them attention.
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Dan Langille
commented
Scott: with reference to your question, please see my post dated August 05, 2012 05:11 where I post a link to that very suggestion. :)
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Scott Jackisch
commented
Why not just give organizers a way to just not receive notifications when members RSVP NO?
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Dan Langille
commented
Joan: with respect, it's a terrible idea. :)
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Joan
commented
Organizers need to have the option to monitor someone who consistently says yes they are coming and then a few minutes later "oops, I'm doing something else." That kind of activity is obviously intentional. It is nonsense behavior and I doubt if they would turn up at the actual meetup. If Organizers take a firm stand then those serial RSVP persons get banned from the group right away. Try this; do it three times and then delete that person from the group.
There is one person who is a member of 98 Meetup Groups! Sure enough this is the one who is doing it already. It's my job as the Organizer to monitor who is doing what in my Meetup Group. But an option to stop someone posting "No" as soon as the event is posted is an excellent idea.
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C&A
commented
Thank you, Tim, for the idea. I couldn't agree more.
Even though one can argue the reasons why having No RSVPs on a website that ironically goes by the name Meetup is incredibly wonderful, in the end what really matters is who are attending, or meeting up, rather than those who are not going. Besides, if someone is not on the Yes RSVP list, that means that person is Not going... Sorry, maybe it's me but I think it's pretty obvious.
Nevertheless, I do like the idea mentioned about giving organizers the CHOICE instead of imposing anything onto the paying customers, the organizers.
Also, it is true that some members will RSVP No because not only are they not going but they don't want to get an event's reminders. That can easily be substituted by an opt-out feature. Same would be ideal for those who originally RSVP'd Yes but then realize they won't make it.
Still, it is most interesting to watch some people RSVP No for every single event. What's the point?
I'll never forget a member who ever since joining kept saying No to every single event for more than a year, so thinking I'd do this person a favor I removed this member from the notification lists so this person wouldn't have to bother saying No all the time, we also sent this member a note explaining what we'd done hoping to make things more pleasant instead of having to deal with our meetup announcements and subsequently having to RSVP No, of course.
Well, much to our surprise, this person got rather offended and (finally) left the group altogether expressing disbelief for being "kicked out of the group". I wonder if this person ever noticed that by clicking the link to leave the group that no one had been kicked out in the first place... -
Stacy
commented
No problem, Dan.
I'll just suggest to all that going though "declined" ideas is always a great way to see what Meetup does/does not have plans for. If an idea has been repeatedly rejected, do what I did and post links to those rejections in the "new" idea's comments section.
This board is not well moderated by HQ, and you can expect to see these silly "NO RSVP" suggestions on here again and again... but, ignore them, and move on if they've been rejected in the past few months.
Spend your time, energy, and votes on the productive ideas!
Best to you all,
Stacy
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Dan Langille
commented
Ahh, Stacy, thank you.
In conclusion all: please move along. Nothing to see here. thanks.
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Stacy
commented
I wouldn't get too worked up over this idea. Although Tim's complaint has been slightly re-worded, Meetup has repeatedly rejected the request to remove No RSVPs. They might just get tired of responding to the same thing over and over (and these boards are not heavily moderated by MUHQ).
Here are a few examples, all rejected in June of this year:
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Dan Langille
commented
Avery: is this what you were looking for?
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PASH
commented
Can we block people from RSVPing NO or remove them from the group silently without them being notified as some of these people tend to be other group organisers..
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Scott M. Stolz
commented
How do you negative vote this? I do not want this implemented.
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Scott M. Stolz
commented
The option of No is needed, because it determines whether you get announcements about the event or not. And on some apps, meetups you RSVP'ed no to disappear from the upcoming screen.
I RSVP no to events I can't attend for two reasons:
1.) That way I do not get any more emails about that event in my inbox.
2.) The Meetup App on Android does not show it as an upcoming event.People RSVP No because there is a benefit associated with it.
And as an organizer, I want to know if people aren't coming. A No RSVP tells me that people are actually reading my emails announcing the events. It is actually a positive indication that people are paying attention.
