Can someone plz plz make something rly accessible that fulfills the needs Facebook Events fill w/o the attachment to Facebook so everyone will stop exclusively promoting events via Facebook
@shel This is hard primarily because everyone's on FB.
@alx @shel Sure, but it should be possible to email/toot/poster links to Shiny Freedom-Respecting Activist Organizing Website no matter what networks people are already on. Having to create a new account might raise the activation energy slightly, but ideally the site would let you use existing credentials to sign in I guess.
@shel @alx What functionality does Facebook Events actually provide? Does it just
- provide a shareable link to an event page
- display information about the event
- allow people to RSVP and see how many others have RSVPed
- let organizers send messages to all RSVPed users
?
@dukhovni @shel If that's all you want there are plausible alternatives. The main reason people use it is that it's extremely cost-effective marketing, and that's a network effect.
@alx @shel I'm confused about why there'd be a network effect at all; it seems like sharing a link to a non-facebook site on facebook wouldn't be that much harder than sharing a facebook event, and would reach the same number of people.

@dukhovni @alx that is not everything that a facebook event does.

1. Inviting people to Facebook events is easy because it gives you a list of "everyone you know" that's easy to go down checking people off

2. Public events are presented to people in your area, creating a sort of neighborhood billboard

3. People have conversations on the event coordinating things like rideshares

4. It's easy to update everyone on schedule changes

5. Syncs to your calendar

@alx @dukhovni Not only does it sync to your calendar it also reminds you at the start of the week what events are coming up, reminds you the day before, and reminds you an hour before. Which really gets those people who uh, don't use calendars, to show up
@dukhovni @alx you can just kinda click "interested" on a whole series of concerts and talks and parties and then each day see what's happening around you if you're considering going out
@shel @alx Ah, I see. That does seem hard to replicate without an existing network of users and a lot of fancy features (location awareness, integration with various devices, notifications, something that users check regularly...)