Evite - the EVIL side

So I've talked a bit about the benefits of Evite, how it is convenient and keeps organizers organized. As with all things, there are good things and bad things. so with this post, I am going to talk a little bit about the EVIL side of Evite.

With evite, it seems that I don't talk to my friends about the upcoming event as much, whether it's electronically or face-to-face. For example, it's 2 of my friend's birthday this weekend. One party I found out through an Evite in my email and the other one thru icq messages and then on Evite.

The evite to the first party was sent by my friend's girlfriend. On the site, she asks us what our preference of food was, what we are going to bring from a list she wrote, and what we would like to do. I'm not a person who can remember everyone's birthday (not that I don't want to, but there's too many!!!), and without anyone talking about the party beforehand, receiving this Evite on my email surprised me. I was excited, yet I feel un-informed. Before using Evite, party organizers would ask face-to-face or at least ICQ/MSN if we are available, what we want to do, stuff like that. It was a lot more personal and I felt like my opinion actually counted. Now, with evite, I am sent a mass email inviting me to a party. I reply on the Evite with my response, later on the organizer will read my response and most likely not respond to it since there is no such function on evite (except to send an email). I wouldn't know if the organizer read my response, i wouldn't know what she'd think, etc.! Worst of all, I STILL have talked to her about the event! Talk about being PERSONAL!

With the 2nd party, I felt a bit more 'welcome' and 'being wanted to be at the party' since the organizer gave me a heads up and asked me if I was free on icq first. However, because he's never sent an Evite to me before, he sent it to an email account I use for spam. I didn't want to set up so many accounts on evite with the many different emails that I have so I usually get evites on the one account. it took him a couple of days to send the evite back to my email that I use, and whereas he could've gotten my response in an instant if he had asked me in person, or even thru instant message. I guess he was trying to utilize one of evite's functions and be organized with "goer"'s responses.

Evite - the GOOD side

I remember getting my first birthday party invitation when I was in elementary school. The card was so fancy, with little balloons on it. "You are invited to my party!" Sigh...the good old days.

That was then. Now, we're a little too old for invitation cards with balloons and little dinosaurs. With today's technology advancements, we use "Evite".

"Evite is the fun, free online social planning destination complete with all of the tools needed to coordinate get togethers for private events, public events or activities." (Retrieved from http://www.evite.com/pages/gt/about.jsp) It sends out electronic invitations (therefore E-vite) to people you want to invite to your party. Organizers can see who has viewed the invitation, who is (or is not) coming, which guest is bringing what, etc. Those invited can see who else are invited to the party (unless if the organizer disables this function), and see the response of other guests.

I am a frequent user of Evite. I organized a surprise birthday party for 30 people without the birthday boy knowing! Imagine, without evite, I would have AT LEAST 30 emails sitting in my inbox, coming in at different times. I would have to have to manually keep track of who is coming, who is bringing what food. With evite, all I have to do is log into the website and immediately I can see if there are new RSVP's. Once I click into the event, I can see in a list who is going to attend, who is bring what, etc. Talk about convenience!

My first thoughts of CMNS 253 and the world around

so I had my first CMNS 253 class on monday... i've been off of school for a year now (taking one course a semester) cuz of co-op which kept on being extended. before working, i would always drive to school, don't transit much. while i was working, i transitted a lot since it was cheaper and quicker...and since i got in the hang of transitting...mite as well transit to d/t for my class too! (i live in coq so it's quite a ways away...) anyways...the last westcoast express leaves at 8:10am, so i was planning to arrive to d/t early (at 8:40am) and read! so i wake up early, leave my house at 7:40 to catch the 7:47 community bus to take my to the west coast station! BLAH!!! the bus didn't come! stood there in the rain until 8:00 and it didn't come...i knew that the next community bus comes at 8:16 so i was thinking...since i can't catch the WCE anyway, mite as well take the 160bus! so i waited for the next community bus...got to the main bus station...i guess i just missed the 160bus too!...so had to wait awhile for the next one...again, in the rain. the 160 finally came, but for whatever reason it went the long way and made a loop! grrrrr... so waking up 2 hrs early, to get to my destination which normally takes an hr...i was pretty upset...v____V

i guess after this long story, i realized that when taking the bus, make sure you know which station the bus is going to be at which time!...and be there early!...in my case, i guess i looked at the wrong time for the wrong station..either that or i JUST missed it...v__V

...while we're still on the topic of buses...in my opinion, the transit website is quite useful! (www.transitbc.ca) it has a 'trip planner' where you type in your departure location and destination, at what time and it calcuates which bus and/or skytrain you should take!......you could also specify a bus and it gives you the schedule...and u can even specify a bus stop and it'll tell you which bus passes by! i guess they're using this to decrease the number of copies of bus schedules they need to print.

...that's sth that i've been noticing these few years...a shift from print material to online. there are still a lot of print documents, but often times, there is also a website advertise with even more information than what is printed. "SAVE THE TREES...USE LESS PAPER"...i guess ppl are finally catching on and starting to shift the way we communicate. this could also be arguable tho, that we're not printing less, but communicating more!...hum...i guess this would be a good research topic to work on...