Evite
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Evite is a social-planning website for creating, sending, and managing online invitations.
Evite was launched in 1998. The website is a free, advertisement-supported service. It is owned by conglomerate IAC/InterActiveCorp.
The name "Evite" has become somewhat genericized as a term for any online invitation service or online invitation, probably due to its "e" name, similar to "email."
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[edit] Usage
An event organizer creates an online invitation through the website via a simple interface. This online invitation is colloquially referred to as "an Evite". The host enters e-mail addresses of prospective guests and Evite sends e-mails to the guests. Each guest is in one of four categories: "Attending", "Not Attending", "Maybe", and "Not yet replied". Guests move themselves from the "Not yet replied" category to one of the three "replied" categories and can write additional comments.
[edit] Features
[edit] Reminders
- Hosts may send an automatic reminder e-mail in the days prior to the event.
- Hosts can determine through the web site whether a guest has viewed the invitation or not.
[edit] Style
The HTML page for the invitation may have various stylistic features chosen by the inviter. These include setting color and layout and renaming the four guest categories.
[edit] Updates
Hosts may opt to send guests updates when other guests RSVP for the event, or when the event details are changed.
[edit] Criticism
- Many guests receiving invitations from Evite may find them garbled, or classified as spam by automated mail filters due to the high level of HTML content and large number of links contained in the mail. (See: HTML e-mail).
- For guests with web accessibility needs, Evite's website and e-mails are unlikely to deliver the intended message, due to the high degree of customization at most event pages.
- Evite's e-mails do not include information about the location and date of the event, requiring users to click through to the Evite website to determine that information.
- During evite creations the page scripts make it very easy to lose data and guest lists when switching back and forth from their preview mode.
- When creating an invitation, the "guest poll" feature could be very useful in planning an event. However, stingy character limits prevent the feature from being useful to some planners, and render the feature inconvenient or useless. For instance, the character limit for both questions and answers is a mere 100 characters, which is often shorter than a single, well-worded sentence. Furthermore, there is no system for tabulating the characters as the planner creates the poll, thereby making it difficult and frustrating to use.
- As of 2006, there are new Evite competitors on the market. These include:
- Planypus ( http://planyp.us) which crosses the evite concept with the idea of a wiki for collaborative planning
- MyPunchbowl.com (http://www.mypunchbowl.com) with a focus explicitly on parties
- Renkoo (http://www.renkoo.com) with a focus on instant messaging
- Socializr (http://www.socializr.com) - a direct competitor run by Jonathan_Abrams
[edit] Notable references
- The Simpsons: The character "Snake" responded to a fellow inmate who was unaware of an impending jailbreak:
- "I sent you an Evite. You never responded. Nice Netiquette, jerk!" audio clip
- Alias: In season 4, episode 3 Jack crashes a birthday party thrown for Weiss and comments on his lack of an invitation: "Unless it was an Evite. I don't read Evites."
- The Office: In E-mail Surveillance, Jim Halpert sends Evites his coworkers to a barbecue at his house, excluding regional manager Michael Scott from the guestlist. "Wonder where my eVitation is?" Scott ponders aloud.
