How to invite group email lists

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November 15, 2009

How to invite group email lists

Ever wanted to invite your entire church choir or lacrosse team and didn't know each and everyone's personal email address? Crusher now lets you invite group email lists!

All you have to do is enter the group email address like any regular email address but precede it with a hash "#" symbol.

For example: #team@crush3r.com Inviting the entire Crusher team to your party is a great idea, but that's just an example.

When your invitees receive the invite and click to go to the event page to RSVP, they land on a page where they quickly negotiate who they are. No membership is required so they can just enter their individual email address and it's done. If they're already a member, all they have to do is log in.

Go to Crusher.

Posted by Ericson deJesus

Comments (14)

Nov 15, 2009

Albert Willis said...

Glad to see crush3r getting some love and attention. Sweet.

Nov 28, 2009

Particle Programmatica Inc. said...

Thanks Albert. Yeah, it's been a while but she's now solid again and we're able to look into evolving the features and design.

Jan 14, 2010

Krista Maki said...

I cannot get this to work. No invitations are sent. It is not clear how to set up and group name, and then use a group for distribution. I inferred that applying a "tag" would do it. I tried adding the group to the distribution list both with and without the @crush3r.com portion of the address. Nothing happened. All my addressees have different email providers, so the only "group" I could use would be one in my contacts list. The only mechanism I noticed to do this was "tag," but it did not seem to do the trick.

I need an overview of event creation & distribution workflow. Too many hit & miss efforts are needed to figure out and navigate the process.

Jan 14, 2010

Krista Maki said...

I have gotten so frustrated I am looking for another system. I like being able to use my own image. However, your terms are not defined, and the relationships between objects is not described. I do not know when an invitation is sent, or to whom. I have no idea why I don't have any pages, though I have tried to send 3 different test events multiple times, and I don't know how a page comes into being. How the heck does a "tag" relate to a email group, and why do you show the tag name with the @cr...3r.com in the example?

Jan 14, 2010

Ericson deJesus said...

Krista, tags do not need the "@crush3r.com". I suspect you see tags as being preceeded by "#" from using Twitter and the example I used above is confusing you. Preceding an email address with "#" in this case is for email group lists - meaning an email address that sends to many people. Tags are simply a way to group your contacts in Crusher and does not use the "#" symbol.

Jan 14, 2010

Krista Maki said...

Thanks for responding!!

I guess my comment did not clearly describe my problem. I wish to send my final invite to about 80 people who are all part of a group. I had inferred that I could give each person the same tag, e.g., "volunteer" and then address the invitation to the group, that is, #volunteer. However, in my test to smaller group (in which I included myself,) nothing seemed to happen. I did not even seem to get an "invitation sent" message, nor a list of email ids to which it had been sent. Nothing at all seemed to happen. I got no invitation in my email.

That is when I thought to copy the @c...... info, thinking it might have some meaning to you. Nothing happened then either.

So, what is the relationship, if any, between tags and the list of email addresses to which an invitation will be sent. If none, how does one specify the list(group) to which invitations will be sent?

Jan 14, 2010

Ericson deJesus said...

Aha, so what' went wrong is that you included a "#" when you invited the tag "#volunteer". That is what was confusing you. Just plainly enter "volunteer" in the invite box if that is a tag you use to group people in your crowd. To be certain, you can also click "expand" after you enter "volunteer" and you will see that tag expand out into individual emails. Please try that and let me know.

Jan 15, 2010

Krista Maki said...

Hi -
Using the tag name alone to include the whole group of people with that tag did work. Thanks. You need to change your instructions, though, to describe this general case first (including how to set up the group, and then how to send to the whole group using the tag in the distribution list.) The twitter example needs to be described in a Twitter context.

In general, the user interface presents problems for me.

I included myself in the group using the tag method. I received the text invitation, but when I followed the link in the email, I went to the development version of the invitation - including the button to allow for editing of the invitation list.

The RSVP method was completely opaque. I tried the slider and discovered the various settings - which was nice. However, you need to tell people to use the slider. It represents a new way to respond, and people will be confused. Also there was no "send" button. When I went to my events, my response was reflected, but I had not done anything to confirm my choice. Not a secure feeling. People need a Send function, ideally with a response message in return.

I tried to see if I would be shown a more "invitee" formatted invitation if I used a different ID (i.e., not the organizer.) I started a new event, but somehow was not able to include a photo. I wanted to delete the event to just start over, but I could find no way to delete the event. I had not sent it to anyone, so I thought deleting it would be helpful to my process at the time. (I could not get back to the step where my photo would be uploaded)

Also, I have now guessed that I need to click "add to calendar" to complete the event definition. True? I had at first assumed that the invitee would use that operation to enter the info into their own calendar system. If my new understanding is correct, you need to mention the requirement to click the operation in your instructions.

The functions seem great. However, I am a pretty savvy computer user (my job - including a development manager) so if I have trouble with your user interface, the average user will have more.

Jan 15, 2010

Ericson deJesus said...

Krista,
The site recognizes you as the organizer and therefore you will always see the event page in the "development" version you mentioned - with edit links. If you'd like to see the page as how your guests see it, you can click "What do guests see?" at the bottom of the page.

That is excellent feedback about providing more feedback confirmation that your RSVP has submitted - yes, since there is no 'send' button.

Regarding the photo upload, you can give your account a photo by going to your Settings page and uploading one. Since no membership is required, guests are prompted to upload their photo in the guest list where they appear.

I'll take your advise and write up better instructions on how to add tags to contacts and invite them.

Thanks for the feedback!

Jan 15, 2010

Krista Maki said...

Thanks!

Krista

Jan 16, 2010

Krista Maki said...

Hi,

I sent out my test invitation and got this comment back:

********************

Krista:

Although I indicated I would come on the next page, I couldn't figure out how to send it without signing up to be included in your group. I don't use and am not familiar with Twitter or other kinds of social networking, so maybe I just don't understand. Please enlighten me.

Susan

********************

Susan sent me the link to the RSVP page. I clicked it and I still got to the developer version. It makes me very uncomfortable not to be able to see what the recipients receive. I found a link to that form once, but I would rather have to log on to get to the developer form, and always see the recipient form from the link in my email.

I know yours is a new site, so I will add some more observations I have as a user.

* I would like to have a "Location Name" input line before the Address line. I need to include the location name, location address, and the map. And maybe a phone number. I put in two address entries to accomplish this, but I could only get to the map on the first entry, so my address order in the resulting invitation is odd. (Address, Map, Name)

* I would like to include the picture I uploaded in the body of the invitation on the email in a more prominent location (on the top.) I put information into it.

* I would like to be able to specify the name of the Sponsor of the event and have that placed in the subject line instead of my nickname. I am just the only one on our board brave enough to figure out how to do this. It is not my party alone.

Thanks so much.

Krista

Jan 16, 2010

Krista Maki said...

Hi,

Another desire:

I really do not want to display the number of responses or anybody's name or photo on the recipient view of the invitation. I am inviting 80 people. They will not have photos available, in any event. How can I suppress the public acceptance list function?

krista_maki@comcast.net

********************************

Begin forwarded message:

From: Krista Maki <krista_maki@comcast.net>

Date: January 16, 2010 10:01:11 AM EST

To: Comment to Posterous <

Jan 16, 2010

Ericson deJesus said...

Krista,
The reason why you are always seeing the editable version of your event page is because you are signed in. To support the need for organizers to see what guests are seeing, you can click "What do guests see?" at the bottom right of the event page. This will open up a new window which shows you what your guests see - a clean view, without all the editing controls.

Regarding location name: Yes you can. Did you try clicking the "add a description" checkbox right above the address field? This will let you do exactly what you described.

Regarding the picture: Yes you can. During page creation you had the option to upload an image to decorate the page. If you didn't do it during page creation, you can click "edit" on the Title Module and you will be able to upload an image.

Regarding the sponsor name: Yes you can. You can go edit the account Settings and change your nickname to whatever sponsor name you need to display.

Hope that helps.

Jan 16, 2010

Ericson deJesus said...

Krista,
To respond to your other comment, yes you can. When you were inviting people you had the option as to what to display on your guest list. You can choose to hide the guest list. If you need this option again, just go up to the "Invite People" pane at the top of the page, select to hide the guest list, and save it.

Hope that helps!!

So.Massive.ly

How to invite group email lists

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