The STW quiz thread got me thinking about something. Made me wonder if there must be some sort of actual pseudoscientific study of this kind of thing.
Is it better to:
a) just set a date within 1 week of now, and people already know if they can make it or not. Those that have prior plans can choose whether this new offer is more appealing to them and worth changing their plans for.
b) just set a date sometime further in the future. More chance that people have a free space in their diary, but also more chance that people will change their minds.
c) ask for consensus on day but not date. People feel included in the decision, but might have to drop out once the date is announced
d) ask for consensus on date... 80% of people are unsatisfied.
I imagine the result would vary a bit depending on the type of event, and also type of people you were looking to attract. A wedding will be quite different than for an online quiz. But it did make me wonder... Does anyone know?
For anything like a quiz, or a work do, or something like that, if you're the organiser then just pick the date you want, and those that can go will, those that can't won't. Trying to get a consensus on dates is like herding cats, it's just not worth it.
But a date close or a date far away? Or does it not matter?
The trick to herding cats is one cat at a time
An interesting point of view, but I wonder if it really works out. Do you really only ever manage to herd one cat?
I think the consensus option can work for a small event but gets exponentially more difficult as the group size increases.
the way we did it was to arrange between the stakeholders those actually organising it as to what we preferred, then told people. after we ran a couple, a few folks said "would have loved to join but couldn't make midweek" so we had another talk
this is based on helping @pook organise the pootles. Pick a date that works for YOU as organiser. set the date, give people enough notice - but not too much. no sense telling people 3 months in advance, they'll forget. 2 or 3 weeks is enough. With the pootle, we had to limit it to on week's notice to prevent TOO MANY turning up
All makes sense, and I'm not in any way criticizing the planning of any specific event. I just wondered if anyone had actually studied the different approaches