In an old post I kind of thought out loud about whether Evite was broken or stale. The verdict at the time was that it is just stale and probably doesn’t reach the point of qualifying as being broken.
I heard that Socializr finally opened up open signups and went and checked it out. After going through the registration process and tinkering around with it for a few minutes, I did not get a strong sense for the differences between Socializr and Evite. A lot of the theme designs look very Evite-esque, as does the basic layout of the invitation. They do have a few features that I think are useful, primarily the ability to import friends and contacts from other services, but I walked away from the gamma scratching my head as to why I should adopt this now in lieu of sticking with the “devil I know” in Evite. If Renkoo and others might have strayed a bit too far in offering users some new ways to organize events, the Socializr gamma feels like they stayed a bit too close to the existing Evite model.
There are two things I think might help this service get more users. This is free unsolicited advice, so take it for what it’s worth:
1. Get rid of all of the prompts for me to add/import friends, invite people, etc. when I am just trying to complete the registration process. I am sure you’re looking for viral growth and all, but let me at least set up an account and get started before you bombard me with requests to invite others or import my contacts/friends from other services. I found myself clicking the “Skip this Step” button a lot during the process. There is probably a better time in the process to hit me with this marketing message.
2. Help me as a gamma user understand why I should use this service instead of Evite. I am sure that conventional marketing wisdom might suggest you not focus on the delta between your service and Evite, but let’s be realistic – for better or worse, Evite is the most commonly used tool to accomplish what Socializr wants to do so why not just be up front with users about the problems you’re solving? That would have helped me as a beta user.
Looking forward to see what these folks do as they move from gamma to beta to alpha.
Charles,
I agree with most of what you said. However, like Socializr, Renkoo, Mypunchbowl and others are not creative and did not really stray that far from Evite (in fact they are pretty boring and unimaginative). All just look and feel a bit nicer than Evite. I think that all of these tools are missing the point. Most people plan events democratically, no one says lets hang out at 7 in Bar Fly and the invitees all accept. It is more of a discussion, and anyone that has tried to plan an event knows that and can sympathize with the pain of trying to aggregate all of the points of view. That’s why we created Planypus which is different than evite. We have a wiki like feel and focus on the group instead of the organizer. We are built to facilitate and aggregate group discussion. Also unlike Evite, Renkoo, and Socializr we don’t require 6 pages to fill out before you can start using us. In fact we don’t even require registration! Hope you can check us out! Cheers!
Charles, I agree with most of what you said. However, like Socializr, Renkoo, Mypunchbowl and others are not creative and did not really stray that far from Evite (in fact they are pretty boring and unimaginative). All just look and feel a bit nicer than Evite. I think that all of these tools are missing the point. Most people plan events democratically, no one says lets hang out at 7 in Bar Fly and the invitees all accept. It is more of a discussion, and anyone that has tried to plan an event knows that and can sympathize with the pain of trying to aggregate all of the points of view. That’s why we created Planypus which is different than evite. We have a wiki like feel and focus on the group instead of the organizer. We are built to facilitate and aggregate group discussion. Also unlike Evite, Renkoo, and Socializr we don’t require 6 pages to fill out before you can start using us. In fact we don’t even require registration! Hope you can check us out! Cheers!
Thanks for the comment, Alex — I will check it out.