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Using Gatherist

Joining a group

We encourage you to join any group you are interested in by hitting the “Join Group” button. Note that some groups may require approval by one of the group administrators. There is no limit on the number of groups or events that members can attend. Group administrators can also remove members at their discretion.

Event waitlist

The group organizer or event host can set an attendee limit for an event. When the limit is reached, new attendees will be placed on the event waitlist. When a confirmed attendee changes their RSVP to “not going”, the first person on the waitlist will be moved to “going”. Event hosts and group organizers can also manually move attendees to or from the waitlist, even after the attendee limit is reached.

What if I change my mind? You can update your RSVP at any time. However, if you mark yourself as “not going” to a full event and later decide to attend, you will be placed at the bottom of the waitlist.

Can I still attend the event even if I’m on the waitlist? If you are on the waitlist for an event, please respect the event host’s wishes and only attend if a spot becomes available.

What if I’m bringing a friend? Adding a +1 to your RSVP will affect your waitlist status. You will only be automatically moved off the waitlist once there are spaces available for you and all of your guests.

Public groups

Public groups will show their general information (name, description, photo) and general event information (event name, description, date/time, general location) to anyone who visits the Gatherist website. However, the group member list, event attendees, and all messages will only be visible once a person joins the group.

Private groups

Group administrators can select to keep their group private, which means in addition to the restrictions for a public group all event information will also be hidden until a member joins. The group (but not the events) will still be searchable and promoted on the groups page.

What is an event host?

When creating an event, a group organizer can add one or more hosts to an event. A host can manage everything about that one event: name, description, image, date/time, duration, location, and attendee and guests limits. They can also move people between the wait list, going and “not going” lists, as well as mark people’s attendance. They basically act like a group organizer, but only for that one event.

What is a strike?

Group organizers and event hosts can choose to take attendance at events up to 15 minutes before the event starts, or at any time after that. They can also change the attendance for somebody as many times as necessary. Taking attendance is completely optional, but helps the group admins encourage members to respect the time and effort (and sometimes cost) involved in organizing events.

A strike is any of the following situations:

  • No show. A member RSVPs “going” for an event, but doesn’t show up.
  • Late decline. A member changes their RSVP from “going” to “not going” less than 24 hours before the event. Or after the RSVP closing time when the event has one.
  • Gatecrash. A member does not RSVP for an event, but shows up anyway.

The number of each type of strike will appear on the member’s profile page, but only for group admins and the member. No shows and gatecrashes will only appear if attendance is taken. If your group has no attendance requirements and nobody marks attendance, you can safely ignore all of this.

The group organizers or event host can also mark a strike as excused. For example, the host may decide to excuse a no show for somebody because they were sick. To do this, visit the event page, click “Change RSVP” next to the attendee, and check the “Excuse from strike” checkbox.

The group admins may decide to set a policy for the group around strikes, lack of attendance at events, or other factors. The policy should be stated clearly in the group description. For example, admins can decide to remove members from the group after three strikes, not attending any events in the last year, or if they receive complaints from other members.

Creating an eye-catching image for your group or event

The image for your group or event will be more effective if it shows people engaged in the actual activity. You can use images from past events, with permission of the people in the picture. Or it is very easy and quick to create a license-free image using AI. Go to https://gemini.google.com or https://chatgpt.com/ or others. You may need to create a free account if you don’t have one already. Type in a descriptive prompt, such as: “Create an image showing a group of happy people hiking in the desert.” In a few seconds the service will generate an image, which you can download and then use for your group or event. If the image isn’t quite right, you can add follow up prompts to make changes.

How can I share images with event attendees?

In order to keep costs low (and pass the savings on to you), we recommend using one of the many existing image sharing services, Google Photos, iCloud, Dropbox, Flickr, Photobucket, etc. Each service should provide a way to share an image or group of images to the public with a unique link. If you’re having trouble figuring it out, search for “how can I share an image publicly from ”. Once you have the sharing link, post the link as a comment in the event. The sharing links are typically very hard to guess, and thus you’ll effectively only be sharing with the people who have the link.

How to send notifications to your phone or browser

Sign into the site on the device where you want to receive the notifications. On the settings page, change “Deliver notifications” to “App notification”. And then click the checkbox next to “Send notifications to this device”.

If that didn’t work or you want to turn off notifications, find your browser or device below.

Chrome browser

  1. Above the top of the page in the Chrome navigation bar, click the “View site information” button immediately to the left of “gatherist.org”.
  2. On Android, click “Permissions”.
  3. Click the “Reset permission” button under “Notifications”.

Android

If you installed the app, open https://gatherist.org in your browser and follow the steps above for Chrome browser.

Firefox

  1. Above the top of the page in the Firefox navigation bar, click the permissions button immediately to the left of “gatherist.org”.
  2. Next to “Send notifications” remove the “Allowed” or “Blocked” tag.

Microsoft Edge

  1. Open Edge and select the “…” button in the top-right corner of the browser window.
  2. Scroll down and select the “Settings” option from the dropdown menu.
  3. Scroll down and select the “Advanced Settings” option from the dropdown menu.
  4. Scroll down and select the “Manage” button under the “Website Permissions” heading.
  5. Here you can select “gatherist.org” and either enable or disable notifications.

Internet Explorer 11

Internet explorer does not support browser notifications. Please use a different a browser or change to email notifications.

Safari desktop

  1. Select “Safari” in the action bar at the top of the screen and select “Preferences”.
  2. Click on the “Websites” tab and then select “Notifications” in the menu on the left-side of the preferences window.
  3. Select “gatherist.org” and either enable or disable notifications.

Safari on iPhone or iPad

Save “gatherist.org” to your home page, and then manage notifications in your iPhone or iPad settings.

Deleting your account

Really? You want to delete your account? Ok, but we’re sad to see you go.

You can delete your account from your profile page. This will permanently remove all of your personal information from the site, including your name, email, profile picture, biography, and any social login (Google, Facebook, etc.) information from the site. Your messages and event history will remain on the site, but will not be attributed to you. Your information may remain in database backups for up to 1 month after you delete your account.