Gripes

Annoying things on the site that you'd like to see fixed or handled differently.

How do i contact a user?

marklin keeps posting tests to the calendar!
http://upcoming.org/event/21665/
http://upcoming.org/event/21669/
http://upcoming.org/event/22166/
http://upcoming.org/event/21715/
etc...

localize the maps for non-US or UK countries

Here's a venue that I added recently:

http://upcoming.org/venue/17844/

I noticed that there is a possibility to find it on Google Maps or Yahoo.. no, wait, there isn't because it's in Sweden!

On the other hand, a Swedish find-it utility hitta.se found it straight away.

http://hitta.se/ViewDetailsPlace.aspx?StreetNumberId=774964&SearchType=4&UCSB%3aWflWhite=1a1b&UCSB%3aWflPink=4a&UCSB%3aTextBoxWho=&UCSB%3aTextBoxWhere=medborgarplatsen+4

as well as Eniro:

http://kartor.eniro.se/query?streetname=medborgarplatsen+4&what=map&asearch=1

So, should I just add a link to the description of that particular venue, or is it too much to ask to include more localized maps for venues?

problem with email invites

I get a lot of domains that I can't invite to because an error comes up reading "appears to not be a valid domain" but they ARE valid... one is MY EMAIL domain - sbcglobal.net

• • We'll be rolling out changes to the e-mail validation this weekend that should fix this permanently. Sorry about that. --Waxpancake 13:32, 25 Jan 2006 (PST)

stephenv's request for help

This has to do with the API and documentation. I noticed some changes within the XML had broken my PHP script, so I was going to move it over to the API. Well it turns out that whoever hosted the PHP PEAR module for this has gone off in the weeds permanently, so there's no examples of this anywhere and it'll have to be done from scratch. As such, I was hoping someone could mirror their copy of that module.

A shot in the dark, I know. But having to write something from scratch to play with the API seems like it would be a horrible duplication of effort on my part.

Email me at mail@stephenvandyke.com if you have anything PHP that is working with the API.

batigolix' complaint

I live in a country (Spain) where lots of people have different ideas about concepts as country, state and province. As a result of that the metro Barcelona exists 3 times in different "countries". So I, as a user, have to check 3 places to find the events in my town. Hence: it is impossible to use upcoming.org, which is a shame.
Check this:
http://upcoming.org/metro/es/cat/bcn/
http://upcoming.org/metro/es/cata/bcn/
http://upcoming.org/metro/es/bcn/
What is necessary is an editor that knows the country, that merges duplicate metro's and removes pseudo countries from the list and does some basic spell checking.

userX adds to batigolix' complaint

This is a problem not only for BCN, but for typos per se.

For example:

• http://upcoming.org/metro/ca/bc/van/
• http://upcoming.org/metro/ca/bc/vanc/
• http://upcoming.org/metro/ca/bc/cru/

As batigolix suggests, spell checking against a map db would be awfully helpful.

As for "legitimate" dupes of places - per the BCN ex. - it's no trouble to point these different URLs to the same db, is it?... If you do this, it might be nice to let people know so that batigolix and his fellow Barcelonans(?!?!) don't worry that they're missing something if they happen to prefer visiting the Spanish version of Barcelona.

UserX 15:06, 1 Dec 2005 (PST)

mgifos' gripe

The UK equivalent of a zip code is a post code, the format being ANN NAA where A is a letter [A-Z] and N is a numeric digit. The venue form zip code field will not accept a full post code. I'd like to go back and geotag the description of the venue I entered, but cannot. Even better, if long/lat were provided as fields then you'd quickly see comprehensive maps mashups appearing once some decent location data got entered.

Full post code is an important key to streetmap.co.uk and suchlike datasets

kscaldef's gripe

I created an event and posted a link to my blog, but most of my friends aren't members. When they visit the page, they say it isn't clear that they 1) ought to register, and 2) ought to say they are attending. The message about commenting or "seeing who is attending" is a little vague, and it appears below the Google ads, where some people may ignore it.

Ernie's #1 Gripe

Locations and venues are doubled - I have to subscribe to "San Francisco Bay Area" as well as "Berkeley," "Oakland," etc, and theres a LOT of individal cities in the bay area
and once i add that city, i have to click on "metros" and dig all the way to the metro level to add another one

Solution:

• to allow multi-metro selection at each level
• better grouping/suggestions (simple ART-1 or other filtering alg for metros)

userX replying to "Ernie's #1 Gripe"

Suggestion: Introduce a new data model corresponding to some sort of arbitrary geographic groupings. This would require some work, but be well worth it.

• State A may divide into Northern A and Southern A
• City X in State A may include Town Y in Northern A and Town Z in Southern A
• You could "subscribe" to
  • Town Y - and get events only for that town;
  • City X - and get events for all Towns, etc., incl. Towns Y and Z within arbitrary boundary of City X
  • Northern A - and get events for all Towns, etc., incl. Town Y, but not Z within arbitrary boundary of Northern A
  • City X *and* Northern A - and get *aggregate* of all events in two regions *in one view*

Work? yes. Hard? Not really. I wouldn't think so anyway....

Gordon replying to this one...

We're working on the design for something similar to what you're suggesting. However, nothing is easy. :)

--Getluky 18:23, 5 Dec 2005 (PST)

(PS - Does anyone read this?...)

UserX 15:23, 1 Dec 2005 (PST)

(I do. --Getluky 18:23, 5 Dec 2005 (PST))

Dennis' Gripes

They're not such big deals, that's why they're gripes:

• no way to delete/edit comments
• comments don't allow HTML
  • Comments allow HTML, just not all HTML. --Waxpancake 02:02, 23 May 2005 (PDT)
• the "Date" should show the Day Of Week.. something is disconcerting about not knowing what day of week a date is... ie, on http://upcoming.org/user/10371/

Chinita really agrees about the day of the week thing - it's how we order our lives, primarily by the day/secondarily by the date

Cygnoir's Gripe

I really don't like "San Francisco Bay Area" as a metro! Is there any way to make "meta-metros" that can serve as umbrellas for the individual metros in each area?

One reason why I don't like the general Bay Area as a metro is because I end up duplicating venues. If I add an event in "San Francisco", and someone had previously added the venue I want to use in "San Francisco Bay Area", I duplicate the venue. (This just happened with Café Abir.) --cygnoir 00:17, 25 May 2005 (PDT)

Chinita's Gripe

Can't figure out how to edit venues - and agree w/ Ernie's Gripe because we cross metros often in our pursuit of live music!

mavit's Gripe

Where's the privacy policy? How is the data licenced?

Donald's Gripe

I forgot to add a start time for http://upcoming.org/event/21968/, now I can't go back and add it. Somehow I've lost permission to edit this event, but I added it.

Phil's Gripe

Upcoming.org does not appear to be under active development.

I've been using this system for a couple of months now and initially had high hopes for it (I've been pulling the RSS feed for Bermuda events into a sidebar on my blog). But no-one seems to address any of the issues that are raised on this wiki (for example, the times of events in the RSS feed being incorrect) and there's lots of basic functionality that's still missing (for example, why can't I delete an event I created?). As a result, regrettably I am going to have to look for something else. Nice idea, poor execution.

• We're actively working on it, but Upcoming.org is a labor of love that we work on in our spare time. Because of this, we have to prioritize feature and bugfixes very carefully. The issues you mentioned involves the larger problem of timezones, which is our top priority. It's a complicated problem, but expect it to be fixed before anything else. --Waxpancake 00:45, 20 Jul 2005 (PDT)

Pete's Gripe

I'm not sure if this is a bug, but I have two events on the same day, one from 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM titled 'Kids Day at Fowler Park' and one from 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM titled 'Kid's Day at City Beach' and on the metro page the event that starts at 1:30 PM is displayed first. I'd expect to see the earlier event listed first. Is it because of the event names being listed alphabetical? Ignoring the start times? Using the event id number? Is this a bug or a gripe?

Ed's Gripe

1. Why can't I edit a venue's name after I create it? I've created a couple of duplicate entries b/c of a typo while creating the first venue entry. Shouldn't I be able to delete a venue I've created as long as there aren't any future events associated with it?
2. That's exactly my problem, too. I've added some venues and used html in the descriptions to make it more convenient for other users. The html-tags (I only used the hyperlink-tag http://www.url.com">Text) haven't been interpreted correctly. Now here's the mess: http://upcoming.org/venue/10078. It is really annoying not to be able to correct this.
3. I agree. I added a new venue, but gave the wrong phone #, and now I can't change it. I flagged it for review, but it hsa been 2 weeks and no correction.

Kevin's New Gripe

Why do multi-day events fall of upcoming as soon as their start date passes? And become un-editable? Ongoing shows and festivals should stay on the upcoming list until they're truly expired -- that is, based on the end date, if they have one.

Kevin's Gripe

Why do events contain a "report for abuse" link, but not users?

Some harold_ikes came by on one of my upcoming events, added the tag "who gives a fuck" and a pointlessly rude comment.

What's to stop random angry teenaged boys from doing this whenever they feel like an event isn't what they're interested in (in his case, apparently, band venues described as "Current odds for an on-stage fight are 4-1.")?

(Waiting for the "Windowz roolz" spammers to attack listings for MacWorld)

Munkey's Gripe

There should be a way to view your private events in the iCal and RSS feeds. I know RSS feeds can handle name/pass, but I'd really like to see this in the iCal calendar subscription. Is this a possibility?

Supercade's Gripe

This thing is very cool, although to make specific what Cygnoir's Gripe is all about. Metros and Venues should be reorganized and be more like tags. A Metro should be available under numerous States, for example, Northern VA is a metro area relevant to DC, MD and VA. Similarly, Venues should not have a child relationship with Metros. A Venue should be available to multiple metros. For example, Dr. Dremo's is in Arlington, VA. It is logically part of "Northern Virginia" and "Washington, DC". I dunno, maybe only larger metros are like this, but it seems that DC, SF and probably at least NYC would be the same way.

Kim's Gripe

First time properly playing with the system... so I may be missing something. but... Groups. Is there *any* way of navigating them as a list? Cos just searching is only useful if you have something really specific in mind, and I'm just noodling round looking for things that might be fun... Maybe you could think about having a directory style (maybe organised by tags that events within the groups are using??)

• Both of these are implemented now! I think I hit them a few weeks ago, in fact. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Rachel's Gripe

and a very mind one to boot. Can you add a link to this wiki on the main upcoming.org site - you know, next to the link on popular? I can never remember the URL so it would be great to have the link right up from within one's upcoming page. I'm always praising the idea of the community wiki site on here and how it's organized - I'd just like to be able to access it within the site. Thanks!

The “Help�? and “Contact Us�? links at the bottom point here. Raf 18:37, 14 Oct 2005 (PDT)

Kingchiron's Gripe

There needs to be a way to deal with duplicate entries, ideally people would search before entering a new event, but some percentage never will. Some way to combine or allow a moderator for a given metro area to delete one of the dupes?

Corixidae's Gripe

I don't see a way to edit the email address in the Account Information section of my profile (next to the ZIP code). I can change my reminder email address at will, but the Account Info email address showing on that page is about 2 years out of date.

Kim's Second Gripe

Umm. Some kind of instructions on searching? The Wikipage just says the equivalent of 'Here be instructions'. I'm just trying to work out how I search for, say, all events tagged 'web' 'internet' or 'programming' and confine that search to all UK metros. It's making my brain bleed. Seriously, chaps, this is a lovely idea, but you really, really need to do some user testing and thinking about how/why people might be using the service? Kim

• I will work on some of our basic docs right now, under First Steps, and maybe split out searching advice separately. You can try searching for events with those keywords in the descriptions, and use the "My Metros" tab to restrict it to your own metros. Tag search isn't something we currently confine to your own metros yet. --Getluky 16:28, 28 Nov 2005 (PST)
• Just finished! Please check out the First Steps page, and the Finding Events page, and let me know if that is helpful.

Group tags are not tags

Havnar Kajakfelag has the group tag 'Kayak'. But the URL of the tag is http://upcoming.org/group/?scope=all&tag=kayak. According to Microformats, 'the last segment of the path portion of the URI contains the tag value'. In this case, that results in the tag value 'group', not 'kayak'. Let us see check the Technorati tags group and kayak tomorrow.

Janegil 06:02, 24 Nov 2005 (PST)

ChuckEye's Gripe

Duplicates and wrong year postings haven't been fixed, weeks after being reported.

StrawberryFrog's Gripes

StrawberryFrog 6 Jan 2006

1) It's really easy to send an event to a group using the dropdown. But once you've done this, you cannot undo it. I've sent events to the wrong group twice and regretted it instantly. Like tags, groups are a way of aggregating events. But it is odd that tag data is are so much more editable than group links.

2) there are tons of duplicate venues in London. e.g. Duplicates of "Borders", "Business Design center"
2Covent Garden Piazza", and at least one silly one called "Aaaaa Dunno yet". This needs a cleanout, and a way to flag/merge them.

3) Comments on events - it's easy for these to become outdated due to updates to the event, or because you've found out more about the event; or they can just be wrong. You should be able to edit them, or if that's too problematic, just retract/delete/hide them.

Simple Groove's Gripes

Simple Groove 21 Jan 2006

I agree with the above posting that the Metros need to be rethought. In NJ
we have metros for some of the counties, and also "Monmouth and Ocean Counties" is
a metro, and Ocean County alone is a metro (but not Monmouth County). Then
we have a North Jersey metro and a Central Jersey metro, which overlap
the counties. I just don't get what metro I should post my event in, or
do I need to post it in multiple metros!!??

I also agree that it's manditory to be able to edit and delete events, and
edit/delete venues that have no future events associated with them.

--joe