Incoming!

The Upcoming News Blog
April 23, 2008

Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire!

A big shout out to our founder Leonard Lin, who is rocking the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco this week with his new Upcoming-powered application called Fireball. Plus some shiny new ways to attend or watch an event on Upcoming. Read on!
April 10, 2008

Thanks for the Suggestion Part 2 - Ability to upload a flyers & photos

For part 2 of this week's "Thanks for the Suggestion" installment it's just like the title says. You can now upload flyers & photos with your event including a special call-out for an offical photo.
April 7, 2008

Thanks for the Suggestion Part 1 - Email everyone watching/attending your event

It's been a while since we blogged about anything new at Upcoming. But it's not for lack of stuff to talk about, we've just been a little busy tuning up our robots. We're always happy to hear from you, so this week I'm going to focus on some features we've recently added in response to the suggestions we get everyday on our Suggestion Board. I'd like to start with one of my personal favorites, which enables the event creator to send a note to everyone who is watching or attending the event.
October 22, 2007

A Year in Photos

Call us nostalgic. We like looking back at what you've been up to over the last year, since we added the capability to tag Flickr photos with a special Upcoming tag. You've been to so many good parties, festivals, and concerts that are worth remembering. Want to take a look for yourself?
October 16, 2007

Upcoming Integrated in Yahoo! Search

We've had a busy couple of months recently. With our noses to the grindstone, first we streamlined our search results, making it even easier to find local events on Upcoming. Then we refined Yahoo! Search with our local events, featuring your favorites on Upcoming nationwide:
September 19, 2007

Upcoming Turns 4

Ahoy! Today be the fourth birthday of Upcomin', so we want'd to wish sincere thanks to all ye scallywags.
August 21, 2007

RSS Events in Chronological Order

Over the past few years, we keep hearing from people trying to paste RSS feeds into XML parsers that they want to get events back in chronological order.
August 9, 2007

Star Parties

With meteors showering streaks of light across our night sky, it's high time to take off for the weekend. Some Upcomers are already planning a camp out in Washington for a chance to spot these star-bursts.
August 6, 2007

Ta-da! Robot-filtered events for everyone!

Our dear robot has some special news for us...
August 1, 2007

More Than A Party

People use Upcoming to organize all kinds of parties. Last night, a bunch of Upcomers orbited the London Underground in protest. They were condemning an injunction by BAA that seeks to ban people from traveling on the Underground's Piccadilly line, on mainline trains, and on motorways while the Camp for Climate Action takes place at Heathrow Airport from August 14 through 21. Though BAA insists the ruling is for the "safety of passengers," environmental campaigners claim this is a case of "corporate bullying designed to shut down peaceful protest." [BBC News]
July 26, 2007

Your Name Here

You could probably chart my identity search in the screen names I've picked over the years. Some people, though, can stick by the most peculiar names forever. If you've been waiting for a way to change your screen name, we're happy to announce the feature is here!
July 23, 2007

Yesterday's News

What's happening on Upcoming? In Denmark, we watched you roaming the muddy fields of the Roskilde Festival; and in Los Angeles, the Flight of the Conchords sang you their folk songs of comedy. So many of you stuck around for a MOO's Hot Summer Party in London, while we here in the SF Bay Area traveled far and wide to witness the blazes of the Fire Arts Festival.
July 16, 2007

Upcoming on the iPhone with Leaflets

Today, we'd like to tip our hats to Blue Flavor for launching Leaflets, a suite of handy iPhone applications -- including Upcoming, Flickr, and Del.icio.us. We've offered a mobile site for ages, but Leaflets is optimized for use on the iPhone, with the shiny navigation and interface bells-and-whistles you'd expect.
July 12, 2007

Cycling Through Upcoming Patterns

With the summer heat rising, it seems the Upcoming community has been grabbing their bikes for some breezy, recumbent rides through the neighborhood.
July 2, 2007

Independent Upcoming

July is a month to commemorate rebellion. So why not get started on the 4th by choosing to celebrate some independent art, music, and other creators over your standard BBQ and fireworks fare?
June 26, 2007

The Evolution of a Robot

It's time to introduce the robot we've known since the day we joined Upcoming. He's graced our inboxes with event reminders and new friendship notifications. And when passwords have been forgotten, robot was there!
June 21, 2007

Upcoming + Facebook

You've been waiting. And it's been worth the wait. Our Facebook application mashes up your Upcoming and Facebook events in one place!
June 18, 2007

Summer Festivals to Watch

Everyone's already going to Lollapalooza, and they've just been to Bonnaroo; but I wanted to find some of the more obscure, but just as electrifying music festivals taking place. These may be outside the scope of Upcoming homepages and friend's events, but they're definitely worth hearing about.
June 14, 2007

24 Hours of Flickr

Last night in Berlin, Flickr threw the first of four parties in celebration of 24 hours of Flickr.
June 7, 2007

Upcoming Destinations

A friend of mine recently used Upcoming to help plan his trip to Germany. He discovered that, despite the language barrier, blending into the local crowd, sampling new music like Apparatschik, and meeting some neat (English-speaking) folks was easier with Upcoming.
June 6, 2007

Separate group moderation for events and members

Group moderators can now choose to moderate either events or members separately.
June 5, 2007

Feeding Time

Old and unbusted: we've brought RSS feeds back to searches, so you can once again be notified whenever your favorite band hits town. New hotness: you can get updates on everything that's happening in a particular place, like a city or even a neighborhood.
June 1, 2007

We Shipped Your Shirts!

For those waiting for T-shirts, we'd like you to know that they've shipped (finally).
May 17, 2007

Upcoming Mobile is back, baby!

m.upcoming.yahoo.com is a WAP mini-site tuned for extremely quick loading and checking of personalized public events and search, all while on the go.
May 17, 2007

Groups Improvements

Hey there! I just wanted to let you know about a few tweaks I made to the groups functionality.
May 17, 2007

Paparazzi Your Life at Upcoming

Now that we're featuring recent event photos on our homepage, the number of events with photos has jumped! Just over the last few days, you've shown us what it was like at a book tour in San Francisco, a rock show in Amsterdam, a coding meetup in Paris, and a hip hop party in Lombardy.
April 19, 2007

The New Upcoming

Whew! The new release of Upcoming is finally out the door. We're still working out the bugs, so let us know if you find anything broken or weird! Lots to talk about, and I'm sure you'll have lots of questions, so let's get right into it. What's new?
April 13, 2007

Six Days to Upcoming 2.0

Wondering why things have been so quiet lately? Two words: Upcoming 2.0. We're almost ready to pop, so save the date: Thursday, April 19. We'd love to tell you more, but that would ruin the surprise!
March 7, 2007

Upcoming at SXSW

Going to the South by Southwest conference in Austin? So are we!
February 28, 2007

API Announcements and Goodies

If you're an Upcoming.org API developer, or planning to become one, read on...
February 23, 2007

Upcoming.org Suggestion Board

Have a suggestion to make Upcoming better? Use our new Suggestion Board to pitch ideas, vote and comment on others, and get notified when we do your bidding.
January 12, 2007

Upcoming Kisses PC World Magazine and Ma.gnolia

Ma.gnolia launches new Upcoming integration and PC World makes us blush.
January 8, 2007

Oops! Late Reminders...

Apologies for the late reminders you may have received...
December 20, 2006

If You Like This Blog Entry...

Here's a little Christmas present before the end of the year... You might have noticed a new little feature pop up on our event pages yesterday, tucked under the list of attendees -- suggested events based on the interests of everyone going.
November 17, 2006

Javascript Update

A new javascript update resolves Mac problems + more...
October 26, 2006

Upcoming Mobile

Have a Treo, Blackberry, or phone with a web browser? Try out m.upcoming.org.
October 25, 2006

RSVPs and Guestlists for Event Organizers

Organizing an event? We just added some new RSVP and guestlist options, like letting attendees bring guests, closing the guestlist, and printable guestlists for the day of your event!
October 4, 2006

New Scrapbook, Deleting Events, and Hack Day

Some cool Yahoo! Open Hack Day projects using Upcoming.org inspired us to do a quick redesign of the Past Events page. Plus, you can now delete newly-created events and venues.
September 28, 2006

Nerdy API News!

We've released a beta PHP5 API Wrapper, as well as responded to some API requests. Read on for details.
September 20, 2006

Tweaks, New Features, and Really Cool Stuff

Updates! Fun features! And lots of stuff other people did! :)
September 19, 2006

Arrrr, Upcoming.org Be Turning 3

Avast, ye scurvy dogs! Today be Talk Like A Pirate Day, and 'tis a special day indeed -- Upcoming be turning three years olde.
September 18, 2006

Upcoming.org Looking for That Special Someone

We're looking to add someone new to the Upcoming.org team. If you've got the programming chops and love Upcoming, read on.
August 28, 2006

Undiscovered Events, Flickr Integration, and More

Yeah, we've been busy. What's new? Undiscovered events, Flickr photos for events, buddy icons, new event pages, and more than we can remember.
July 31, 2006

Tips for Newbies and Publishers

Andy made a video Quickstart Guide, and also wrote a few blog posts with useful info for publishers.
July 14, 2006

Friday Fun

Better autocomplete, internationalization fixes, and our first screencast!
July 12, 2006

Group Moderation Redesign

We completely redesigned Upcoming.org Groups moderation with a streamlined interface, ability to add moderators, and full integration with your "What's New for You?" sidebar.
July 10, 2006

Change of Scenery

We've redesigned some big stuff and it's ready for play. New "Add Event" forms, redesigned navigation, and experimental metro pages are all new. Also, a bunch of new API goodies. Details inside!

May 17, 2006

Ginormous Update

We've got boatloads of improvements to announce, including some big backend updates: performance tuning, better searches, venue and event deduping, and yes, time zones!

April 14, 2006

Fun with Calendars, Subscriptions, and Maps

We added new support for Yahoo! Calendar and the newly-released Google Calendar, all-new subscription and maps options for searches, venues, and tags, and support for floating times for you iCal fans. More details after the jump...
April 12, 2006

Invite Friends, Metroblogging, About You, hCard

Another batch of updates, and some exciting news from Metroblogging.
March 31, 2006

Change Your Own Email Address

This one's simple - you can now change your own email address by going to "My Settings", "Edit your personal profile," then click on the 'change' link near your email address to kick off the process.
March 30, 2006

Notes and Metro Search

We just released a few new features again! Upcoming.org Notes allow you to (finally) send messages to one another. Metro Search should make it much faster to look for metros that you might be interested in.
March 28, 2006

Geotagging Events, SXSW, Editing Comments and Venues

Ah, time for another long-overdue roundup. This episode: new geotagged events/venues, Upcoming at SXSW, comment editing, venue editing, attendee limits for private events, and new events since last login.
January 18, 2006

Recent Activity, Social Network Browsing, Token API

So, you might have noticed a few small changes around here over the past few days... The biggest are the recent activity, social network browsing, and the new token-based API authentication.
November 23, 2005

Greeting from Yahoo!, New Maps Mashups

So, we're up at Yahoo! and very busy working on big changes to Upcoming...
October 18, 2005

New Group Interface & Cool API Projects

Please take a quick spin around the new public interface for Upcoming.org Groups! Even though we're mostly preoccupied with preparations for moving up to Yahoo!, we were able to get out some changes to make group discovery and browsing much easier.
October 5, 2005

Yahoo Acquires Upcoming.org!

We're very proud to announce that Upcoming.org is now a member of the Yahoo! family. Tons more details and goodies inside.
September 8, 2005

Dynamic Badges

Now you can easily get a snippet of code that you copy and paste to get dynamically-updated Upcoming.org event lists on your website! I've been making the Badge Builder over the past few days, and with plenty of help and testing from Andy and Leonard, we've got something that we think is a pretty cool syndication tool!
August 29, 2005

Groups

We just added support for Groups, a simple way of organizing and discussing events by interest or location. Start one for people like you, for your club or community website, or maybe just for your private group of friends. Use the iCal/XML options to make an instant public or private community calendar.
June 2, 2005

Nokia and Upcoming.org

Nokia is developing a mobile version of Upcoming.org for wireless devices, and they need your help! They're looking for feedback from Upcoming.org users about your experiences using the site.
May 23, 2005

Related Tags, MovableType Plugin, and More Libraries

We've added support for related tags, and our wonderful users created a MovableType plugin and API clients for Python, Java, and Ruby.
May 6, 2005

Community Wiki, New Server, and Tags in the API

What's new? The launch of our new community wiki, a big server move, and the addition of tags to the API. Read on for details.
April 18, 2005

API and User Contributions

We announced the new API three weeks ago, and so much has happened since. What neat things have people been making with Upcoming.org since then? I'll try to roundup the highlights.
April 5, 2005

Searching, Invite by E-mail, and More

Some more big changes this week... The short version: you can now invite friends to events by e-mail, search for stuff, subscribe to feeds for tags and venues, and hide personal events from strangers. Also, I'll talk about some small changes to the API and a look at how people are using Upcoming.org. More details about everything inside.
March 28, 2005

Huge Changes!

As promised, some huge changes to Upcoming.org! The short list: support for personal and self-promotional events, tagging of events, a complete API, improved visual design, and e-mail/SMS reminders. More details inside...
March 21, 2005

Jon Udell Inspires New Development

Jon Udell posted some insightful comments about Upcoming.org today. I absolutely agree with everything he's said. After my son was born, I set major development aside, but no more! Within the next seven days, I'm committing myself to finishing some long-requested features on the site.

Up first: Exporting your event history, current and past event lists for venues as RSS and iCal, tagging events, listing private/personal events, and a REST API for retrieving user, venue, and metro information. For other items on the pending list, see the rest of the current To-Do list. I've decided to develop an API for adding events, as well, but that may take a little longer.
March 1, 2005

Past Events for All Users

I added an event archive to every user's profile page. For example, here's mine.
February 28, 2005

Event Histories, People Counts

One big new feature tonight... You can now browse your old events! The link to your event archive is called "Past Events" on the homepage. Also, I've added tallies of attendees (now called "People") to nearly every event list.
January 8, 2005

E-mail Problems Resolved

Some new user confirmation and password reminder e-mails weren't being sent for the last few days. The problem is fixed, so if this is your first time here, enjoy the site!
December 2, 2004

Speed Improvements

If the site feels faster, it should! I optimized the database, so some sections now display 800% faster than before.
October 28, 2004

Popular Metros and Events

The new Popular section lists the most active metros and events across the entire site. If there's any other charts you'd like to see, let me know.
August 27, 2004

New Sessions

Thanks to Leonard for rewriting the broken session code that was logging people out every 24 hours or so. Now when you log in, you'll stay logged in! Let us know if you notice any problems with it.
April 29, 2004

FeedSweep

If you want to put Upcoming.org events on your site, try the newly-launched FeedSweep. Just paste the appropriate Upcoming.org "XML" link into FeedSweep, pick your styles, and go!
March 11, 2004

iCal Integration

After a long break, I added iCal calendars for every feed on Upcoming.org. (If you're not a Mac user, try EventSherpa or Mozilla Calendar.) Thanks to George for doing most of the work, and Andre for beta-testing.

Also, ArborBlogs has a great overview of "why you should use Upcoming.org."
November 10, 2003

Gothamist Events, EverythingNY

Take a look at the amazing Gothamist (howto) and EverythingNY (howto) event calendars, both powered by Upcoming.org. If you've put an event feed on your site, post a link in the comments!
October 29, 2003

Feedroll

If you want to put your Upcoming.org Events on your own site, try the free Feedroll.com service. Enter in the feed URL, pick your size and color, and they'll give you a small piece of Javascript to put in your weblog template. That's it! (More detailed instructions inside.)
September 30, 2003

Event Editing, Reformatted RSS

You can now edit events! When viewing an event you created, you should see a big "Edit Event" link.

Several people have added Upcoming.org XML feeds to their weblogs, but you currently need either PHP (example) or MovableType (example). A cut-and-paste solution for the computer illiterate will be coming in the next week or so. For those who care, I've also reformatted the RSS feeds with new metadata.

As always, e-mail me (andy AT upcoming.org) if you have any comments or questions.
September 25, 2003

My Fans, Location Bugs

You can now see who's linking to you in their Friends lists, tentatively called My Fans. This should help people find their other friends as the site continues to grow (1,320 users!).

Also, I fixed a nasty bug that was breaking the Add Country/State/Metro function. If you tried to add a country, state or metro in the last three days, please try it again. Thanks.

Finally, I removed many fake events, venues, and metros. If you see something dumb, use the "Flag for Review" link!
September 24, 2003

Multiple-Day Events, Flag Abuse

By request, I added support for events spanning multiple days by adding an "End Date" field to the Add Event form.

Also, on every event/venue/user, you'll now see a Flag for Review link. Please use this link to report any duplicate/fake events and abusive users, and I'll take care of them. Thanks for your help.
September 22, 2003

Metro Feeds, User Counts

Important: If you haven't joined a metro yet, find your metro in this list and click the Join This Metro link. You'll be glad you did.

Some new features: I added RSS feeds for all Metros (example), user counts on metro lists, and a bunch of bug fixes. Event and venue editing are almost done. Keep the bug reports and suggestions coming!

Also, are there any CSS gurus out there who can figure out why the background colors render badly in Firebird for Windows (screenshot)?
September 22, 2003

Edit Profile, Attendee Lists

Wow, we're up to 745 users in our first three days! You can now edit your profile, view the number of attendees/watchers at a glance in the Event section, and see a list of everyone who's attending or watching on each event listing. Next up: event/venue editing, and weeding out garbage metros. I'm working through everyone's suggestions and bug reports, so expect a reply soon.
September 19, 2003

Launch

Avast, ye scurvy dogs! The site's live, so spread the word. Everything seems to be working fine, but let me know if you find any bugs.

Coming soon: calendar view, event recommendations, event editing, and browsing past events. (See the full list.) If you have other feature requests or comments, e-mail andy@upcoming.org or post a comment.
August 4, 2003

Beta Launch

Okay, the beta is live. It's all still very beta, and many things are missing, but I wanted to start getting some feedback. Here's my current To-Do list... Please leave a comment, letting me know what you like or don't like. Thanks!