Evite
Encyclopedia
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
for creating, sending, and managing online
ONLINE
ONLINE is a magazine for information systems first published in 1977. The publisher Online, Inc. was founded the year before. In May 2002, Information Today, Inc. acquired the assets of Online Inc....
invitations.
Evite was launched in 1998. The website is a free, advertisement-supported service. It was acquired by conglomerate IAC/InterActiveCorp
IAC/InterActiveCorp
InterActiveCorp is an American internet company with over 50 brands across 40 countries headquartered in New York City...
in 2001. Liberty Media
Liberty Media
Liberty Media Corporation is an American media conglomerate and the control is exercised by company Chairman John C. Malone, who owns a majority of the voting shares....
acquired it in 2010.
Usage
An event organizer creates an online invitation through the website via a simple interface. This online invitation is colloquially referred to as "an Evite". The host enters e-mail addressE-mail address
An email address identifies an email box to which email messages are delivered. An example format of an email address is lewis@example.net which is read as lewis at example dot net...
es of prospective guests and Evite sends e-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
s to the guests. Each guest is in one of four categories: "Attending", "Not Attending", "Maybe", and "Not yet replied". Guests move themselves from the "Not yet replied" category to one of the three "replied" categories and can write additional comments.
Reminders
- Hosts may send an automatic reminder e-mail in the days prior to the event.
- Hosts can determine through the web site whether a guest has viewed the invitation or not.
Style
The HTML page for the invitation may have various stylistic features chosen by the inviter. These include setting, color, layout, and renaming the four guest categories.Updates
Hosts may opt to send guests updates when other guests RSVPRSVP
RSVP may refer to:* RSVP , request for responsesEtymologyFrom the French RSVP, répondez s'il vous plaît, meaning “reply please” or "please respond".-Music:* "R.S.V.P." , 1985...
for the event, or when the event details are changed.
Legal Controversy
According to Mashable and Venturebeat, Evite has threatened to sue San Francisco based start up and competitor Socializr due to alleged copyright infringement.Criticism
- Entrepreneur Auren Hoffman wrote a blog post in January 2006 pointing out that Evite had great potential but had not improved for six years. Later Auren wrote a guest column for VentureBeat in September 2006 called "Why I hate Evite".
- Friendster and Evite competitor Socializr (acquired by Punchbowl in November 2010) founder Jonathan Abrams has written a detailed critique of Evite
- On May 14, 2007, Valleywag listed Evite as #1 in their list of Companies We All Hate: "Why it sucks: The invitation e-mails don't contain the info for the event! Gah! And the page everyone clicks to is choked with ads."
- Time Magazine named Evite one of their "5 Worst Websites" and "Sites to Avoid". http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1638344_1638341_1638337,00.html
- Wired Magazine's February 2008 issue on "Why Things Suck" includes an article criticizing Evite. http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/16-02/su_evite
Notable references
- The SimpsonsThe SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
: The character "Snake" responded to a fellow inmate who was unaware of an impending jailbreak:
- "I sent you an Evite. You never responded. Nice NetiquetteNetiquetteNetiquette is a set of social conventions that facilitate interaction over networks, ranging from Usenet and mailing lists to blogs and forums. These rules were described in IETF RFC 1855. However, like many Internet phenomena, the concept and its application remain in a state of flux, and vary...
, jerk!" audio clip- AliasAlias (TV series)Alias is an American action television series created by J. J. Abrams which was broadcast on ABC for five seasons, from September 30, 2001 to May 22, 2006...
: In season 4, episode 3 Jack crashes a birthday party thrown for Weiss and comments on his lack of an invitation: "Unless it was an Evite. I don't read Evites." - The OfficeThe Office (US TV series)The Office is an American comedy television series broadcast by NBC. An adaptation of the original BBC series of the same name, it depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company...
: In E-mail SurveillanceE-mail Surveillance"E-mail Surveillance" is the ninth episode of the second season of the American comedy television series The Office, and the show's fifteenth episode overall...
, Jim Halpert sends Evites to his coworkers to a barbecue at his house, excluding regional manager Michael Scott from the guestlist. "Wonder where my eVitation is?" Scott ponders aloud. In season 6, Michael creates his own paper company in the same building as the Dunder Mifflin Scranton Branch. He sends out an Evite for their Pancake luncheon.
- Alias