JSn1nj4
commented
2 weeks ago Adding events manually should be simple to implement now that Filament is in place.
Are these the main requirements?
- ui for manually adding/editing events
- filtering manual events from automatic pruning
- confirmation about creating the event (are you sure? Have you read this / gotten approval etc.?)
- (optional) events manager role w/ proper model perms
Given the amount of information above for even deciding that a manual event is appropriate to add in a particular case, how about a couple of extras?
- on the "create event" admin page, a notice about asking for feedback/approval from before adding events of certain types
- link to a public-facing page or markdown file explaining how events are handled and who to discuss events with (as if directed at someone outside requesting a manual event, but also useful for someone internal to know who to talk to)
- a notification to event approval/admin contact(s) that an event was created on the site, as a fallback in case someone just clicked through the prompts/ignored the on-page info when creating the event
Some of those would be to keep the information about guidelines somewhere instead of losing it to an issue/pr, and others, safeguards.
allella
HackGreenville, and Code For Greenville before it, have a mission of promoting the "hacker" and mostly "non-commercial" tech initiatives and organizations in the area, with some overlap into the maker and entrepreneur realm.
The Events API has never technically been able to accept manually added events. This was by design from the very early design conversation at Code For Greenville in 2014 and can be considered both a feature and a bug.
Automation has been deemed "the way to go" because MANY attempts by other tech and economic development groups over the years have failed when the manual curator's consistency falls away (ex. most recently Ten at The Top). The automation of the API is the key to why the Events API and HackGreenville calendar have proven sustainable and reliable for 7+ years. However, we're also lucky in that the overwhelming majority of organizers we support happen to choose Meetup.com or Eventbrite.
Who Do We Currently Promote in the Events API / Calendars? The organizations list is largely made of of "freelance" volunteers who started a meetup, unincorporated meetups with a national parent, non-profits, or foundations.
The exceptions, or fuzzy areas, with saying "non-commercial" have been organizations who support the tech or entrepreneur in ways that, at least historically, have aimed to cover costs and do good, more so than being a money making enterprise. The organizers of these groups also tend to be active in HackGreenville, or at least well connected with the other organizers and HG membership.
Related Groups We Do No Typically Promote in the Events API
Current Orgs We Can't Automate Because They Don't Post to Meetup or Eventbrite
Sponsored Events? As HackGreenville grows through initiatives like HG Nights, we are seeing an increase in interest from for-profit sponsors (msg allella in the Slack if you can't access the "meta" repo). Sponsorship has typically been limited to a specific event (HG Nights, HG Lunch) and not bled over into any HG websites or calendars.
Another for-profit asked about promoting an upcoming mentorship outreach event on the HG calendar, which we currently have no way to do even if we wanted to.
If RefactorGVL and HackGreenville are going to depend on commercial sponsors, instead of individual donors, then we're likely going to consider ways to increase their exposure. This is usually through putting logos on things, but it's not uncommon for sponsors to benefit from "sponsored" content. Adding a "sponsored event" to the calendar could be an option if we allowed for manually curated events in the Events API, or else for syndicating and auto tagging online events pulled from a sponsoring organization.
Where Do We Draw the Line
It's not sustainable, so we should avoid getting into the business of manually adding or curating a lot of organizations and events. Also, we've never tried to be the calendar of all the things in the area, nor would we expect that to change.
We don't necessarily need to draw a hard line in the sand, but the fuzzy orgs we promote do create a bit of a slippery slope if / when some other pseudo non-profits or pseudo tech communities orgs ask to be promoted by HG.
The "non-commercial" language in the mission is something I put in there trying to summarize the core focus, despite the fuzzy exceptions. It's probably worth some consideration about if that's the correct language? If not, what is a better way to summarize who is "in" and gets free promotion vs who is not.
Some of the fuzzy orgs make more sense than others because they are run by local people who have been involved as tech, meetups, or as HackGreenville Slack members. Others may be active volunteers, or who are at least well known among the organizers and general HG membership. In most of these cases, even if there is no official non-profit mission, they are known to give more than they take with their events or initiatives.
Maybe a key consideration with promoting for-profit organizations is expect that they have a mission that is of obvious benefit to the HG community. Plus, they'd have a business model which depends on a notable amount of volunteering by the organizer(s), even if they are technically "profiting" to cover costs and sustain the effort.
There's also the idea that the general HackGreenville membership is largely built on the talent / workforce / practitioner. So, while there's certain and obvious overlap, promoting youth and entrepreneurial events may fall on the edges of interest to the general HG member.
Past Interest in an Economic Development Calendar As mentioned above, the manually curated calendar is hard to sustain. Ten at the Top gave it a shot and tapped out after a number of years. This is in part because the economic development / entrepreneur events often do no use easily automated sources for posting events.
At least one entrepreneur, Michael Mino, has previously expressed interest in our repos to promote the local "entrepreneurial ecosystem". That would help prevent clashes, like this week's upcoming TEDxGreenville and GVLStarts overlap, but it would be a much harder nut to crack due to the increased scope and lack of easily automated event services.
I mention this largely because HG does cross over into some of the enterpreneur, workforce, and economic development arena. Though, we clearly have not been interested in promoting this much larger, more complicated, and more commercially motivated area of overlapping interest.