Event Sign Ups on Swing Lifestyle

[Spoomonkey]

I found this interesting. One Swing Lifestyle they have a way to "sign up" for events. You can add your name or just look at the list of folks who are planning to be there. It was our first time signing up. We knew one of the couples on the list and knew it would be a fun night. Of course, we were planning to go anyway.

The "idea" behind the list is pretty good. But I think I noticed a flaw in it.

We noticed that the list grew by quite a few single men - men we had never seen at our club. Being the suspicious type, I had a feeling that they weren't so much signing up for the event as they were trying to get their profile viewed by couples.

As it turned out, none of the single guys who signed up showed. Of course, we had no vested interest in them being there, I just thought it was interesting. I wonder if they were hoping that a couple would see their profile, contact them and - if they had a "guarantee" hook up - then they would show.

I rarely see single men come with couples as a date (it happens, sure, but not often). I can think of three times in four years... Of course, we don't live at the club, so it might happen more often. I just wonder if this sort of "fishing" works? It kind of turned us off of the "Who's Coming" list. We ended up taking our name off of the list and then just going.

Spoomonkey

[aahours1]

As a club owner of After Hours in Michigan, when we post on Swing Lifestyle, there is an area to check if you want all to show or uncheck for no single guys or couples and single females. We ALWAYS uncheck the area for single males. This prevents any single males to RSVP. But we do have on the posting that they can come with a couple (male/female only) seeing that our socials are for couples of the oposite sex and single females. Hope this helps

[LikeMinds321]

Spoo ~

Did you happen to take note of all the couples who signed up and how many of them didn't show? That would be much harder to keep track of, because there would be so many more couples than singles and you don't know all the couples by username. But my point in asking is that I think the percentage of no-show couples are substantial.

Many sign up just to encourage others to sign up that they hope will interest them, when the list doesn't give them what they're looking for, they don't attend.

Some hope to attend but drop out because better opportunities arise elsewhere and they change plans.

LM

[Spoomonkey]

Originally Posted by LikeMinds321

Did you happen to take note of all the couples who signed up and how many of them didn't show?

Actually, yes

There were five total "attendees" signed up (yet another reason such a thing doesn't seem to work well). Two were single men that didn't show, three (including us) were couples. Two showed (including us) for sure - the other might have been there or not (no picture).

Spoomonkey

[mrs good times]

We use this feature almost every time we go out. We use Swing Lifestyle for contact information more than meeting people so this gives those we keep in contact with the opportunity to know we will be there. We also look to see if an interesting prospect might be there also because we prefer to meet people face to face than through e-mails.

[WildMiCouple]

We use this feature too for our local dances. It gives us an idea of how well attended it will be. And as Mrs GT mentioned, it's a good way to let others know where we'll be, along with meeting couples we may be interested in.

The turnout vs those listed is pretty high. I'd say 80% show up at the dances. Sometimes more, as a recent dance they had to close the doors 45 min after it started and turned the rest away.....a 200 person limit with 240 signed up. So now, when we see a large attendee list, we know to show up early.

Brett

[Spoomonkey]

It must not be catching on in our area...

On a night when our club was packed, only five people signed up...

Yet another one of those things that seems to be "area dependent".

Spoomonkry

[JustAskJulie]

I've noticed this too but not just with single males... but in general seeing people sign up that have no intention of going. I think a lot of times it's people just wanting to see who is going to the event... then maybe if someone they know is signed up they might go too.

[EternallySingle]

I don't know why anyone finds this surprising. When going to "vanilla" parties, I'll often cancel or leave early if I find that noone I know is there. Its not that I'm against meeting new people (quite the contrary) but parties are rarely the place to meet someone if you don't have the security of a third party to vouch for you. Add swinging and (for single men at least) the chances of meeting someone new at a party has dropped to almost nothing.

And where's the best place to meet someone? Its a catch-22. You have to go to where people are to meet them, but if you don't know anyone, its less likely you will meet anyone and end up looking like a Sad Sack, which noone wants to know.

Oh, when is the next meet-n-greet in the midwest? My job got in the way the last two times. Hopefully I'll get enough notice this time to schedule time off.

[JustAskJulie]

We've been noticing this even more lately... as I said before not just single guys but in general. Another aspect I noted recently was people using it as a way to invite others to their own group. I accidently signed up for a recent event under the wrong handle (my affiliate account for this site), this profile has nothing in it, it's totally blank. The hosts of the event immideately messaged and asked who we were and why our profile was blank. But another message we got from signing up to this event was one from another club in the area inviting us to join their group and sign up for their events. The hosts of a competing club sign up for this event every month even though they have no intention of going (obviously since their club has parties on the same nights). I don't know if the Event hosts have any control or ability to remove names from the list or not... but they should.

[two42lovers]

It's a really useful function. We picked a new-to-us house party for this weekend because two of the couples signed up are friends of ours. It's was a cool way to find out they were going. We were even able to set it up to share a hotel room with one of them. Truth is it's not likely we'd be going if we didn't see them on the list...

Another thing we like to do is look at the list for people we find attractive, and open our private pics to them. It's fun to come across a profile you like, and find they have already opened their pics for you.

One of our favorite friends is a couple we met because they emailed after seeing us on a party list (they were also on the list) asking us if we had ever attended before. It turned into a very nice, if relatively long distance, connection.

[SW_PA_Couple]

There is one Pittsburgh-area couple who have posted several events at Swing Lifestyle. The sign-up is not restricted. Anyone can sign up. But only people they choose from the list will be given instructions regarding the exact location of the event and whom you have to see when you arrive to gain admittance. Singles who are not going to be accompanied by a couple are thus excluded. If an un-wanted member becomes curious and sends an e-mail inquiry asking for details, the answer given is too many people have signed up, we'll contact you if a place opens for you. Might not sound egalitarian, but it seems to serve their designs. Would also explain why so many single men do not show.

[JustAskJulie]

I do agree that the feature is nice to be able to look and see (in advance) who you might encounter at a particular event. I actually wish our local social would use the feature as it would be nice to be able to put some info with some faces we see at the parties.

I actually just spent some time on there going through those who are signed up for the Splash Party that we are going to in a couple of weeks and was quite happy with what I saw (as far as variety of those signed up). It is a nice tool to be able to use to get an idea of what you can expect out of an event/club/party.