I just signed up for the brand-new evdb to see what it’s like (there’s been quite some hype surrounding it. However, I was sorely disappointed. Below is a copy of the email that I sent to their ‘bugs’ email address, notifying them of the problems.

And now that I think about it – there’s no way to make a friend’s only event – or even add a friend! What’s the point of this, seriously… At this point, Upcoming.org is much better off.

P.S. Plus they use tables! And there’s barely any dynamic content… very, very poor show!

Hello,

After a quick run through, a few things;

• There is no way to make a strictly private event.
• There is no way to delete an event, once created.
• There is no way to edit an event, once created.
• There is no mechanism for having re-occurring events.
• When creating a new event, there seems to be some tag left un-closed causing all the items to shift right (in Firefox 1.0 on OS X 10.3). (See bug1)
• There are a lot of problems with selecting a time for an event, just some:

• The ‘Ends’ checkbox starts unchecked, but the ‘ends’ field items are enabled.
• When the ‘Ends’ checkbox is checked, the background turns green. (and the end time stays enabled?) (See bug2)
• When the ‘Ends’ checkbox is unchecked, the background turns red. (See bug3)
• When the ‘Ends’ checkbox is checked again, some of the form items are left disabled. (See bug4)

I hope this can help to lead you guys in the right direction, thanks!

Update: And here’s their reply – very fast! I’m pleased that they’re working on everything. My hopes for this application have risen.

John,

Thanks for the feedback. We’re working hard to get all of these issues addressed as soon as possible.

Here are some specific comments:

– There is no way to make a strictly private event.

For the immediate future, we are working strictly on public events. But we definitely see the urgent need for private events/calendars, etc. Stay tuned for further developments. This is my wife’s top wish-list item, by the way.

– There is no way to delete an event, once created.

Yes – we’ll have this soon. It’s implemented on the back-end – it’s just waiting on the UI side.

– There is no way to edit an event, once created.

Yes – this is a major one – we’re going to have full editing capabilities. Also, if you wish, you can open it up entirely, wiki-style to allow the world to edit as well.

– There is no mechanism for having re-occurring events.

Yes. Doing recurring events completely right is pretty hard. You need to handle the “every thursday except Thanksgiving and Christmas weeks” case, for instance. But we’re all over it and should have good tools for handling that pretty soon.

– When creating a new event, there seems to be some tag left un-closed causing all the items to shift right (in Firefox 1.0 on OS X 10.3). (See bug1, attached)

We’ll have a look at this. You’re the first to report it – thanks.

– There are a lot of problems with selecting a time for an event, just some:

Time handling is currently pretty lame in my opinion. I’m personally working on this one. My goal is to have this as fluid and straightforward as programs like iCal do, within the limits of a web browser.

We’ll be updating things regularly, and these are all on our to-do list. I can’t promise any specific timetable, but we’re working on them.

Chuck

Update: Most of the afformentioned problems have been resolved now – they certainly moved quickly!