Make number of places left visible on event summary
Now that we have more control over the ability to limit the number of places available for registrations, it would be good to be able to display this information on the event page.
Currently, you see how many places are left as part of the registration process (incidentally, I have had some people advise that this is somewhat confusing as its not clear that the number of places left are not including the current registration - so I have had people contact me not sure if they're registration was successful on account of it saying 0 places left while they were registering), but it would be good if you could choose to have that information visible near the registration types - this would allow us to create a sense of urgency for the event and potentially encourage more people to register and maybe even to register earlier :-)
If this is implemented, I think it should be optional as to whether you wish to display it or not as I realise that having it display by default will not suit everyone. Perhaps something like the following in terms of available display options:
* Display available places for each registration type
* Display total number of registrations
* Do not display
Thanks!
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Randall (Randy) Rensch
commented
Evgeny -- Not exactly a propos of your comment, but I hope of some interest:
We do not accept non-members to attend at our lodge unless there is a Member present (for obvious reason). But unless we manually intervene in the display of non-Member registration, we sometimes wind up with non-Member registrations and no Member. (Only once in hour history have we wound up with ONLY non-Members signed up, but it does meanwhile make for some embarrassing explanations. We all agree that if someone Registers, they should consider that effective, not cancellable by us if no Member attending.)
What we'd like is for non-Members be able to put themselves on the waiting list until a Member registers, and when a Member does, the waiting list is automatically converted to registrations. (We would also want a confirming email to be sent to those who were waiting.) And the non-Member form(s) would then be open to whatever number of Registrants we set.
Currently to do this, we'd have to set the non-Member form max to 1 attendee (the system interprets 0 as unlimited), create a dummy non-member registration to activate the Waiting List option, then readjust it all when a Member registers. Automatic, it would be great. Manually, it's more trouble than it's worth. -
Randall (Randy) Rensch
commented
You're right that not everyone wants to display how many spaces are left. Although we have disagreement even within our own leadership committee, the thinking of the marketers among us is, when a certain number of people need to sign up before it becomes more than a "cozy little evening," why make the event look unpopular and have people shy away? "Spaces left" can even be misinterpreted by some prospective attendees, not realizing that some people typically wait for the deadline before committing ... meanwhile the event looks unpopular. Of more concern to me (and possibly much more commonly), it encourages people to game our system, as our prices and procedures differ when there are only a handful of people.
Displaying "spaces left" makes sense to me only as the event begins to fill up. Yes, when only 7 spaces are left of a 40-person limit, then it becomes an encouragement to act now -- just the opposite of its effect at the beginning.
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Evgeny Zaritovskiy
commented
Makes sense - we do show "Spaces left" in event details when total even limit is defined, but we don't show limits for particular registration type. I think we just missed this during design.
I will keep this post under Usability category so we can prioritize it in further development.
