How it all fits together

Three kinds of page

Start something new asks what you're organizing, and offers three cards.

• Find a time. You pick some days and the hours you're thinking of, and people mark the times they can make. The times that suit the most people rise to the top, and you lock one in. More about finding a time.
• Sign people up. A sign-up sheet: rows of things to bring, times to book or shifts to cover, each with room for a set number of people. More about sign-up sheets.
• See who's coming. One date, and people say yes, no or maybe, with guests if you allow them. You get a running head count. More about head counts.

Each card can start from a template for things people run all the time, like a potluck or a team stand-up. It fills in a title, and on a grid or a sheet the hours or the rows. Anything a template fills in can be changed before you share it.

The two links

Making a page gives you two links, on the page that says it's ready to share.

The one to send. It starts whenabouts.link, and it's the page people answer on. Put it in the group chat, an email, a newsletter, or on a poster with the QR code beside it. That address shows people's pages and nothing else, which is why it's a different one from the rest of the site.

The one to keep. It starts whenabouts.me/m/, and it opens the page's console, where you see every answer and change anything. Anyone with it can do what you can, delete included, so keep it to yourself. If you typed your email when you made the page, we send it to you as well.

If you send the private one to the group by mistake, open the console and use "Replace this link" under "The private link" ("Replace the private link" if you came in from your dashboard). The old one stops working at once, for everybody, and you get a new one. The link people answer on doesn't change, and every answer stays where it is.

Nobody needs an account

Not you, and not the people you send it to. You can make a page with a title and your name, plus at least one row on a sign-up sheet. The people answering type a name and answer. An email address is optional for them, unless you've asked everyone for one on a sign-up sheet. If they leave one, they get a copy of their answer with a link to change it, and anything you send about the page, like a reminder or the time you pick.

Without that email, the browser remembers which answer is theirs for 90 days, so they can change it from the same device. With the link in the email, they can change it, or take it back, for as long as the page is open.

The pages work on any phone and in any browser, with no app, and they still work with JavaScript switched off. Times are shown in the page's time zone, and the page says which zone that is.

What an account adds

An account is free, and it's an email address. You sign in with a link we email you, and you can add a password or a passkey later. It adds four things.

• Your pages in one place. Everything you make while signed in is on your pages, and you don't need to keep private links. A page you made without an account can join them: open its private link and choose "Save this to your account".
• Things that need one. Lists of people and repeating things, shift schedules, the API, and people who help you run your pages all live in an account.
• "Sent to you". If you answer pages yourself, the ones you keep in your account are listed together, with what you're down for coming up first. More about "Sent to you".
• Somewhere for the emails to go. A page on your account with the email box left blank sends what's meant for you, like the daily email, to the address you sign in with.

Your account has the details: ways to sign in, two-step verification, and deleting it.

The emails, and how to stop them

We only email an address somebody gave us for that purpose. If you left one on a page you made, you get the links when you make it, a short email at 6 pm (in the page's time zone) on any day somebody answered or changed their answer, and, on a head count, a note when somebody says no. People who answered get a copy of their answer and anything you send.

The daily email, the notes about a no, reminders and messages all have "Stop these emails" at the bottom. It stops all of them, from every page and every organizer, your own pages included. What still comes is anything about something you've just done, like your links, a copy of your answer or a sign-in link, and a warning before anything of yours is deleted.

Free, paid, and how long a page lasts

Nearly everything on this page is free. People who help you run your pages, and changing things through the API, need a paid plan. A page holds up to 200 answers on the free plan, and the paid plans add things like your own link ending, a logo and colour, a PIN, choosing when reminders go out, and people to help you. What's on each plan lays it all out.

On the free plan a page is deleted 12 months after the last time somebody answered, and we email you 14 days before, if we have an address. A page nobody answers goes 30 days after you made it, once nothing on it is still to come. Paid plans keep pages while they're paid for. How long things are kept has every rule.