Running your page

Getting to the console

The private link opens it, the one starting whenabouts.me/m/. If the page is saved to your account, it's also on your pages, and you can get in by signing in.

At the top are the title, whether it's open or closed, and how many answers it has. On a laptop the answers fill the main column and everything about the page sits beside them: "Share it", "Edit the details", "Reminders", "Tell people something" and so on. On a phone it's all one column, answers first.

A grid also shows its results and "Lock in a time" (see Finding a time). A sign-up sheet shows "How it's filling up" and "The places on this sheet" (see Sign-up sheets). A head count shows its totals, and the box for asking people who haven't answered (see RSVPs and head counts).

Who's responded

One row per answer: the name, what they took or said, their note, and when they answered. Click a column's heading to sort by it, and again to reverse it. "Search by name" also finds words in what they took and in their notes. Email addresses aren't shown here; they're in the spreadsheet.

Every row has "Remove", for a joke name, a duplicate, or somebody who told you they've dropped out. It asks first, and says whether they'll be told: if they left an address, they get an email saying their answer was taken off, unless they've asked us to stop emailing them. Whatever they took on a sheet goes back on it. It can't be undone, but they can answer again while the page is open.

Editing the details

"Edit the details" changes the title, the description, your name and email, what it's for, the time zone, and the closing date, plus the switches you chose when you made it. A head count's date, time, place, guests and question are all here too. Press "Save these changes" and the page people see changes right away.

Nobody is told about an edit. If you've moved a head count's time, the console reminds you to let people know; "Tell people something" is the way to do it.

A few things are fixed once the page exists, because the answers depend on them: the kind of page, a grid's days and hours, a sign-up sheet's layout and the time on each row, and a grid's time zone once anybody has picked times.

Closing, and opening again

There are two ways to stop taking answers. "Stop taking responses" under "What you can do" closes it now. "Stop taking responses after", in "Edit the details", closes it by itself at a date and time you choose, in the page's time zone.

Once it's closed, everything on the page stays where people can see it, but nobody can answer, change their answer or take it back. On a grid with names hidden, closing is also when the names appear.

"Open it again" puts it back as it was. After pressing "Stop taking responses", or locking in a time, you have 30 days to change your mind; after that, "Make a copy" is the way to run it again. A page that closed because its date passed can be opened again any time, and opening it takes the date off. Opening a grid again takes off the time you locked in.

Telling people something

"Tell people something" sends one email to everybody who answered and left an address. Above the button it tells you how many people that is, leaving out anybody who's asked us to stop emailing them, and each address is counted once however many times it answered.

Write a subject and what you want to say, in plain words. Links you type aren't made clickable, so write them out in full. You can send one an hour, and 5 a day. There's no unsending, and no way to see who opened it. Replies go to you: to the email on the page, or to the address you sign in with if the page is on your account and has none.

A message goes through the same check as the page's own words. If it mentions something we look at by hand, like a payment or an account detail, it doesn't go out: the page is paused for a quick look, the console gives you back what you wrote, and you can send it once we've looked.

It works after the page has closed too, so you can still send "here's who's bringing what" the night before. On a head count, the same section has "People who haven't responded", for asking the people you invited who haven't answered yet; RSVPs and head counts explains how that works.

Reminders

On a paid plan, "Reminders" lets you pick a day and a time for a reminder to go out to everybody who answered and left an address, telling them what they're down for. The time is in the page's time zone, and it starts at 9:00 am. Up to 5 can be waiting at once, and "Call it off" stops one any time before it goes.

If your paid plan ends, reminders you've already set still go out, and you can still call them off. Setting new ones needs the plan again.

A head count also sends its own reminder the day before, on every plan, to the people who said yes or maybe, unless you checked "Don't send a reminder the day before". It still goes after you stop taking responses, and goes again if you move the date. Grids and sign-up sheets don't send one by themselves.

The email at the end of the day

On any day somebody answers, changes their mind or takes their answer back, you get one short email at 6 pm in the page's time zone, called "Today on" and the page's title. It lists who's new and who cancelled, and how it's going overall. Quiet days send nothing, and nothing comes once the page is closed.

It goes to the email on the page. If that's empty and the page is saved to your account, it goes to your account's address. Without either, there's nowhere to send it. "Stop these emails" at the bottom stops every reminder and update to that address, from every page and every organizer; the warning before a page is deleted still comes.

Downloads

"Download a spreadsheet" gives you a file that opens in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets, with one row per answer: names, email addresses, what each person said, their notes, and when they answered. A head count adds the guests and the answers to your question.

"Calendar file" puts the page into your own calendar. It's there on a head count, on a grid once you've locked in a time, and on a sign-up sheet once a row has a time.

Copying, archiving and deleting

Make a copy makes a new page with the same title (with "(copy)" on the end), description and settings, and nobody on it. A sheet keeps its rows and a grid keeps its days and hours. A locked-in time, the closing date, your own link ending, the PIN and the look don't come across. You go straight to the copy's own page, with its own two links, so save the new private link.

Archive it is for pages on your account. It moves the page off your dashboard's list to the archived ones, and nothing else changes: the link still works and people can still answer. "Put back on my dashboard" undoes it.

Delete this, at the bottom, asks you to type the title exactly as it is. Every answer goes with the page, and both links stop working at once. If it was a mistake, write to us within 7 days and we can put it back. After that it's gone for good.

If the private link gets out

Anybody with the private link can do everything on the console, deleting included. Pasted it in the group chat by mistake? Under "The private link", press "Replace this link" ("Replace the private link" if you came from your dashboard) and confirm. The old one stops working at once, for everybody. You're shown the new one, and we can't send it again, so save it before you go. The link people answer on doesn't change, and every answer stays.

If you lose the private link and the page is on your account, you don't need it: sign in and it's on your dashboard. If it isn't, and you typed your email when you made it, look for the email we sent then (unless you've replaced the link since). Without either, we have no way to get you back in, because we only keep a scrambled copy of the link that can't be turned back into it.

People helping you run it

On a paid plan, people you invite can help run the pages on your account. They sign in and find your pages on their dashboard. They can do nearly everything on the console: see and download the answers, edit, close and open again, remove answers, lock in a time, send messages and set reminders. The page's link ending, PIN and look, which sites can show it, replacing the private link, archiving and deleting stay with you. A copy they make is yours too, and opens for them on their dashboard rather than with its private link. Your account covers inviting them.

If your page is paused

A page is paused when people report it, or when our own check thinks it might be a scam. The console says "This page is paused" at the top. You can still see everything and download it, but nothing can be changed, copied, deleted or sent until we've looked, and people who open the link see a page saying it's unavailable. Nothing has been deleted. A reminder you set that comes due while it's paused doesn't go out, so set a new one once it's back.

If you think we've got it wrong, write to us and we'll look again. A paused page isn't removed by any of our clean-ups while we look.