Posting notices

Each event decides who can post, and how loudly: see the permissions in Event settings. Organisers can always do both. What a notice looks like to everyone else is in The board.

Posting

Post a notice asks for a title, a detail, and one choice, How loud? That's four cards, and each one says what it costs:

• Pin quietly. It's on the board next time they look, and that's it. The card says Free, and nobody gets a message.
• Notify everyone. An announcement. Everyone gets it the ways they're reached, and is asked to tap Got it, and you can see who has. The card says how many it reaches each way, and roughly what the texts will cost, for example 6 by text, 3 by email, 2 by WhatsApp, about 30p.
• Ask a question. The same, but everyone gets reminders until they answer or it closes: up to two each.
• Action needed. Everyone's asked to do something, then tick Done. For things like paying the deposit. It goes out like an announcement, and if you give it a date, anyone who isn't done gets up to two reminders. See Action needed below.

If you pick one that tells people, the detail's label says where it goes, on the board and in emails, and the list of who it'll reach (see below) shows under the form. Pin quietly hides both, because nothing's going out.

How long it can be

A title can be 80 characters, and a detail 2,000, which is plenty for who's driving, what to bring and the bank details. Line breaks stay as you typed them, so paragraphs show as paragraphs on the board.

As you type, the count shows under the box, like 1,023 of 2,000. It turns orange as you get close. Nothing's ever cut off: if it's over, Mooting says so under the box, That's 2,350 characters. The limit's 2,000, so it needs trimming a bit., and keeps everything you typed so you can trim it.

What each way carries

A text only ever carries the title, plus the closing time or Do by date if there is one, and the link to the board. Never the detail. So a long detail doesn't cost any more, and the text tells people to go and look.

Email and Discord carry the detail in full (Discord has a limit of its own, so a detail right up at 2,000 gets cut a little there). A push notification shows the start of it, up to about 300 characters, because a phone only shows a few lines anyway. WhatsApp carries just the title, as it always has.

A question also needs its options, one per line. You can add a closing time (in the event's timezone), tick Close early once everyone has answered, and write one line about what closing means, in your own words. That line's shown exactly as you wrote it. Mooting never makes up a consequence.

Tick People can pick more than once when one answer each won't do. It's for things like meal choices, where someone's choosing for their kids too. Everyone gets a number with − and + by each option instead of picking one, and the board adds up the picks: each option's number is its total, with a line like 12 picks from 7 people under them. The People page shows what each person picked, as Chicken ×2, Veggie. The messages that go out are the same as for any question.

Once anybody's answered, the options are locked, and so is People can pick more than once. To change either, take the question down and ask again.

What telling everyone costs

On the post form, the Notify everyone card says who it'll reach and what it'll cost: 15 by text, 3 by email, 4 by push, 2 by Discord, 1 by WhatsApp, about 45p.

Under the cards is anything the card can't fit: No way to reach Jo. And if the title's long enough to make it more than one text, Each one is long enough to be billed as 2 texts, about 20p in all. Shorten the title to save.

The price updates as you type, counted the way the text will really go out: the event's name, the title, the closing time for a question, and the link. The detail doesn't count, because it isn't in the text. The pence are just for texts. Push and Discord are free, and WhatsApp is billed separately. The names under No way to reach are the people you'll need to chase some other way.

Editing a notice that's already gone out (or a draft) shows the same thing in one box, for It matters: This would reach 15 by text, 3 by email, 4 by push, 2 by Discord, 1 by WhatsApp; no way to reach Jo. About 45p in texts.

Both pages warn you if the title has something a plain text can't carry, like an emoji. One of those cuts how much a text can hold by more than half.

Your own notices

You're never sent your own notice: not when it goes out, not the reminders, not the final call.

An announcement or pin you post counts as done for you straight away, so you don't have to Got it yourself.

An action you post counts as seen, but not done. You might need to pay the deposit too, so your figure waits at it on the road until you tick Done like everyone else. Nobody texts you about it.

A question you ask isn't answered for you, though. You answer it like anyone else, and the People page counts you, but nobody texts you about it. Your cell says asked it, not answered until you do. The numbers on the post form leave you out.

In a dry run you are sent it, because seeing it is the point.

After posting

The page tells you where it went: Posted. It's on its way to 18 contacts. The People page shows who it's reached. The sending happens in the background, retrying if it needs to, so the page comes straight back and the People page fills in as messages go.

The text cap

Each event has its own limit on texts: 500 a month to start with, up to 2000, counted per calendar month. You set it under Sending in Event settings, and the page shows where you're up to: 312 of 500 texts used this month. It counts messages, so a long one billed as two texts still only counts once.

Once you're past the cap, notifications go by email to anyone with an address, and it tells you who it couldn't reach at all. Nobody gets quietly dropped. The post form warns you first if this one would go over, and the page tells you afterwards what happened:

This month's text cap is used up, so 3 people got an email instead and 1 couldn't be reached.

When sending is on hold

Sometimes Mooting itself can't send for a while. Maybe its text credit's run out, it's sent as many texts today as it allows itself, its email allowance is used up, or its WhatsApp account has a payment problem. Nothing's lost. Messages that way just wait, and go once it's sorted.

While that's happening, the People page has a line across the top, like Texts are on hold: Mooting's text credit has run out. They'll go out as soon as the credit is topped up. The post and edit forms say the same if what you're about to send would go that way, and the cell of anyone still waiting says text on hold. Every organiser of an event with messages waiting is told once, by some other way, if Mooting has one for them.

There's nothing for you to top up. Whoever runs this Mooting is told directly. If it's urgent, tell the people who are waiting some other way.

Action needed

An action is for something people have to go and do: pay the deposit, book a train, send their sizes. You want to know two things, that they've seen it and that they've done it, so it has two buttons: Got it and Done. Done on its own is fine too. It counts as seen.

It can have a Do by date (in the event's timezone). With one, anyone who isn't done gets a last call two days before and a final call a day before, just like a question: Fauxmas reminder: 'Pay the deposit' is due Sun 18 Oct, 18:00. Done it? Tick it on the board: and their link. Seeing it doesn't stop them, only Done does. Without a date, nobody's chased automatically. Remind about what's waiting on the People page still names it.

The date doesn't close anything. People can still tick Done after it, their card just says it was due, and the People page marks it Past due, so you can see who's late. There's no result pinned and nobody sits out.

You can tick people off yourself, from the People page: when the money's actually arrived, say. Each person has Mark done next to the action, and Mark not done to take it back. Nothing's sent to them either way, and the page shows it was you: Done, ticked by Rachel.

What the text costs works the same as an announcement. A title and a date usually fit in one text, however long the detail is.

Reminders

While a question with a closing time is open, anyone who hasn't answered gets a last call two days before it closes, and a final call a day before, by text wherever Mooting has a number. An action with a Do by date gets the same, until they've ticked Done. When you pick the date on the form, the note under it tells you exactly when the reminders will go, or that it's too soon for one. The whole ladder, and what it never does, is under Reminders before a deadline. The People page notes each reminder under the person it went to.

Editing

Whoever posted a notice, and any organiser, can edit it, using the pencil on the notice or Edit on the People page. Under the title, the page says where it's up to: open and when it closes, closed and when, sent, pinned, or a draft. An action says when it's due, or Past due. To give people longer, change its Do by: a small fix is enough, and the reminders follow the new date.

If it's already gone out, you're asked one thing:

• Small fix. Save it quietly and mark it as edited. Nobody gets a message.
• It matters. Send it to everyone again. Everyone's back to not having seen it, and they get it again. Answers are kept, so someone who'd answered is just asked to look at the question again rather than starting over. On an action, anyone who's ticked Done stays done: they've still paid. The list of who it'll reach only shows while this one's picked.

Options that are locked because someone's answered are greyed out, with the reason underneath. Take down sits on its own at the bottom of the page, well away from Save.

Taking down

Take down is at the bottom of the edit page, in the ⋯ menu of a notice on the People page, and next to each pin. It checks with you first. A pin just disappears. Something that went out leaves a one-line note on everyone's board, as The board shows.

A pin made from a chat message has Unpin instead, in those same places, and in the ⋯ on the notice, where whoever said it can unpin it too. It doesn't ask, because the words are still in the chat and can be pinned again. An announcement made from the chat keeps Take down, because it went out; taking it down frees the message up to be pinned again. See The chat.

Closing and extending

Close now is in the ⋯ menu of a question on the People page, and it checks with you first. A question with a closing time closes itself the same way when the time comes. It stops asking, marks everyone who hasn't answered as having sat out, and pins the result to the board with the tally and their names. The board shows what everyone sees.

Extend uses the same edit form. On a closed question, its first box is Reopen until. Give it a time in the future and the question opens again. Nobody's marked as sat out any more, and everyone who had been gets a short note saying it's open again: You sat this one out; there's still time. The page tells you how many were told.

Late answers on a closed question are always allowed. They're marked late, and it's up to you what you do with them.

Drafts

If you start an event from an older one, you can bring its announcements, questions and actions across as drafts (see New event from this one). They show up in a Drafts box at the top of your board, and nowhere else: not on anyone else's board, the road, the People page or a digest.

Each one has Post, Edit and Discard. Posting a draft is exactly like posting something new (it goes out, under the name of whoever copied it), so Post checks with you first, and says how many people it'll reach.

A draft's edit page shows who it'll reach too, and has two buttons. Save draft keeps your changes and doesn't tell anyone. Post now saves them and posts it, checking with you first in the same words.