People know I have intensely disliked eVite (no, they, like MySpace, are not link worthy) from Day One. Most people just chalk it up to me being crazy and a pure Internetist, but it is much more than that.
Thankfully, LW e-mailed me a NYT article that kind of lays out the reasons why “eVite sucks”. Some selected quotes from the article:
I want to be grateful for an invitation, but I feel harassed. Unlike the sweet, promising envelopes that sometimes arrive with the real mail, tulips in the weeds of fliers for gym memberships, Evites mix the forced cheer of advertising with the stern bullying of debt-collecting. It’s a party! First notice. Second notice. Where’s your R.S.V.P.?! We’d love to see you! Late fee.
and
Let’s take stock of where Diller has left the partying world. Evite commodifies hospitality. It co-opts the benevolence of hosts by using them to drive traffic to an ad platform. It makes would-be guests seem boorish if they’re reluctant to conduct their social lives on the Web. And it turns every party into one of those shell-game publicity “events” where Star X has to believe that Star Y is coming in order to show up herself.
Thankfully, I have at least one friend (SD) who spares me the horror of eVites and sends me a personalized e-mail with the relevant information. To the others, I always include an “eVite sucks” conclusion to my note.
Starting now, though, I also plan to include a TinyURL link to this NYT article, and I encourage you to do the same: