DateableHow to choose the right kind for your Board invitation
The Board has seven kinds: dinner, event, travel, experience, ongoing, mentoring and other. Members filter by kind, so choose the one matching what happens.
Choose the kind by what actually happens on the day, because members filter the Board by kind when they search. The seven kinds are dinner, event, travel, experience, ongoing, mentoring and other. If you are hosting an opera night with a meal after, it is an event, not a dinner. If you are offering time and advice in a mentoring relationship, it is mentoring. Use other only when none of the others fit. Pick the right kind and the right people will find you.
Why the kind matters
Members can filter the Board by kind. Someone who wants a good dinner filters for dinner. Someone free for a weekend away filters for travel. Someone who wants advice on their career filters for mentoring.
When you pick a kind that does not match what you are actually offering, the people searching for that kind see your listing. The people searching for what you actually have do not. The result is the wrong applicants, wasted time, and conversations that go nowhere because the two of you want different things.
The seven kinds
- Dinner: the meal is the occasion. Lunch counts too.
- Event: something with a start time and a ticket or a guest list: a show, a gallery opening, a concert, a gala. It can include dinner, but dinner is not what someone came for.
- Travel: going somewhere together, usually overnight. A listing for travel gives its duration in days.
- Experience: something you do together: a wine tasting, a cooking class, a sailing lesson.
- Ongoing: a repeating arrangement. You see each other on a schedule you both agree to, over weeks or months.
- Mentoring: time and advice. You are offering to mentor someone, or looking to be mentored.
- Other: anything that does not fit the six above. Use this only when you cannot find a better fit.
The opera night example
Your first thought might be that an opera night with a meal after is a dinner. It is not. The main event is the opera. The meal is a bonus before or after. You are posting to people who want to go to the opera with someone, and mentioning that you will have dinner with them raises the appeal. So you post it as an event.
If you posted it as a dinner instead, members filtering for dinners would see it. Many of them would be looking for a quiet meal in a restaurant, one-on-one, with nothing else planned. They would apply expecting that, and they would be disappointed when they found out they are sitting through three hours of opera.
The same logic applies everywhere. A weekend in the Hunter Valley is travel, even though you will taste wine. A class you both take is an experience. A regular Sunday coffee is ongoing. Choose the kind that describes the main event, and filter will work for you instead of against you.
Let the title back up the kind
The kind gets your listing into the right filter. The title confirms it at a glance, so name the main event first and the extras after. Compare two titles for the same evening:
| Kind | Title | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Event | Example: Opera opening night, supper after | The opera leads, so it reads as an event |
| Dinner | Example: Dinner and a show | Says dinner first, so applicants expect the meal to be the point |
Then use the details to settle anything a filter cannot: the dress code, how long the evening runs, and whether the meal is before or after.
Mentoring as a separate kind
Mentoring on the Board is distinct. It is not a date. It is for members who want to teach or learn, give or receive advice, build professional or personal skill. A generous member who wants to mentor someone in business, or help someone get into a field they know, posts as mentoring. An attractive member looking to be mentored does the same.
In the details, say what the mentoring covers and how often you would meet: "Two coffees a month for three months, on moving from agency work to running your own studio." An applicant can then judge whether you are the right person to learn from.
When to use other
Other is for the invitation none of the six describe, such as "help me choose a suit for a wedding". Most invitations fit one of the first six, so check again before you pick it. When you do use other, the title has to say exactly what the listing is, because nobody filtering by kind will find it.
Posting your invitation
When you post an invitation on the Board, you will choose the kind alongside the time, the place, and what you offer. If two kinds seem to fit, ask which one a member would filter for to find your listing on the Board. When you are ready, start your listing.
