Getting visitors to register events on your website? These are the insights from your input
On 28 November, we asked all our partners what they thought of the idea of creating a form to submit events.
This form can be placed on the visitors' website (or protected entrepreneurs' portal). Visitors (or entrepreneurs/organisers) then do not need to have access to plaece.base to enter events. A low-threshold (public) way, then, to send events to the editors. The editors then decide whether the event will actually be posted on the website. 18 partners completed the questionnaire. These are the results.
General information
What information do you (minimally) want to know to be able to assess whether the event is interesting enough to put on your website?
Date options
What options should the form have available to capture times and data?
Where
What minimum data do you need from the event location to assess whether it is interesting to put on the website?
About the event
What other information do you need about the event as a minimum?
Login data
If a visitor/entrepreneur registers an event on the website, what data do you want to know about this person (in order to contact them if necessary)?
How the form works
How would you like the whole event submission process to work?
I am interested
Why maybe?
One of the partners asked us the question:
What is the difference with letting people enter data into plaece.base themselves?
To have content entered into plaece.base, you need an account. This creates a barrier in some cases. Some partners would like to have a low-threshold form on the website that allows you to submit your event directly without a login or account.
Other notes:
- This depends on how the form works and the resulting consequences.
- I am not directly interested, I would rather investigate whether it would be useful to arrange an entrepreneur login.
Do you have any valuable additions or questions?
A number of partners left a valuable addition. We will definitely work on these!
- "We are now in the process of putting conditions in place. Lately, we have been getting regular 'fines' for posting photos without rights. These photos are often provided by third parties, but they are on our website. So we are liable, but later want to be able to enforce the fine. This seems to me to be eminently something that can take place with a tick box on event submission."
Answer: Good addition! We will make sure there will be an option to agree to certain conditions. This is also desirable from an AVG perspective if personal data is requested.
- "Danger of contamination does increase with the use of this form. We already notice that one and the same event sometimes ends up in plaece.base through different importers and you obviously increase that this way."
Answer: There is indeed a possibility of contamination of the database. Editors will have to check carefully that there is no duplicate data in the database. In the future, we may look into additional tooling to deal with this (duplication of) data or being able to filter for "nonsensical" data.
- "A clear feedback to the person who submitted the event (e.g. a pdf file with all submitted event data to the specified email address) with a notification that the submission will be reviewed and posted after acceptance."
Answer: Besides a notification to the editor, we can indeed also provide feedback to the reporter. This notification can then also tell more about the editorial process.
- "The picture has to be sharp enough and the manager (VVV) makes the choice of what to put on the site, not that all the small events that are not important to the tourist are going to be in it."
and
"Show specifications of photos. Showing sample texts. We find that it is often only half-filled or uninspiring and we need to avoid this as much as possible."
Answer: Through "help texts" we can provide additional information on guidelines and examples. This can indeed help visitors and editors to collect good and useful content.
- "Also, we always need to be able to do final editing. So not only checking data but also adjusting it. Also, I wouldn't necessarily want this form on the visitor website but on our business website. Is that also an option?"
Answer: In principle, the form can be placed on any website. It can be public or in a restricted area. It can also be placed on a business website. This is up to you as the website administrator.
- "If someone has registered this and still forgets something within a certain time: can they go back to customise or do they have to call us for the adjustments?"
Answer: We now assume that the event is shot directly to plaece.base. So it cannot be modified by the submitter himself, IF he gets an account for the plaece.base. So it is up to the website administrator to decide whether to give an entrepreneur access to the plaece.base, or to contact the editor by phone/e-mail if changes are needed.
How to proceed?
Together with a number of partners, we will realise the form technically. In doing so, we will of course take into account the feedback we have received. The goal remains to create an easy, clear and accessible form for registering events.
As soon as the form becomes available, we will inform everyone. We would like to thank everyone for their valuable input!