Without warning and almost as if by magic, Facebook Events are different than they were this morning.
Aside from some formatting tweaks in the details section, you may have also noticed that the RSVP options available to users have changed. No longer is one prompted to accept or decline an invitation. Instead, potential guests are presented with this.
On the heels of Facebook’s Subscribe feature, this new Join button presents a confusing option. This button, by default, is shaded blue with a check mark, appearing to indicate that a user has already “joined” an event. Does this not look like something to un-check if you don’t wish to “join” the event? Turns out, though, that clicking this button tells Facebook that you’ll be attending said event.
Your Event options will now appear as follows.
To change your RSVP, you’ll need to click on that little gear icon to access the Event settings.
And where is the option to share an event? I find the update to the RSVP process slightly annoying, but nothing I can’t live with. What I simply cannot live with, however, is the inability to Share a Facebook event. I need to be able to share events on behalf of my institution, and I absolutely need users to share my events among themselves. Isn’t sharing the entire point of Facebook? I am hoping this is just a temporary glitch that will be fixed shortly. I am not alone.
Let’s all keep our collective eye on this one, and cross our fingers that the option to Share an Event is not gone for good.
UPDATE: I’ve updated this post to include the following graphic shared on Twitter by @citylifematt. This is a great road map to to Facebook’s Event updates.
Hmm. I just “joined” an event I got invited to. After clicking “Join,” I had the option to Share it via my profile. But that still doesn’t bode well for sharing via feed.
Ohhh! Correction. That isn’t an option to share via my profile. That’s just the wall for the event *facepalm*
I was so happy for such a short period of time, just now!
I can’t find how to edit an event I’ve created now… Seriously?
It looks like if you want to edit an Event you created for Page, you have to click the little gear icon to access your settings. I just checked an event that I created individually, though, and the edit button is still there. I’m not sure why they’re set up differently.
I also need the share option for events. My page promotes an area of town and have asked that events in the area be sent to me to share. Now I cannot do this. This makes Facebook much less useful to me. It is a big problem.
This situation is so completely idiotic, it is hard for me to comprehend. Cmon, Facebook. I, for one, am getting REALLY tired of all this getting yanked around.
One work-around is to copy the URL of the event, then go back to the wall you wish to share said event, paste in the URL, and edit the posting as usual. Kind of a pain, but it worked for me.
Hi guys!
I found this site while googling solution to, I might as well say, our problem: Sharing events. At first I thought It was only me, I could not believe Facebook would make such an idiotic move, but guess what..I can not believe this..what are they thinking? I run a bar in my town and I do my own marketing and promotion via my business page and I need event sharing, it is the basis of facebook marketing. I hope they fix this.
You should be able to use “@” to tag the event in your post — I think you have to have RSVP’d to the event. Who knows, though? They change things around at random. It can be tricky if you have multiple events with the same name, since it doesn’t include the date.
If you use the URL, you can also delete the URL from your text once it shows the preview of it. It’ll still be attached to your post (like when you used to be able to share a link explicitly), but it won’t be in the text.
I don’t think they understand how people use their site or give any real thought to what they do.
Yes, that is actually what I do to share events, but it is annoying to allways copy the link of event to my status etc. Simple share button is all we need :)
Glad it’s not just me. Weren’t we told not long ago that FB is all about the sharing? Hence the annoying ticker.
I need the share option as being an admin and member of various groups it spreads the word.
I also have a page and sharing is so very important with this one.
Fingers crossed it’s just another useless idea from some fb tech that will be disposed of and the share option will be returned to us.
Sharing is just well hidden! Go to the event, click on the Gear symbol (top right after “Events”, “Invite Friends”, “Edit”) and select “Share event”.
It was not there when we ranted :) But I am glad it is back. Thanks for the heads up.
Thanks for an interesting read. Maybe you have an answer for a related question…. How can I invite a relevant page to an event. To be a co-host to the event? It can’t be right that I have to create two events, just because I have two hosts??!?!?
Good question! I’m not sure that option exists, although it would be a nice feature.
Hi there! Not sure if you’re still looking for an answer on this, but I did stumble across this today:
http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=215235325174804
Looks like once you’ve created an event, you can go back in and ad admins. Not pages, but people at least.