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Facts about throwing good parties

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Re: Facts about throwing good parties

#391

Post by failingforward »

chris_wot wrote: post #317
B-Con wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dave Barry is a humor writer. I've followed him for 20 years and this is absolutely his style of writing, perhaps even paraphrased from one of his pieces. Hats off to OP if this is their original writing, it nails his style.

Dave Barry caused me to write the original Exploding Whale article on Wikipedia. I got the first oddball barnstar, which was made just for me. I’m now banned.

This is, if not the best, likely the most concise history of Wikipedia I have ever read.

Re: Facts about throwing good parties

#392

Post by nicbou »

chris_wot wrote: post #318
kelseydh wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I miss the days when Facebook events worked well for getting people to attend a party. Now, nobody is on Facebook so those event invitations get missed and you need to hustle much harder with individual chat messages to get people to attend.

Is this truly a thing that now nobody is on Facebook? I thought it was only me!

It's the abandoned shopping mall of the internet. All dead save for a few properties.

Re: Facts about throwing good parties

#393

Post by Esophagus4 »

thimkerbell wrote: post #379
Esophagus4 wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been at a party where (as I later found out) the host had hired an actor to be one of the waiters, and she paid him to trip and fall and spill a tray of food. It made the night memorable and got everyone talking and working together to help clean up!

So now we are to wonder if accidents are faked? The host did harm here.

Oh, come on… so quick to judgment (and so bizarrely sure of yourself) for something you didn’t even see.

It worked. There was no “harm” done.

Re: Facts about throwing good parties

#394

Post by knuppar »

Edman274 wrote: post #367
knuppar wrote: post #83

Being brutally honest, I wouldn't be too keen to attend a party from someone that writes up about their 21 party facts lol. This sounds more like a meticulous plan to maximize human socialization than an actually just fun party :)

I am reminded of an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants where he meticulously plans a party with a huge list of scheduled, mandatory activities, and hovers around guests and tries to direct them on how to talk to each other and have fun. No one has fun until he leaves to perform errands and then gets locked out of his house. I wonder how much of that episode's plot was intended as a morality tale for children, and it's…

hahaha that episode also came to my mind

Re: Facts about throwing good parties

#395

Post by BiteCode_dev »

lurk2 wrote: post #269
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #201

I throw a 200+ persons party every year at halloween, and I concur with every points on this list. I'll add: if you need money but don't want to ask for it upfront, you will need to have someone to ask for it individually to each person mid party. Just having a box to collect it somewhere, or a sign with a qr code, doesn't work nearly as well. It's annoying to do, but if your party is good people react surprisingly w…

> if you need money but don't want to ask for it upfront, you will need to have someone to ask for it individually to each person mid party. If someone invited me to a party and asked for money after I arrived I would in all likelihood never speak with that person ever again.

Of course you don't tell people they have to pay mid party. This is for things like collecting donations money for next parties.

In places when you don't have a lot of money to go around, solidarity goes a long way, and nobody finds it weird to ask for help.

I understand on HN the average salary allows to pay for a lot, but it's an exception.

In France, it's common that everybody brings something for dinner, for example, even if you are invited.

If you throw a big party and then ask people if they want to help the people that did that, they are usually happy to do it.

Re: Facts about throwing good parties

#396

Post by baby »

teiferer wrote: post #213
baby wrote: post #56

I've organized so many parties that I feel qualified to comment here :D (actually sorry but the other commens I've read feel silly). Love the number one advice of the post: focusing on yourself having a good time. Although the more you organize the easier it gets. > 5) Use an app like Partiful or Luma I refuse to use an event page personally because I think it makes it less personal. I always DM people directly if I…

> always prepare a punch. People don't realize it but there's alcohol in this thing Why is it that alcohol seems to be a necessary ingredient to people having a good time? Or at least everybody assumes this to be the case? Why is nobody able to be themselves and relax and have fun without being intoxicated, mildly or more? Serious question, I don't get it.

Alcohol is a social lubricant. Next question.

Re: Facts about throwing good parties

#397

Post by baby »

fragmede wrote: post #234
baby wrote: post #56

I've organized so many parties that I feel qualified to comment here :D (actually sorry but the other commens I've read feel silly). Love the number one advice of the post: focusing on yourself having a good time. Although the more you organize the easier it gets. > 5) Use an app like Partiful or Luma I refuse to use an event page personally because I think it makes it less personal. I always DM people directly if I…

> I've organized so many parties that I feel qualified to comment here > I refuse to use an event page personally because I think it makes it less personal. I always DM people directly if I want to invite them. These parties you've organized, I'm sure they were quite lovely, but can't have been truly epic, yeah? DMing, say 30 people is one thing, but if you're looking at, let's say 500, is another matter. If you need…

I've thrown parties with 100s of people and its mostly because people invite other people, for people you care less about a single DM you copy/pasted with the info is enough.

I also organize pretty large meetups with easily 500 people trying to get into the guest list and it's the same amount of work to go through the list and vet people tbh

Re: Facts about throwing good parties

#398

Post by baby »

komali2 wrote: post #199
baby wrote: post #56

I've organized so many parties that I feel qualified to comment here :D (actually sorry but the other commens I've read feel silly). Love the number one advice of the post: focusing on yourself having a good time. Although the more you organize the easier it gets. > 5) Use an app like Partiful or Luma I refuse to use an event page personally because I think it makes it less personal. I always DM people directly if I…

> - don't have seats otherwise people will sit down, and sitting down is the party killer I agree with all your points but this one. My parties go for hours, people wanna chill. Usually there's some corner playing board games or smoking hookah, it's the perfect couch scenario and a great way to let a party go loooooong. People's feet get tired! Also I've had all sorts of all ages, people with MS or whatever else, pre…

Yeah agree, sections is great, I've had people sit on the floor when they get tired

Re: Facts about throwing good parties

#399

Post by baby »

cvoss wrote: post #114

> The biggest problem at many parties is an endless escalation of volume. If you know how to fix this, let me know. Ideally, a guest breaks a cheap glass. The sound is heard across the house. The helpers immediately spring into action, leaving their conversations behind, looking for towels and a dustpan. The people nearby go mute with sympathetic embarrassment. Much ado is made of finding every shard. Meanwhile you a…

I had the exact same idea, buy a honk thing and play it when noise gets too loud. Gets everyone to reset noise volume.

Tbh the noise volume issue is only smthg that exists in american parties

Re: Facts about throwing good parties

#400

Post by rsanek »

kashnote wrote: post #34

Love all of these tips. I've hosted dozens of events since moving to NYC and figured I'd add 5 more: 1. If this is a dinner party (or people are all seated), force people to get up and move in a way that they'll meet new people. Do this when you're about 2/3 of the way through the party. Some will complain - do it anyway. 2. Plan 1 (ideally 2) interludes. It can be a small speech, moving people around, changing locat…

The Art of Gathering is great. I found it actually helped me be a better guest, too.
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