Ponzi actually wrote this, but it’s her first blog post in MONTHS so I just had to share…

We’re having a small party tomorrow night in honor of some cool friends in town (and to play networked Xbox 360s on the newly-mounted HDTVs). Maryam and Robert are the cool friends in question. When I asked Maryam who she wanted me to add to the “evite,” she gave me a list of names and said “Try mypunchbowl.com“

I did. It has some cool features. And, it needs to make some of the basics easier to access. Cool Features?

1. You can add Flickr photo sets (though you really don’t have those until “after” the party, right?)
2. It’s easy to choose and change your party name and details.
3. 3.) It has a built-in Google map
4. 4.) Its “start up” is easy to use.

Missing Features that need to be added / changed before I use the service again:

1. Where is the basic list of “yes”s and “no”s for the party thrower to look at and work with?
2. Why isn’t it easy to add an email address to the list of “to invite”?
3. Why when I click “the people” doesn’t it show me a list of the people coming to the party? Instead, I have to go to the message board and scroll to see if the people are coming and what they said or to the guest section. I hate to scroll. Yes – I’m that lazy.
4. Who cares about a “party store locator” – I don’t need an invitation site to tell me where to go – I’m throwing the party; I should know where to get the supplies. Is this here to get sponsorship so the site is free?
5. Photos – when I saw Flickr photos could be added, I thought that was cool. Then I thought about it – in reality, once I send an invite and have a party, I never go back to the invite. If I want to post photos, I do it on Flickr or on my blog – never back to an invitation site – when the party is over.

Kudos for clean design and a section for exclusive after party invites. Though I don’t do exclusive afterparties – have them or get invited to them. It was fun to think about who wants to get invited to these enough to add this feature to their product. Great for a giggle for me and mine.

So, there you have it. One lonely little review from a sometimes-blogger who has a hard time learning new tricks. I’m going back to my old tattered favorite email invitation site for now: Evite. I admit, I’m a difficult person when it comes to new tech things. I like the ease of use of the old stuff. Okay, I’m stingy with my “learning curve” time. I get settled in my ways like a grumpy grandma and her favorite things. It’s gotta be pretty snazzy, easy, and rock-my-world to make me change. Have you found anything like that lately?

[tags]party planning, party, evite, event[/tags]