How can I invite people for impromptu board games on short notice, with results?

[sparr]

I want to invite people over to play board games frequently but irregularly and on short notice. This could extend to movies or dinner plans, but for now it's just board games. I want to invite 10-30 people, so that hopefully 1-5 people show up. I do not have a good way to accomplish this.

I can use a FB Group. I can Post to that Group's Wall. FB will make sure most members of the group never see the post.

I can use a FB Group. I can create an Event in that Group, and Invite people to that Event. FB seems to also filter those invites from some people (which is news to me), and I don't think most of my friends use FB event invites in a real-time manner.

I can post to my own FB Wall. More people will see that than the Group Wall method, but it will also reach up to a thousand people who don't care, and it may be delayed in reaching people.

I can tag people in my FB Wall post. This reaches people more quickly, but is also tedious and manual, and is still visible to a thousand people who don't care.

I can filter that FB Wall post to a list. This solves some of those problems, but not the delay and FB filter shenanigans issues.

I can create an email list. My primary objection to this is that I do not think that most of my friends use email for realtime communication. This particular kind of invitation expires after an hour or three, and that's more quickly than most people check their email, I think.

I can send individual IMs and FB messages. This is, by far, the most *effective* solution, but it also requires the most work (although a third party IM client might be able to fix this) and would lead to more people opting out as the notifications became too frequent.

I can send group IM/SMS/FB messages. This is unacceptable because of the forced-reply-all and opt-out nature of those messaging systems. People seem to almost universally hate these systems.

Help? Feedback? Suggestions?

Comments

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Google hangout? Message to the large list with the request that people send you a separate note if not? Opt in group, with the suggestion that those who are in principle interested set their FB to notify? LJ group with a notify?

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

I mean, I do check my email every 1-3 hours when I'm not at work. I didn't think this was unusual.

[xalolo.livejournal.com]

Clearly we need an app called Gamr that can indicate to you people nearby looking to play a game...

But in actuality, this is a problem for me too! There is no real good system for fixing this, unfortunately, out of the existing tools. Maybe we do need to make our own app.