Visibility, approval, capacity and the RSVP list
Public vs. private events, when approval is required, how capacity is counted, and what the public RSVP list shows.
These four settings live in Step 3 of the wizard and later in the Setting tab → Permission & Visibility card (capacity is in Time & Venue).
Event visibility#
| Public | Private | |
|---|---|---|
| Listed on the theground.io Explore page and your organization page | Yes | No |
| Reachable with the Invitation Link | Yes | Yes |
| Change later? | Yes – Setting tab | Yes |
Use Private for members-only sessions, corporate bookings, or while you are still preparing the page. Share the Invitation Link only with the people you want. Switch to Public when you want the Explore page traffic.
Require Approval#
- Off – people join instantly and are Approved immediately.
- On – every sign-up arrives as Pending. You review it in the Member tab and set it to Approved or Declined. Members are notified of the decision.
- Paid events are always On. The toggle is locked and shows "You must allow approval to collect payment" – approval is what confirms the seat once the payment is verified.
- With group tickets, approval covers the whole group ("The approval and payment confirmation will be processed together").
See Approve and manage sign-ups for the day-to-day workflow.
Capacity#
- Set Capacity ticked → the number is the maximum of approved seats. The Member tab header shows Capacity: 3 / 10.
- Group tickets count each seat: one member buying 3 tickets uses 3 of your capacity.
- When approving would exceed the capacity you see "Event capacity exceeded." (or "Capacity exceeded – there are not enough remaining seats. Ignore the seat limit and continue?") and can decide to approve anyway.
- Multiple sessions events set capacity per session instead (the event-level field shows "Set capacity on each session instead").
- Untick to allow unlimited sign-ups.
Public RSVP List#
- On – the event page shows the avatars / names of approved attendees under Who's going (and "14 going" on the card). Great for social proof.
- Off – the page shows "Hidden by the organizer". Only admins see the list in the admin.
Contact e-mail#
The Email Address field is shown under Contact information on the event page next to the organization's phone number. It defaults to the e-mail of the admin who creates the event – change it to a shared inbox if several people organize.
Locked after creation#
For safety, a few things cannot be changed once the event exists:
- Event Payment (Free ↔ Paid) – "Cannot be changed after creating the event. Please create a new one."
- Multiple sessions / Multiple ticket types – once saved On, they stay On.
Everything else – visibility, approval, capacity, RSVP list, dates, prices, deadlines – can be edited at any time from the Setting tab.