Waitlists and Waitlist Movement

Waitlists let an activity keep accepting interest after it fills up, and Waitlist Movement controls how people come off the waitlist when a spot opens. This article is the single reference for how waitlists, activity capacity, and promotion behave — for both organizers and participants, before and after the response deadline.

It pairs closely with Configure Attendance and Late Sign-Ups After Deadline.

What a Waitlist Is

A waitlist is enabled per activity, on activities that use the Ask attendance option with an attendance limit. When an activity is full, participants can still express interest by joining the waitlist instead of being turned away.

A waitlisted participant is not counted as a confirmed attendee. Waitlisted is its own status, separate from Attending — it appears wherever attendance is shown (Track, the summary email, the mobile app, and web registration), usually styled in yellow/orange.

Activity Capacity

Capacity is what makes a waitlist meaningful. Each Ask activity can set an attendance limit, defined one of two ways:

Custom limit — a whole number you enter (between 1 and 1,000,000).
Selected Places — capacity is calculated from the spots available across the activity's places (shown as plain text on the activity).

"Full" means the number of confirmed attending participants (Attending, not waitlisted) has reached the limit. Remaining spots = limit − confirmed attending.

TODO (screenshot): Activity Details showing the attendance limit field and the Selected Places capacity text.

Waitlist Movement: Automatic vs Manual

Waitlist Movement is set per activity, in Activity Details (alongside the waitlist toggle).

Automatic — when a spot opens, Eventene promotes the next waitlisted person automatically, in the order they joined (first in, first out), and emails them (see Waitlist Promotion Email).
Manual — Eventene never promotes on its own. You decide who gets the open spot.

TODO (screenshot): Activity Details panel showing the Waitlist toggle and the Waitlist Movement (Automatic / Manual) control.

The mode only governs promotion (moving someone off the waitlist into a confirmed spot). It does not change how people join the waitlist.

How People Join the Waitlist

Participants (self-service)

When an activity is full, a participant who chooses to attend is placed on the waitlist instead. With late sign-ups enabled, participants can still join or leave the waitlist after the response deadline.

Organizers — single-person edits (Track)

When you set one person to Attending on a full activity in Track, the change is rejected with a message that the activity is full. Marking someone Attending is treated as an explicit decision, so Eventene will not silently waitlist them. To seat them, free a spot, raise the limit, or set them to Waitlisted explicitly.

Organizers — bulk attendance (Track)

Bulk attendance is an allocation tool, and it behaves differently from a single edit. When you select several people and mark them Attending, Eventene fills the open spots in selection order, then handles any overflow based on the waitlist setting:

Waitlist on (Automatic or Manual): the overflow is Waitlisted.
Waitlist off: the overflow is left unchanged — those people keep whatever status they had (they are not marked Attending, Waitlisted, or Not Attending).

If the activity is already full when you start, the bulk action offers Waitlisted (when the waitlist is on) instead of Attending.

!!! note "Automatic vs Manual does not change bulk allocation" For a bulk Attending action, Automatic and Manual behave identically — both waitlist the overflow when the waitlist is on. The movement mode only matters later, when a spot opens and someone is promoted.

Promotion Off the Waitlist

Promotion is the move from Waitlisted to Attending when a spot becomes available (someone declines, an organizer removes an attendee, or the limit is raised).

Before the response deadline

Automatic movement promotes the next waitlisted person (first in, first out) and sends them the promotion email.
Manual movement does nothing automatically — you promote a chosen person yourself (in Track, or in Assign by dragging them into a place).

After the response deadline

Automatic promotion stops once the response deadline passes — even when Waitlist Movement is set to Automatic. Past the deadline, no one is moved from the waitlist to attending automatically. This is intentional: someone who waited may have made other plans, so promotion becomes a deliberate organizer decision. You can still promote a specific person manually at any time.

Waitlist Promotion Email

When a participant is promoted automatically (Automatic movement, before the deadline), Eventene immediately emails them an updated response summary. It leads with "Your attendance status has changed" and the subject "A spot is now available."

This email is sent only for automatic promotions.
It honors the event's Send attendance confirmation email setting — if confirmations are turned off, the promotion email is not sent.
Manual promotions do not send this email (this release). When you promote someone manually, let them know yourself.

See Automatic Confirmation Emails.

Confirmation Summaries for Waitlisted Attendees

Separate from promotion, waitlisted attendees are eligible to receive a confirmation summary — being on the waitlist no longer excludes them from confirmations. The summary shows their current status: the overall badge reads Waitlisted when they're waitlisted overall, and each activity they're waitlisted for is shown as Waitlisted.

Organizers can also send this summary on demand with Resend Confirmation, which works for waitlisted attendees. See Resending Confirmation Emails.
This is distinct from the Waitlist Promotion Email above: the confirmation summary reflects the attendee's Waitlisted standing, while the promotion email announces they've been moved into a confirmed spot.

Lowering Capacity Below Confirmed Attendance

If you reduce an activity's limit below the number of people already confirmed attending:

After the response deadline: the change is blocked. Reduce attendance first, then lower the limit.
Before the response deadline: the change is allowed only when Waitlist Movement is Automatic — Eventene absorbs the excess by moving the most recent responders back to the waitlist. With Manual movement, lower the count yourself first.

TODO (screenshot): Capacity field showing the validation / lowering-capacity guard message.

How Waitlisted Status Appears

A waitlisted participant shows as Waitlisted everywhere attendance is displayed:

Track — a Waitlisted badge on the participant's row.
Summary / confirmation email — the overall status badge reads Waitlisted.
Mobile app and web registration — the overall attendance pill shows Waitlisted (yellow/orange).

For events using the Optional Activity Sign-ups registration style, the overall event status is derived from the activities: a participant who is only waitlisted (and attending none) correctly shows Waitlisted overall, not Attending. See Understanding Participant Status.

FAQ and Edge Cases

A participant frees a spot after the deadline — who gets it? No one, automatically. Promote a chosen person manually.
I selected more people than spots in bulk, and the waitlist is off — what happened to the extras? They were left unchanged (not added). Re-run with the waitlist on, or free more spots.
Does promoting someone manually email them? Not in this release — only automatic promotions email.
Is Waitlisted the same as Attending for capacity? No. Only confirmed Attending counts toward the limit.