JAPP
What is Jena Activity Partner Pool (JAPP)?
Short History
The Jena Activity Partner Pool (JAPP) was initially an idea for the corona lockdown period, when it was forbidden to organize big events and we wanted to help the lonely people to find a hiking buddy to go together hiking. The idea started on February 2021 with a Padlet and initial name of the idea was Hiking Partner Pool (HPP) as it was initially made for small hiking events.
Since April 2021, we moved to a Telegram group as it gives us more flexibility and tools to organize our events. And since June 2021, our Telegram channel is founded and all the events are nicely published.
How does it work?
Be an organizer of your own spontaneous idea!
Wanna initiate an activity with others like go on a hike and no one is joining you because everyone is lazy? Do not wanna ask all your friends one by one?
Here you can publish your plan very quickly which can also be another outdoor activity e.g. jogging, cycling or playing table tennis.
If you do not know where to hike or what to do, but you want to plan something to meet new people, we recommend you our Sightseeing-Part.
Join an activity in a small group!
Also you can just join any plan that is mentioned in the JAPP by contacting the organizer.
You can get to know about the current events on our Telegram Channel, our Telegram bot, or on the homapage of our website. The calendar on our homepage can be added to your google calendar.
Guideline how to organize your own Event
- Make the plan for yourself
Think of what activity you want to offer and where and when exaxtly to meet. Also spontaneos ideas can work.
The best idea is to share your special skill by organizing an activity.
- Publish the event by using Dude (see example)
Use the telegram bot "Jena Dude" -> go to the menu -> Add a New Event
Write a succinct, short and clear description.
The title can end with #1, #2, ... for the same type of events you organize
Sometimes you need to mention some requirements. (e.g. only for people with previous knowledge)
The meeting point can also be secret and disclosed to the people you accept.
Due to usability it is recommended to write your Telegram-Contact.
If you choose one of our destination or routes, add the link.
- Organize your event (some tips for you)
You will usually get a lot of messages and can accept the participants now
Only general issues or updates which are important for everyone should be commented to the event
Wait at the place you mentioned for your participants
You should check your phone for messages again
- Take and share photos [important]
Take some shots of the action, equipment and most important a group photo
Share the photos as a comment of the Event in the Telegram-Channel
Please mind participants right for not being in the photos. Ask them at the beginning of the event
- Close the event and write an story [important, see example]
You can use our telegram bot 'Jena Dude' to close your event and write an story.
By closing the event, your contact detail will be removed from under the post so you won't get spam messages in the future
By writing a story, the text of the event will be replaced with your story so in the future everyone can see what you have done
The story should be about what you have done together, how many joined, ... We recommend you to write at least one paragraph. Inappropriate stories will be removed.
⚠️ Photos and stories are really important that everyone in the group see what you have done. This brings feeling of safety for everyone about your activities happening in the group. Suspecious events are not welcome in our community.
Rules and conditions for using the platform
On a first basis, we created the JAPP platforms to where members can choose to create their own private events with their own requirements. Since June 2021 when the first event is posted, we had many beautiful events and nice time together which motivates us to continue this work even after the Corona lockdown. However, we have experienced some moments when we thought of putting some guidelines a rules to keep the integrity of the group and increasing the quality of the events.
As organizer
✅ You can share the events when:
You are yourself the organizer of the event
All details of the plan is set, for instance the starting time and meeting point
This platform is not for sharing your rough ideas to see who contacts you. So use it only when you are sure about all the details can join you. [Read more here]
🤔 Events on weekends and public holidays
Since the weekends and public holidays are when most members would have time for bigger events, we would like to encourage, by priority, public events, then the project events and finally your private events. Almost every weekend and on public holidays, we organize some public events to bring people together and make a community. Hence, before sharing your event in our system, we encourage you to contact us to coordinate between events that are happening at the same time to maximize the participation of members, hopefully even turning your event into a public event since it is one of the main goals of this group. Otherwise, if you immediately share an event on the Telegram channel which can include more members in a more organized manner, more members lose the opportunity to connect and participate in what could have been a more inclusive event.
🤔 Events similar to our projects:
For events where we already have a project, organizing similar events would create groups with smaller amounts of members instead of joining them together. In line with the goals of the group, we would encourage private event organizers to contact us or the organizers of the project events to increase member participation for the same events.
P.S. We are more than happy to find ways to combine similar projects or initiate new unique projects, all in hopes of getting more people to share in the same activities.
🤔 Regular events:
For private event (JAPP) organizers who would like to make their events more regularly, we recommend them to make it into a project for reasons of transparency of registration and giving credit to the group. This will open the opportunity for any member to participate, which is one of our main goals.
Dedicate a slot for this project event on our website, which will invite more members.
Registration, publishing is simplified through an automated system
We can also support the project by offering to book rooms or provide equipment if needed.
Events with booking:
language events and events that require room booking by us (contact us for that)
⛔ Forbidden events
Sharing these events in our group are strongly forbidden:
Re-sharing: the events from other groups and communities
Advertisement: events for advertisement reasons to sell products or work
Charging participants: events where some participants are charged. Collecting donations without mentioning them in the event description is forbidden
Discriminations: events when it is not for everyone due to discrimination
Political events: advertising for political events like demonstrations
Not clear events: when a plan is not completely set and it is just an idea
Parallel communities: events with the goal of finding members to make parallel communities
Note 1: Breaking these rules can remove your access to our system.
Note 2: There can be always exceptions to these rules which can be discussed with us. For that you need to contact us.
As a participant
If you are interested in a plan, directly contact the organizer by a private message!
Write only in English to make everyone follow the discussions
Share your photos in the Comment-Section!
Who can be an organizer?
Anyone interested can organize events. However, we are very strickt about our rules and guidelines, and it is really difficult for us to delete the events which are already published and do not follow the guidelines. We have some really unhappy situations.
To avoid these unhappy situations, we decided to avoid publishing not appropriate events rather than removing them after being published. In this regard, we will have two types of organizers:
White List: the people in this list are our frequent organizers and are aware very well about our guidelines. These people the can organize events without any limitations.
Others: Your events should be confirmed by one of the people on the white list. We developed a system and after submitting your event, if you are not in the white list, all people on the white list will receive the event and any of them can confirm your event through our system. After confirmation, your event will be published in the channel immediately.
Wanna join our white list, you are very welcome and just need to contact us! Let's talk about it.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
How to edit my event?
Use the telegram-bot
If you still cannot fix it, contact us
Why Telegram?
Comparing to other messengers, we found Telegram the best option for our platform because of the following reasons:
Telegram is a super secure platform which provides highly secure and event secret chats. Telegram claims if you manage to show it is not secure, you can get a prize up to 300,000 Dollars.
In Telegram, you do not need to share your telephone number to chat with other people. The only thing you need to share is your ID.
Comparing to other platforms, Telegram gives a lot of tools like polls, bots, ... which makes the life easier.
How can we support you with your events?
We can support you by:
sharing with you our experiences (hiking routes, where to do sports, ...)
lending you our equipment (large speaker, colorful lights, ...) under special conditions
booking rooms in university
Is it free to join and use the community?
Yes. Organizing events and joining events in our community are all for free. If someone is charging you for anything, please contact us.
However, to keep the integrity of our beautiful community, you need to contribute by writing stories about your event. This is the only thing you should do to pay back to the community for the services you are receiving for free. It also important to avoid using the group for personal advertisements as well as for platforms of other groups, which is stated in the rules and regulations for the group.