As part of our updates to FindHaunts.com in 2015, the decision to pull support for social networks and “free” web hosting as the primary listing URL has been made.
As of right now, support for ADDING new events that list a primary URL of a social network or “free” hosting service has been removed.
There are many reasons for that, and here are the highlights:
1) This affects very few events listed on FindHaunts.com. Of all the events listed, this affects approximately 60 of them, and a sizable percentage of those affected are scheduled to be removed from the directory as defunct events (eg, events that don’t update their website last year with at least a schedule). Of the remaining affected events, many of them also have dedicated websites to support their event, but have listed their social site as the primary URL. The remaining events listed will be contacted directly and given options for maintaining their listing with FindHaunts.com.
2) FindHaunts.com is rolling out new features that support social websites. Don’t worry! If you have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and other promotional social pages, you will be able to add them to your listing on FindHaunts.com and leverage certain features of those accounts right on your event profile page!
3) Using these services as a default URL is a terrible idea when promoting your event. While we understand that it’s easy to get going with the free or social options for creating a web presence, it’s actually a terrible idea to have a social site with no official URL for your event. Events with dedicated URL’s are trusted your customers, and it solves many problems we have with event ownership. With the cost of domain names being as cheap as $10 per YEAR (or less!), and free services to host your domain, there’s really no valid excuse, even for tiny events.
4) Premium (aka, “Verified”) Events will not be de-listed automatically. If you have upgraded from our free listing, your event will not be automatically removed from the directory without significant attempts to contact you to update your information. If your premium listing expires without renewal, it will be automatically removed.
If your event is dropped from our directory because of this, it’s easy to add it back once you have secured a domain name for your event. Just use the ‘List an Event’ feature!
Hopefully, this will not be a terrible inconvenience to most users, and in the end it will provide a BETTER and MORE SOCIAL experience to visitors of your events – the exact people you list with FindHaunts.com to help you find.